Community UT2k4 "Clone" Underway

[hal]

Some of our good friends at UnrealNorth have begun a project to develop a free game that recreates the competitive feel of Unreal Tournament 2004. Now, this isn't an Unreal Engine project and I'm going to assume that the team will be creating assets of their own that will keep them well out of the crosshairs of the Epic Games legal department, but if you're looking for something new to scratch that competitive itch or are interested in lending a hand, check out the news post with all of the pertinent information.

 

[ambershee]

Why would they not use UDK? The vast majority of the work has been done for them already D:

 

[Slainchild]

Seems kinda pointless, anyone who wanted a free UT2k4 clone probably already owns that game.

 

[Al]

Seems kinda pointless, anyone who wanted a free UT2k4 clone probably already owns that game.

This.

 

[Wunderbar_007]

?? it seems to me like this, if actually successful, will just split the community even more. Why not try and get the talents within our community (ut,2k4 and ut3) to come together for an original, heavily unreal tournament inspired, game? on UDK.

It doesn't have to be some huge game release, but if the core (game movement, polish, code) is solid, the community can keep it alive forever with custom content. I'm thinking The Dark Mod.

 

[Kyllian]

Why would they not use UDK? The vast majority of the work has been done for them already D:

^

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Because UDK doesn't allow custom content. The Ball is getting around this somehow, but they are commercial.

 

[Miko]

Sounds like a community split. They want to make their mark. Thing is, It may only cater to a very specific base of the community and it seems to be the competitive one vs the casual one.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

I would rather see a visual update mod project. Something that let modders/mappers use familiar tools and methods to develop new better looking content within a game we already have... 1 that already has allot of good stuff and the mechanics in place for success.

 

[Jazz]

Because UDK doesn't allow custom content. The Ball is getting around this somehow, but they are commercial.

Best community-driven available FPS engine is ioquake3, which is just patchwork on id Software's engine and is quite outdated, so probably writing a codebase of UT2k4 level is quite a titanic labor (even not taking in account mod/mutator support). I don't think it will be a surprise if they'll stick to a commercial engine anyway.

 

[ambershee]

Because UDK doesn't allow custom content.

There's nothing stopping custom content in UDK based games - the project I'm working on as an example will 'ship' with mod support.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

There's nothing stopping custom content in UDK based games - the project I'm working on as an example will 'ship' with mod support.

How? Or is it "open source"?

 

[ambershee]

We have interpreted files that are loaded at run-time external to unreal packages for various ends.

 

[Crotale]

How is this any different from the Severity project that was canceled after a few years in development?

Looks like they are not just making a game inspired by UT2004, they are cloning it to some extent.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

I doubt this is going to get very far. Why not just mod UT2004 to appeal more to the competitive scene? Because that seems to be what they are trying to do. Copy 2k4 and make it more competitive.

 

[Crusha K. Rool]

We have interpreted files that are loaded at run-time external to unreal packages for various ends.

Tutorial for such a system would be nice. Or we have to hope the Blade puts out soon.


@Topic: Yeah, I doubt that such a project will be all that successful. Those who still love the UT gameplay will stay with UT. And that seems to be the primary target group.

 

[ambershee]

A DLL can read in any file you want, and can send data based on that file to your game. The rest is up to you.

In our case our maps are generated procedurally using bitmaps - this suits us pretty well since we don't need a whole lot of data to do it. It also means you do your map editing in MS Paint.

 

[Crusha K. Rool]

Ah, ok, such kind of modding you mean. Because Trendy announced full mod support for Dungeon Defenders, so I wonder what kind of mod support Blade is pulling off there.

 

[ambershee]

I believe Trendy are fully licensed, so they can release a version of UnrealEd quite easily built into the main binary.

 

[Kantham]

Seems kinda pointless, anyone who wanted a free UT2k4 clone probably already owns that game.

Yeah.

Quake is also pretty decent and free.

You can't welcome new players to a area shooter concept, it will never work.
It's for the competitive scene, which is already spread all around, mostly playing the big titles.

Competitive gaming is kinda dead. Even a game like Sc2 need specific conditions to make a competitive match interesting.