Third Place Finisher
Conquest Marines could be described as a futuristic Battlefield 1942. It sports a full fleet of land vehicles for you to use and it pits two teams against each other. The teams are trying to capture and hold all of the maps' power generators. The power generators provide the power for many critical things like the respawning of vehicles. A team loses when they run out of power. Conquest Marines lends itself to meaningful large-scale battles which are a nice change from the mindless fragging of vanilla UT2003.
Can you briefly describe the atmosphere of your mod?
Our aim in creating Conquest Marines was simply to produce a mod that was team oriented and fun to play. The basic idea is two sides fighting it out with a bunch of different weapons, inventory items and vehicles to make it more interesting. We don't have any set rules on the way things should work so we're trying things out as we go - sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't but we're always willing to give something a try and equally take it out or change it if it we think we can make it better.
What do you plan to change in your mod for the upcoming phases?
We've got some new gametypes in the works so thats gonna mean more maps and styles of play. We're also planning to extend the range of equipment that marines will be able to use in battle (that's weapons, inventory and vehicles). We also have some communication stuff we're working on - the basic idea is to help players work together more effectively as a team. We have a number of ideas in the pipeline - it's really a question of figuring out what we can achieve in the timescales with the team and then trying to implement it.
What did you do when you found out the results?
Let out a bit of a cheer then got in touch with some of the other guys on the team to make sure it was for real !
What are your opinions on how the contest was run and judged?
I think the judging for phase one took way too long to come through and involved far too much silence on the part of Epic. My 2c worth would simply be give more feedback - the best way to show modders that they are appreciated and wanted is to talk to them once in a while !
For the upcoming phases I'm really hoping that the guys at Epic will up their game - they've hired Mark Chandler to take care of mod relations so there's a good chance that things are going to improve (surely by the time you read this the MSU forum will be back up and running after it's 'holiday break').
Forth Place Finisher:
Jupiter Effect: Influx finds the perfect balance of mechs and mobility. It is like Unreal Tournament in two thousand years: the players have all been killed and have been replaced with mechs. The mod's gameplay is as fast, if not faster, then vanilla UT2003, which increases the mindlessness of the fragging. The HUD is one of the most informative I have ever seen, it enables new players to become familiar with the game quicker than most games and mods out there today. Sadly, since this was a school project, the mod will not be developed further.
Can you briefly describe the atmosphere of your mod?
We tried to be as arcady as possible, but since we were at school at the time, we tried our best to achieve that. Learning the tools and following a tight schedule was essential to our success, at that time, was our grade :) We believe that the biggest influence in our mod was Sega's Virtual On, as it has a very colorful background and great effects.
What do you plan to change in your mod for the upcoming phases?
Sad to say, we have no plan of continuing the mod since the team is busy trying to find a job in the industry, but who knows, we may get bored and update our content :)
What did you do when you found out the results?
Well, since there were 10 of us, we immidiately took out our caculator and divided the total prize money :)
What are your opinions on how the contest was run and judged?
We thought it was a great way to bring together one of the biggest game community together. We trust all the judges in their decision and would like to thank them for taking their time off of their busy schedules to judge all the fantastic mods.
Fifth Place Finisher
Jungle Warfare is a lot like the other realism mods that are out there today. The mod accomplishes a nice balance between realism and unrealism. It's definately not one shot and you're dead, but then again, you won't still be living after forty shots.
Can you briefly describe the atmosphere of your mod?
Intense, different to other mods it's based in wide locations with a lot of cover, so tactics wise it's not your average 'shoot guy, kill guy, find other guy, repeat', you run the risk of being ambushed by enemies you never thought were there, and of course you can be the ones ambushing...
What do you plan to change in your mod for the upcoming phases?
Our current internal build (and therefore the next public release) is waaaay more polished, balanced, fixed, and has been giveen a total visual overhaul to make everything sleek and proffesional. Aside from that, we will be including more and varied levels for our new tropical campaigns, aswell as many new weapons, improvements, and 2 new classes, the engineer and the heavy weapons specialist. Each of these classes are available to each team and come with their own unique loadout. We aim to make gamplay much tighter and fun and our 'Sabtoage' gamemode is being given a total overhaul. Bigger and better sums it up I guess. The current public release isn't a patch on what we have at this time.
What did you do when you found out the results?
Fainted and choked on my tongue... lol, seriously I was damn happy, it felt really good to be recognised by proffesionals, I jumped for joy and then spent ages trying to explain the whole contest to my girlfriend... I actually found out first and 4th winners first and was confused as to why they didn't say the rest!
What are your opinions on how the contest was run and judged?
The contest was run well, it took a while to get the results but I guess Epic were overwhelmed, the extended phase 3 deadline is a blessing and ensures our mod should be ace by the time that rolls around(I promise;).
Judging is a tricky thing, like all competitions it is simply someones opinion, are they right? are they wrong? You can never tell, I guess public opinion is always a fairly acurate view... No doubt the judges know what they are talking about though, these are industry proffesionals so I am happy with their decision, obviously everyone wants to come first but that's the way it goes.
In my opinion, our 1.2 release which was judged was a learning experience for our team, and a good one at that. The feedback and comments about it have allowed us to improve it in so many ways.
Bottom line is, we started this mod for UT 3 years ago, we didn't do it for money then, and we dont do it for prizes or money now, even if 5th place was $3000 and 1st place was $0.00, I'd like to come first. We do this for the love of the game and to simply become recognised for what we do.
To see the winners of the other categories, Click Here