In trying to write tonight, I’ve had to consider various topics and found most just needless. Finally, after constantly returning to the same idea of addressing some of the criticisms Cat-Life has received, I decided to give in and make that entry.
No, I’m not going to simply argue with critics or anything so juvenile. Rather I want to again reinforce a few points.
First, the mod has done exactly what the team set out to do. That is, to please the fans of our mod. Honestly, if you expect to like every mod you ever play, you’re lying to yourself. Mods often fall to a specific target audiance and ours has been happy with our demo.
Moreover, I expect that the fans will be fairly happy with the cleaned up code and debugged maps when the mod is ready for a beta update.
But all of that brings me to the second point. This mod is NOT for everyone. Let me give you some examples. Rock Paper Shotgun wrote a short news item about Cat-Life when the demo finally released. Their take was that the mod felt too much like a mini-Gordon and not enough like a cat. Specifically, the reviewer felt that a cat would not attempt some of the dangerous jumps and such.
His loyal commenters mostly agreed… which is to be expected.
Meanwhile, Philip of planetphilip has sort of jokeingly said that he needs the cat to have major upgraded abilities and has used a chainsaw and a grapling hook as examples.
And, let us speak only briefly of Redfox’s Hitler-Jesus cat with head mountable laser which Emanuel from Podcast17 has indicated would have been more enjoyable and funny.
Let’s think about this for a moment. Hitler-Jesus cat with head mountable laser, chainsaw, grappling hook, and that acts like a real cat and not an action hero. It would be great if we could pull that business off, but… no… just no.
We can’t be all things to every player. It simply isn’t possible without painful and destructive compromises in concept. Ultimately, we either make ten different mods and tie them all together in one package [a prospect that would likely take decades to develop], or we make one project and see it through to the finish.
For the people that have been following us from the beginning, it’s only fair that we finish the original concept. They were the ones that saw us through thick and thin. They are the fans that have waited seven years for a demo release. And, as of that demo release, they are the ones that speak of how much they enjoy it.
Third, the mod is not perfect. I have said this enough times already. I don’t really care to continue repeating that point. We are a mod team, not an indie team. Nor a game studio proper. A mod. And most mods never get this far. It was the sheer tenacity of a few loyal people that kept this mod alive so long.
By 2007, when development resumed after years of downtime, the original project was basically gone. It’s source version was gone. We had nothing but BiGToM’s desire to see the project finished. And he was doing all the work by himself.
Thankfully, additional team members joined, but we still suffer from our old problems. Often a member joins because they want the fame that accompanies the project. They want to see their name in a magazine or something. They produce quality work samples to prove their skills, but then never do anything.
They don’t even contact the team to talk about the project.
When we are asked what is happening with the mod right now, all I can say is that bluefire from In Development is working on the cat code and BiGToM is debugging the maps. I’m not sure any of the other team members are still active.
And THAT brings us to the fourth point. I am not the Team Leader. BiGToM is. I have said before that I am the Gabe Newell of BWL. And honestly, that’s an accurate principle. I am the site administrator and make the big decisions. Team Cat-Life is only a portion of the site and BiGToM is Team leader.
I trust him to make the project. My role in Cat-Life has been mostly hands off. I try not to get too involved in the development and handle the press releases as several folks have trusted my use of English more then their own. That started with FG offering me a news job and Special Forces Team recruiting me to be their public relations as well.
When I knew that Cat-Life was going to be released without custom code, I rushed to make some code. Since then, I haven’t done anything else except work on public relations and stay in communication with bluefire.
Fifth, we DO indeed know what a story is and how to use it. Unfortunately, there are limitations to what we can do with GoldSource. The project as it stands will be a basic story that we have continuously stated we would not be discussing publicly. I don’t expect the story to be very deep or emotional… this isn’t Dear Esther. It’s a story about a pet cat trying not to die.
I can’t even begin to go into detail about the story because I haven’t read it all myself. And let me add that the Cat-Life prologue I have pointed to more then once now as proof of concept is a “fan prologue”. I have said this many times and yet I still get questions regularly.
It isn’t even the bloody mod story, let alone the mods back story. That was made before BiGToM even took over the project.
So then, what does all of this mean for Cat-Life? Is it a bad mod? Is BiGToM a bad leader?
No… none of the above. BiGToM has done an excellent job and deserves to be commended for doing so much of the work by himself and of his own initiative. And Cat-Life will be a fun mod about a cat trapped in Black Mesa. Yes it will be buggy, but… you could always make something to improve the mod.
Do you make models, maps, or know how to program? Then why not make something. Do some of the work yourself and be a part of a very unique mod.
As for Cat-Life Source, well… that is a different matter entirely. Given the shortfalls of the GoldSource engine, I feel that Cat-Life will not be as great a game as I would have liked. I think Source would be a better platform and had I been administrator back in 2005 or earlier, I probably would have insisted on use of Source.
That said, now that we have a mostly completed project, we can start looking to future projects and what we want to do. If you want to see a better plot for the original Cat-Life, get started. BiGToM has previously stated that he would like to make our materials open source when the project is finished so that community content for the mod can be made. He would like to see someone develop a deathmatch game.
But the Source project is different. I am taking the lead on that game because I want to see something wonderful. :SysOp: has tried to offer explanations of how to develop mods on multiple occasions and sadly, through difficulties in translation, his comments have sometimes felt insulting.
Though he means well… we know how to develop a mod. We just don’t have the most important role, as is the case with many mods, a coder. Thankfully bluefire has stepped in for the GoldSource project and I want you to tell him “thank you” for his service when you get the chance.
dimitri is helping with the source version, but I fear that time issues may have broken him away from the project. It has been a while since he last contacted me so I don’t really know what he may have finished from our to-do list.
If you can code for source and want to help, let me know. It would be great to have more help here. I’m not doing much further until the code is ready.
But what have I said about this project so far?
Not much. Cat-Life: Source will be the same idea we made with GoldSource, but using a better engine. Additionally, the story will be changed for one that I have in mind.
That being the case, if you have read any of the links I posted on ModDB back during the demo release, then you will know how grand in scheme this mod will be. I have very big plans in mind and a darker story with some amusing secrets. We have a few gags already lined up, but the plot will not be as humorous.
Honestly, I think many will want to know what is different about the story.
Everything.
Expect to begin the game in a kitty litter box for instance. Expect to learn about why you are smarter then other cats. Expect to see some important parts of the original game as they finally meet their end… for example…
Wait what?
oh… alright.
Just one.
Expect to have options in certain parts of the game. Though linear in nature, you will be able to choose between two paths to reach the same goal in some places. At one such place, if you take the vent shaft on the left it will lead you to a collapse in the vent.
Crawling through a crack in the wall will bring you into the Sector C test chamber in it’s last moments of existence. The crack and vent behind you collapses and traps you inside. The main blast doors have fallen and the entrance is now blocked by debris from the ceiling. The blast window is unreachable as it is too high and the walls are made of metal.
A grinding sound draws your attention to the center of the room. Suddenly, the massive anti-mass spectrometer’s main column crashes to the ground, smashing the scanner below and shaking the room violently. A cloud of dust fills the chamber and you can see and hear the column teetering for a moment before it tumbles onto it’s side.
Then a cascade of debris and rock begins to rain down as the ceiling begins falling apart. Chunks of rock and concrete the size of small trucks begin to tumble into the room. You’re only hope is to scramble across the room before you are crushed and scurry down into the delivery system.
Of course, this is all some distance in our future now. We still need some source code and I have some more writing and design work to do. Also, we have several other mod projects to consider.
This week I have worked to clean up the forums to better match our new intentions to focus more on creativity and development. Thanks to that, some of my other projects are visible. We have at least three other mod ideas we want to make eventually, not including Cat-Life: Source or the sequel I also plan to make in Cat-Life 2.
And with four or five machinima projects in the works, plus custom content for those, and the list of stories that spans several more topics, we have plenty to work on. I am openly looking for a Source modeler, mapper, sound designer, etc… but not just for Cat-Life Source. I need many of these items for my stories and the new machinima shows we have planned.
The new project forums will all be updated as I think of more items to add. So make sure you stop by the forums from time to time.
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