Hello modder, hello fodder
Hundreds of gamers converge at Unreal University
By Walt McGraw
CNN Headline News
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Unreal Tournament 2004
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(CNN) -- Forget Camp Granada. I recently got to spend a weekend at game developers camp, aka Unreal University.
Hundreds of folks from all over the country attended the event sponsored by Epic Games (makers of the hugely popular "Unreal" franchise published by Atari), NVIDIA (of high-end graphics card fame) and North Carolina State University.
If you're a gamer, you probably already know what a modder is. It's somebody who takes one of the popular game engines (think Unreal Technology) and bends it to his or her will. It can be something simple like tweaking a level, or as hard-core as creating a game from scratch. Modding was what the weekend was all about.
Most of Unreal University's students were modders hoping to break into the industry. They were there to get a leg up on the competition. Yes, competition. Gamers are a competitive bunch, and right now a slew of them seem to have their sights set on winning more than a million dollars in cash and prizes in NVIDIA's "Make Something Unreal Contest."
Epic's lead designer, Cliff Blezinski, told me, "Nothing makes a better resume than actually making your own mod." And it certainly wouldn't hurt to have a big, fat check burning a hole in your pocket, along with one of the other big prizes: An Unreal Engine license worth about $350,000. Win that, and you can put your mod on store shelves next to the big boys.
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Indie Game Designer Chris Montrose says modding is a hobby just like "my dad's boat or my grandfather's woodshop."
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Blezinski says, given the success of the Unreal University weekend, there's a good chance there will be another event like it.
In the meantime, get to work on those mods. There are lots of categories, including best level, best vehicle and best use of 3-D sound. Winners will be announced at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California, in March. So you still have some time to turn the competition into fodder.
