Finding It Hard To Mod SOMA...

[A.M Team]

Hello all, rant incoming,

As you may or may not know I have two unsuccessful mods for HPL2 under my belt. That being Harbour and Doctor Poo: Neo. Over the years HPL (the Cthulhu Engine as I like to call it) is still the most accessible game engine I have ever used. I can concentrate more on level design and art rather than coding as all I need to do was to copy and paste lines of code and to fill in the gaps with the right answers and names. HPL3 flips the metaphorical switch. At first it was dark, I had no idea how to code, make a level or anything, over the following months however my eyes adjusted and I could see some distance from me. I'm more confident with the engine but there is one thing that irks me about the HPL3 Modding Scene: The Steam Workshop.

I have seen at least the majority of mods don't even make an attempt to edit the game outside of the map, and it's getting better press than other peoples mods that I could see genuine effort being put into it. No constructive criticism is in the comments of these mods other than 'good mod'. When giving out critique on someones mod, I get called out, even if I list out the things I liked about the mod. I've been called 'snobbish', a 'jackass' and many other immature comments. Critique, as I see it, is shunned in the HPL3 Modding Community outside of these forums.

The straw that broke my back for me was the fact that these mods were being reported on big gaming websites including RPS (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)! I now come to my main point of this rant, I feel by the time genuine, fully modded campaigns are created the craze would have died and the modders will not get the credit they deserve. And this makes me angry and more importantly demotivated. Why should I spend a year of my life making two maps and some funny voices if it is all for nothing?

Sigh. I'm still going to chug along. Maybe doing something related to the project but not working with HPL3 would do me good.

TL;DR: The Steam Workshop is filled with unimaginative mods and sensitive cynics. It's making me demotivated that by the time I make my mod I won't get good critique or appreciation.