is0s, lead modeller for the UT2003 mod Jungle Warfare, gives us his thoughts and opinions on the Make Something Unreal Contest and his team's entry into that contest.
What do you think about the contest in general?
I’m in two minds about the contest, on one hand because of the prizes you find the team has more incentive to work, so the quality of the mod is of a higher standard. On the other hand for the same reason you find that there is a lot more competition between the mods and I’ve found that the community doesn’t seem as friendly now that we’re all in direct competition for a prize.
Did you expect to see such quality mods in phase 1?
Yes, because of the prizes involved, mod teams were working that much harder to produce a quality mod capable of winning the first prize
How do you think your mod turned out?
I think our mod did ok, for the amount of time we had to produce our mod I think we had a fair amount of content although I don’t think the game was as polished as we would of liked it to have been. It was more of a taste of what’s to come rather than a finished product.
Where is your mod heading? Any major changes ahead? or is the mod pretty much in a bug-fixing state?
Yes there are going to be some pretty big changes, we have recently changed the name of the mod to Jungle warfare: Guerrilla operations, this change means we can now include other styles of maps and game-play in our mod, not just shooting it out in a jungle. In 1.3 (which will be out in a few weeks) you can expect to see a lot more varied maps including a map set in a desert. Also in 1.3 we’re going to try to address some of the issues people brought up in our forums about game-play and balance. For example the game speed will be decreased and the weapons will be more balanced and a bit less powerful.
In V.2 (which will be our phase 2 contest entry) you can expect to see a total new look to JWF:GO, with the player models being totally redone, new custom animations for player models, new classes, new weapons (some of the old models and skins beings redone), new interface/HUD, new game types and a whole lot more.
What mod did you enjoy that is also a finalist?
I enjoyed playing troopers because I’m a star wars fan, the game-play needs some tweaking as do all the first phase mods but they have a very good base to build on and I’m looking forward to future releases! I also enjoyed Face off, being a huge fan of the semi-realism/CS genre.
Do you plan on entering the latter phases? What do you plan to change to the mod?
Of course, we will take v1.3 and build on it, taking into consideration the feedback and comments we’ve had, as listed in a previous question.
If you win, will you go to a retail product?
I think we would, although I’m not entirely sure what we’d do with a license.
Any other comments?
I’d just like to thank all the fans and people who have supported us. We’re all working as hard as possible to create a game people will enjoy playing.