Modders' Interviews | Get inspired by Greats and Legends!

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Pumpkin Lord

"Hello,

I think that is about all the interviews. One of an inspiring project for me. Hope you enjoyed meeting greats and vets as much as I enjoyed interviewing them. Some fine people and they prove that modding warband is just another way to reach out to people, make connections, learn skills and make an impact. Also, a little about proving my biased opinion about modding is indeed a valid medium to craft a creative project upon and share it with a worldwide audience because this game has a WORLDWIDE audience even after 8 solid years with over 9.000+ people playing on a daily basis, which TaleWorlds owes at least half of to its mods. So to remember that, I want to shout out a HUGE thank you and congratulations to all the modders, greats and aspiring modders alike, for their unpaid time, discipline and vision in bringing their projects alive.

I encourage all the new modders to read these interviews, when you feel down and remember that motivation is a luxury in whatever you do, let alone modding. It is the discipline that counts, even if you do it just for fun of it.

You can read rest of the interviews I have not shared or done here.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Qap5GeyzOBeWc8aVQ_HInLQ38EnRVjSR?usp=sharing"
Click to expand...


Modders' Interviews​
To learn to inspire to create​



Hello Forge!

I will be reaching out and conducting friends and modders of old who did great deal for this game's modding scene over the years. These guys helmed, founded and created some of the greatest warband mods that is played by thousands of players. Some created the assets, some wrote the codes for the amazing new gameplay mechanics and some created its worlds. So, without further ado - read what they had to say about their experiences they had, challenges they overcame and how all these influenced them in their professional career or life.

My aim is to inspire you with the stories that went behind in development of these projects and people behind it, and how modding influences one's life in a way, whether it is for professional or not, whether it is for entertainment industry or not. We all mod for a reason.

Hope you enjoy and get inspired!



Interviews​
(Interviews are being done regularly.)​


Hatboy
3D Artist.

[size=12pt]gsanders
Great coder.

[size=12pt]Csatadi
With fire and sword modder.

[size=12pt]Nord Invasion Team
Developers of Nord Invasion.

[size=12pt]DrTomas
Coder, maker of 1257AD.

[size=12pt]mat2rvis
Coder, maker of Wheels of Time.

[size=12pt]K700
Latest developer of WSE.

[size=12pt]k@nrad
Coder, 3D artist, designer. There is nothing this guy cannot do. One of the lead devs of Prophesy of Pendor, also long-time contributor of Forge with assets and tools.

[size=12pt]Albertus Magnus
Maker of famous Age of Blades project. See how he made a mod based on another game!

[size=12pt]mtarini
The legend. Maker of openBRF, one of the original developers of TLD and guy with tremendous amount of knowledge. One of the most talented guys that touched this game.

[size=12pt]rejenorst
One of the composers who did great amount of work for modding community.

[size=12pt]Lumos
The legend who created ones of the most useful OSPs, helped teach tens of modders and worked in many sophisticated mod projects.

[size=12pt]Mandible
Famous 3D artist who worked in projects such as Vikingr, TLD - also the creator of Redwall: Vermin Resurgence.

[size=12pt]Winter
Creator of StoryMod, first modding documentations and first modder to work on Mount&Blade sequel. He is one of the first great modders, goes way back to 2006! Also - an author and game developer.

[size=12pt]Quintillius
Creator of Nova Aetas.

[size=12pt]Duh
One of the greatest coders, who co-created famous Floris Mod Pack.

[size=12pt]John Monahan
Aspiring 3D artist who is also the lead developer of the upcoming "Kingdoms of Arda", one of the most anticipated bannerlord mods.

[size=12pt]Papa Lazarou
Legendary animator. Maker of the great'ol animation packs!

[size=12pt]Narf of Picklestink
Famous 3D artist who released OSPs that featured some of the finest armors ever made for this game!

[size=12pt]Idibil
Founder and creator of Brytenwalda, the project that went on to become an official DLC - Viking Conquest! Meet the amazingly enthusiastic man behind it all!

[size=12pt]Triglav
A shadow from ancient times. Famous 3D artist and coordinator of first iteration of one of the best works this community has to offer - The Last Days: Third Age!

[size=12pt]Arch3r
Creator of famous Full Invasion, the veteran modder since 2010 and one of the first modders who did serious work and tutorials in Multiplayer aspect of the game. Here is an extra, a conversation between me and him about his time in Larian Studios.

[size=12pt]Cozur
Creator and maker of famous, A Clash of Kings. The Game of Thrones project that was featured in many professional gaming websites and regarded as one of the best Warband mods and Game of Thrones experiences.

[size=12pt]Yoshiboy
Another Legendary-level modder who did projects such as HuntMod and Pirates! & Fishmod which had features done for the first time for its time. Also, created in-depth tutorials about complex mechanics.

[size=12pt]Highelf
Legendary-level modder with great projects and tutorials under his belt. Amazing artist.

[size=12pt]Sebastian
Lead developer of Battle of Europe, lead coder of Bear Force 2. Did shader magic.

[size=12pt]Padda
Lead developer of Assassin Hunt(Assassination MP project) and Race Wars: Bloodshed (Dungeon MP project)

[size=12pt]Adorno
Scener / 3D artist of Brytenwalda and Viking Conquest DLC

faradon
Great 3D artist who worked in number of legendary-status projects and amazing OSPs

Swyter
Released amazing modding softwares, ported TLD to warband and creator of Star Wars - Conquest

saxondragon
Creator of one of the most succesful mods ever made, Prophesy of Pendor

motomataru
Coder of one of the most sought-out mechanics and released many OSPs, main coder of Brytenwalda and game developer of Viking Conquest DLC

Havoc
Creator of Fantasy Persistent World and Land of Bleeding Ice, also released OSPs

[size=12pt]Merlkir
Concept Artist/Lead Developer of The Last Days - Third Age

Comrade Temuzu
Amazing scener whose works were used in many projects since 2010



Stories​
(Stories are from an old thread of mine, which encouraged modders to share their stories about modding and how they first got to it.)​



ithillienranger
Most famous for his autofire script, which was used over thousand times now. Amazing coder.

Lumos
Badass developer of Outposts Kit, a few modding tools and developer of the sick project, The Blue Stone which never made it to release.

xenoargh
Jack-of-all-trade, shader magician. Also the creator of Blood and Steel.

MadVader
Legendary coder who worked in a few one of the best projects ever made - Prophesy of Pendor and The Last Days.

Swyter
Creator of Star Wars Conquest, great modder who also did softwares and contributed a lot to the community.

mr.master
Creator of Finland at war project, great 3D artist with great amount of experience.

Flanged
Creator of Decapitation kit, bringer of a dream to many players.

Ikaguia
Advanced coder who did quite a bit of modding work, specially Barebones MS.

Sayd Uthman
Modder who has been around for many years, mainly a researcher and with a couple of unreleased mod projects under his belt.

N0ught
Been developing his own fantasy mods for ages now, huge amount of experience, discipline and knowledge.

cwr
Been developing his own fantasy mods as well - one of the developers of Perisno, too.




 
Game companies modders worked with/working at:
_____

Ubisoft
THQ Nordic
Sphinx and the Cursed Mommy
Mobage
Rage of Bahamut
Fantasy Flight Games
The Lord of the Rings - Card game
Larian Studios
Divinity: Original Sin l Divinity: Dragon Commander
Cubicle 7
The One Ring
Stardog
SAELIG
Snow Bird Games
Blood&Gold - Carribean l Eador - Masters of the Broken World
Anvil Game Studios
Holdfast: Nations at War
Frozenbyte
Trine Series l Shadwen l Shadowgrounds Survivor
Gwythdarian
Green Man Gaming
Of Kings & Men or Melee: Battlegrounds
A Sharp, LLC
King of Dragon Pass
TaleWorlds
Mount&Blade
Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Napoleonic Wars DLC
Brytenwalda Studios
Viking Conquest DLC





Common Points made so far:
  • Don't give up.
  • Be bold.
  • Unexpected success.


 
I always enjoyed playing on 'beach', back when MM was still a thing. I am sure I have played other scenes of him without even knowing it.

A shame he took my attempt at recreating beach on NW as a personal insult, back when I started scening in 2013, but I gotta admit that it was a bad attempt :lol:
 
Cheers, men! Next interview will come in a few days!




Comrade Temuzu​
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

Scener - Studying history​



1.) Hello, Temuzu. I knew you for a long time now and you are one of the few first modders who did great deal of scenery work and are still considered one of the greats in the community, at least those who are old enough to remember your work since you took a break for last few years. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.

Answer:  I’m Comrade Temuzu, a long time fan of the Mount and Blade series, and something of a veteran when it comes to scening. As you said, I started scening early in the lifespan of Warband, around the time when Warband was still in beta testing. The first project I ever worked on was one of the very first versions of what would eventually evolve into Mount&Musket: Battalion and the Napoleonic Wars DLC.

You might have played what I consider my most popular map, Trenches, in any of its many versions, or perhaps the original version of La Haye Sainte, which was actually the first scene I ever made (And it shows). Since then, I’ve worked on more mods than I can remember, both released and unreleased, like Vikingr, Sayazn, Persistent Frontier, the original Full Invasion mod and so on.

2.) How did you get started on modding this game for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?

Answer:  Its been such a long time that I don’t honestly remember the details, but as I recall, when the first screenshots and information of the mod that added muskets to Warband were released (Older players may remember how the version had Spain with the banana republic look, or the OP Swedish snipers) I got in contact with the developer team, which as far as I remember already included BiteMe and Beaver (Who would go on to develop the Napoleonic Wars DLC), and offered my help.

Since I had no experience or knowledge of coding or modelling, I figured I’d start learning scening, and things just rolled on from there. I was a young kid back then so I had plenty of free time to work on projects, which in part explains the vast amounts of scenes I’ve made. It was the first time I had ever really worked on a mod for any game, and after getting a taste for level designing, it was hard to quit.

3.) I know you specificly for your scening work, and I always loved them. Did you have inspiration while creating these scenes?

Answer: For the few historical scenes I’ve made I always tried to stay true to the source. La Haye Sainte is a good example, I tried my best to use Native props to emulate the drawings of the farmhouse I found online, and as far as I know I was fairly faithful to the real life equivalent. When it come to any other scenes, gameplay was always my primary concern, looks came second.

Both sides ought to have equal chances at winning and maneuvering, and a well balanced map guarantees a good experience. That might sound peculiar, considering the Trenches map where the defenders naturally have a huge advantage, and I think making siege scenes in general enjoyable is a fairly unique challenge in scening for Warband. Inspirations itself was often born organically as the scene took shape, I rarely went in knowing exactly what to do apart from a general theme.

4.) You worked in New Elgante and projects by Court of Reveran modders If I am not mistaken. How was your experience working in these projects or any other project?

Answer:  I’ve always considered myself a freelancer when it comes to making scenes; I would offer my services, very rarely would people actually request them. Being a scener I usually got access to in-progress versions of the mods and through that a look into the development progress, like taking part in playtesting.

But I never really got involved with the developer teams in much detail, and that being said I’ve never had any problems with any of them either. Overall things have always worked smoothly. CoR and their (At the time at least) leader Arch3r are actually one of the few times I’ve been asked to help with unannounced mods, I took part in playtesting and scening for two mods they were making in addition to Invasion, but neither of them were ever released or even announced as far as I know.

5.) Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?

Answer:  It was always just a hobby for me. Since Warband has a unique engine, level design experience on it doesn’t count for much when compared to Source or Unreal level design.

But I never intended it to be more than a hobby either, and it has certainly kept me occupied. Steam says I have a bit over 1400 hours on Warband, and I reckon at least ¾ of that time I’ve spent scening.

6.) Are you working on any project at the moment? An indie game or a warband mod, maybe?

Answer:  I know a couple of projects that are waiting for Bannerlord to release, and the same goes for me. But currently I have no projects on Warband, I think Sayazn was the last mod I made scenes for (Get back to work Jacob).

7.) What do you think of bannerlord? Do you have any plans to do modding work for the game? It has some revelations in scene editor.

Answer:  They’re certainly taking their sweet time with it, but it looks good regardless. I will definitely check it out when it comes out, the level designer for it looks very promising, and if I can get a grasp of it and find the time, I will certainly look to do some work on it.

8.) What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?

Answer:  That’s a tough question, and I dont think I have a single favorite mod, but I think I’ve spent the most time playing Full Invasion. Other mods that I have a lot of experience playing would be the likes of Mercenaries, Mount&Musket of course and 1257 AD. So, multiplayer has always been my favorite part of playing Warband, especially when it’s cooperative.

I’ve also always had a weak spot for mods that drastically alter the gameplay, such as Festung Breslau with the tanks and airplanes, Bear Force II with the whole Star Wars package or the unreleased Warhammer 40k mod. I havent been keeping track of the modding scene as of late, but I’m pretty sure there hasnt been any major new mods that would have caught my eye.

9.) What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?

Answer:  It looks to me like it has gone into a hiatus for the time being. The promise of Bannerlord has probably convinced a lot of modders to simply wait for its release instead of “wasting” their effort on a game that going to be outdated after Bannerlord. I’m sure the community will come back stronger than ever after Bannerlord finally comes out, and considering Warband already had one of the most impressive modding communities I’ve ever seen, it’s going to be something to behold.

10.) And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment? :smile:

Answer: If you’re interested in scening, there’s a section dedicated to sceners on the Taleworlds Forum Modding Discord server. Posting your work there will certainly yield feedback and tips on any aspect of the scene you want, and getting help is a simple matter of asking. If you’re interested in getting your work published, checking said Discord server might be of use, and while many modders are waiting for Bannerlord, there are still mods b eing developed for Warband as well.

Nobody is going to ask you for scenes, you should boldly offer your services instead, that’s bound to get you some work. A portfolio of scenes you’ve made as practice should be handy for that.
 
When's my boi Dekkers getting an interview? Big lad has been making scenes since he was a young squeaker in an NW regiment!!

Also, great interview!
 
please do an interview with the man that created gekokujo, would be intersting to see his prespective on developing mod from basically a single man army
 
New interview's up!



Merlkir​
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

Lead Artist of The Last Days - Working as an illustrator/concept artist​




1.) Hello, Merlkir. You are a very old modder with a skillset that is found rarely for this game, being a concept artist and illustrator.  I believe you are most-known for your work in The Last Days which you played an active role in developing the entire world. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.

Answer:  Hey, I’m Jan from the Czech Republic. My nick on the TW forums is “Mr.Milker”.

2.) How did you get started on modding this game for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?


Answer:  The very first thing I ever tried was back in the M&B days. I discovered mods and saw someone was already making a LOTR mod. There were no proper tools yet, but I wanted to help. So I offered to draw concept art (since I always liked to draw and because I knew Tolkien’s books pretty well) and I also did a retexture for  a Harad armour.

This meant figuring out how the armour was mapped (just half of it, symmetrically, it turned out) and hand painting into the texture from memory, saving the work in progress and running the game every time I wanted to see how it looked ingame.

I didn’t have any experience making games or modding. I just liked Lord of the Rings and wanted to play a cool LOTR mod. I did have a crappy graphics tablet (not a Wacom, but the Trust brand), which helped.

Because I stuck around and actually made some things, the modders eventually accepted me.

3.) I believe you were and still are mostly affiliated with world-building and conceptual development for The Last Days. What kind of a challenge was it to bring one of the most complex and simply the most brilliant world ever created to this game? How was the team atmosphere like? Did you face many challenges?

Answer:  What impressed me the most about TLD was that it had a concept, a vision. Most mods are started, because the creator loves a theme, a part of history, or a fictional property and wants to transfer that enjoyment into a game they also enjoy. This usually results in a “palette swap”, they replace the weapons and armour, the worldmap and names of every NPC. But even with added functional parts from various OSPs (like diplomacy, recruitment mods etc.), the mod plays very similarly to Warband.

TLD was not like that. The creator understood that for the gameplay to feel like LOTR, there’s more to it than just making it look like LOTR.
Unfortunately for us, the original creator -  Ancientwanker - disappered, or passed away, we’re not sure. The team was left with only a vague idea of what the mod was supposed to be like when finished.

I’ve been attached to the project for over 10 years now and have worked with three core teams, and countless individual contributors. Of course, without the leader there were times when personalities clashed and fundamental differences in direction had to be resolved.
That said, we were all huge fans of Tolkien’s work, so ultimately we managed to mostly agree on how things should feel. And from that, how they should work as systems.

Even today, if you play TLD for the first time, you quickly realize it’s very different to Warband, or any other mods out there.
At every step we continue to ask ourselves if what we’re adding or changing fits the “elusive spirit of Tolkien”. That sounds a bit esoteric, but basically it means asking if the particular feature matters to the war of the Ring, or if things like it were ever important in the book.
If not, it’s unlikely to be a good, or necessary addition to the gameplay we’ve built over the years.

4.) Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?

Answer:  It absolutely changed my life. During much of those 10 years with TLD, I’ve studied computer graphics programming at a university. While I ended up following my lifelong interest in drawing and became a freelance illustrator, I still continued to be semi-actively interested in technology and game development.
TLD also allowed me to create something in my free time. (I pretty much stopped drawing for fun when it became a full time career)

5.) Are you working on any project at the moment? Warband mod, or an indie game?

Answer:    We’re still updating TLD of course. For the past four years I’ve worked as lead artist on the spiritual successor to the King of Dragon Pass game - called “Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind”. We have just announced the release date on iOS devices - 28th of June 2018. (PC/Mac ports are in development, hopefully for release sometime in 2019)

6.) What do you think of bannerlord? Do you have any plans to do modding work for the game? It has some revelations.

Answer:  I’m very very excited for Bannerlord! I’m trying to keep my expectations low, because hype kills enjoyment. But I’m very much looking forward to both playing it, and to making mods for it. (I already have a concept in mind, and no, it won’t be a LOTR mod. I’ll leave that to others.)

7.) What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?

Answer:  I think besides TLD, my most played Warband mod was “The Eagle and the Radiant Cross”. I even wrote some fanfiction for that one. As one of the first mods it offered a really unique combination of factions using gunpowder, pike squares and so on. It was “Calradia in the future” and that was quite cool.

From multiplayer mods I mostly played Vikingr. It was beautifully polished and the gameplay was quite different to most other mods. Movement was very deliberate and un-floaty, it was quite difficult to learn. And the online events were just marvellous.
I haven’t really played any recent mods (I finished Viking Conquest, but that’s not really a mod), TLD takes all my Warband time.

8.) What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?

Answer:  Very positive. Everyone is quite helpful and in the past few years there was a huge move towards opening sources to others and sharing of assets and code. I love that.

9.) And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment? :smile:

Answer:  Go make things. The amount of free resources available to you right now is amazing and best it’s ever been. Take advantage of that!

It’s ok to not know how, just understand it’s up to you to learn. Don’t expect others to realize your ideas for you. A lot of people think they’re game designers, but that’s not how that works. You need to contribute something else than “just ideas” for others to want to join you and lend you their skills. Even if you are a game designer with really cool ideas, you need to know how to communicate them properly, how to plan and work with other people.

And start small. Definitely don’t do a massive total conversion as your first mod.
I mean, look at TLD, it’s still not done after 10+ years. :wink:



 
New interview's up!



Havoc​
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

Coder - Indie Game Developer, now known as Stardog​



1.) Hello, Havoc. You are one of those modders who is considered a “legend” by now with mods under your belt Land of Bleeding Ice and Fantasy Persistent World and some of your first modding attempts dating back to 2007 even. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.

Answer: So yeah, I’m a guy from small town New Zealand who fell in love with M&B all the way back in 2005. I spent probably at least 5 years modding M&B and M&B Warband with varying levels of success until I branched out into game dev.


2.) How did you get started on modding this game for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?

Answer: M&B was the first game I ever modded, I was about 13 when I started to play around with it. Can’t remember why I started modding exactly, but I enjoyed it from day one.


3.) I believe you switched to making actual games after doing FPW and Land of Bleeding Ice, somewhere around 2012. Why did you stop modding?

Answer: I felt that modding was too limited. I had all these ideas in my head, but could only do so much with modding.


4.) Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?

Answer: I honestly feel that playing & modding M&B so early on in my life helped shape who I became. It amplified my love for computers and sent me down various paths until I ended up where I am today. When I started modding I had no idea about any aspect of game development but it soon became one of my favourite hobbies, and is the reason I started programming. I also met some very good friends through various channels related to it. My life would be very different if I never started modding.


5.) I know you are working at SAELIG at the moment, which is released to great reviews. Before that, I also know you released somewhere about 4 games alone on TW forums. Tides of Infamy, Wizard Dungeon, Garden Wars and Frozen Exile, to name them. How would you compare modding to an actual game development? Do you consider moddability while developing your own games?

Answer: When I started making my own games I was pretty inexperienced and rather naive. The ideas I undertook completely outweighed my own ability and I wasn’t really prepared for how much harder it would be to make a complete game vs making a large mod. But it all worked out in the end. I do consider moddability when creating my own games, but as of yet this has not come to fruition.


6.) What do you think of bannerlord? Do you have any plans to do modding work for the game? It has some revelations.

Answer: Honestly, I haven’t followed it in a long time. I don’t play many games anymore.


7.) What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?

Answer: Haven’t played WB in about 5 years. M&B is very important to me, but I’ve long moved on from playing it or participating in the modding community.


8.) What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?

Answer: I cannot provide an answer to this.

9.) And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment? :smile:

Answer: Grab an idea, and try bloody hard. Dedicated and determination from the very start is the most important aspect of any project. In my opinion.



 
Motomataru​
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

Coder - Game Developer​



1.) Hello, motomataru. I think everyone in community knows who you are for your coding genius in forms of OSP packs and your work in Brytenwalda and Viking Conquest. Your first modding attempts are dating back to 2009 and by 2012, you were already coming up with very advanced stuff . So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.

Answer: A long, long time ago, my cousins introduced me to a game called Diplomacy. A couple years after that, an arcade game called Pong came out. I learned to program in Basic over a cradle phone modem to a nearby community college, which eventually led to a professional career coding C on Unix boxes (this was before the PC). Along the way, I studied Physics and Econometrics, attempted to make a music CD, played with Photoshop, and wrote a book. All of this disparate experience went into making mods. For example, I used Audacity to fashion the stereo rowing sound out of the default splash sounds for Viking Conquest.

2.) How did you get started on modding this game for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?

Answer: Basically, I was unhappy with some aspects of an otherwise phenomenal game. I’ve not modded another game. Though it was challenging to pick up an unofficially documented programming interface, it did allow the ability to customize a game the way tabletop gamers and dungeon masters often do.

3.) How did Brytenwalda start it out? What was it like working on that project with that team? What was the biggest challenge you faced during the development? I bet there was many many hours spent on historical research alone.

Answer: Alberto Fuentevilla a.k.a. Idibil was the passionate modder (from Total War) that recruited the team and writes the stories. He really was the nexus of the team; I didn’t personally meet the others until a year ago. Until we started working on the DLC, to me they were just tags in the code comments. Alberto brought me on initially to integrate my Formations and AI mod, but he quickly realized my gifting is reading raw code, glimpsing the intent behind it, and fixing/improving/expanding it.

My biggest challenge for the mod was the uneven quality of the open code we were importing and the seemingly unending scope of the project. I did end up doing a bit of reading when I needed to modify a game system; I wanted it to make sense in our setting as well as being fun to play. But Yeyo Balbás is our team historian. He’s written a couple reference works and has worked as a cinematic consultant. All our material basically must funnel through him.

3.) Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Did the modding culture contribute to your new indie studio, Brytenwalda? I imagine you are part of it.

Answer: OK, here’s the story. When we moved to Puerto Rico, I basically didn’t know Spanish and consequently could not even get past the receptionists even for jobs requiring fluent English. My original Formations mod was intended as a demo piece in the forlorn hope that Taleworlds might hire me. Just so you know, one basically has to move to Ankara first for that, but Snowbird did put up a help wanted ad. They picked me up cheap, but I didn’t mind the turn as a code monkey, both because I could complete projects in half the estimated time and because I figured I’d make some professional connections.

So, yeah, in a way, the Mount&Blade mod sys turned me from an unhireable employee into an entrepreneur in an area of work I enjoy a lot. And moreover we have applied our modding ethic to the making of companies. I am quite proud of the compensation system we developed that both allows our people a modest living and rewards personal effort and ingenuity directly and automatically from sales over expectations.

And we don’t forget where we came from. I personally try to document what I learn about the mod sys and write code that can be reused. And answer interviews like this one.

4.) How did the process of turning a mod into a full-scale total-conversion DLC go? I imagine, it must have put pressure. Were you contacted or did you go to TaleWorlds for a pitch? Did you expect your mod would turn into a DLC?

Answer: It was a bit harrowing. We were contracting, establishing the company, and building a new product that would bring commercial quality and new content to our mod fan base, all at the same time. On a time table. Without much of a budget.

Moreover, commercialization put our project on a different footing, and I think it caught some of us by surprise. The easier part was to adopt professional tools like Bitbucket and other parts of the Atlassian suite. More difficult was that I felt that we could no longer be sanguine about the selection of features, the effort their development would require, or the extent to which they were developed. I confess we didn’t talk through our understandings of these things enough before scrambling ahead, and this led to some, um, tense moments on the team. It’s truly important to get everyone on the same page at the start of a major transition like turning commercial, particularly when not everyone has been in a professional development environment before.

I personally did not expect this. In fact, when I initially sounded out the person at Taleworlds that I had gotten to know while working for Snowbird, we were following up something else we had sent more than a year before. This time, with a personal connection established, they countered with the idea to turn Brytenwalda into a DLC.  I imagine they were motivated more by the number of downloads on a developed property. So, in case you large-scale modders out there were wondering, Taleworlds does follow your efforts. In fact, when I watch the demos, I sometimes imagine, with satisfaction, that my personal work inspired little bits of Bannerlord.

I actually wish that what happened to us had happened for the other successful, major mods. We’re definitely too long now for that to make sense for Warband, but I do dream of advocating for that in the future. Expand the economic umbrella to include some seriously talented and creative people to do what they enjoy with their lives and contribute to and share in the success of the franchise.

5.) Are you working on any project at the moment? An indie game or a warband mod, maybe?

Answer: Our studio has been working on a couple projects. Personally, I still have ideas for Warband, but am wary of the imminent arrival of Bannerlord, as I have been for (ahem) several years now.

6.) What do you think of bannerlord? Do you have any plans to do modding work for the game? It has some revelations.

Answer: I think it has some unique gameplay and systems and furthermore believe it would do well if put in a release state to be released now. But then our M.O. since Brytenwalda mod has been to release early (but not too early) and often.

The vision in Bannerlord seems fairly complete, but I know myself too well. I will find something I think could have been done differently or come up with new gameplay I think might be fun.

7.) What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?

Answer: Honestly, after all the relentless play-throughs I did for Viking Conquest, I’m ready for Bannerlord. I was glad to see Swyter wrap up SWC, but when I went to check it out, I realized that I had played it out back when I was working on it. I really enjoyed the sardonic writing in the Evlat mod, where the now middle-aged NPCs from Warband start the game caught in some skinny-dipping shenanigans.

8.) What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?

Answer: Besides what I wrote above, there are some amazing people in the community who have been giving freely of themselves for years. I won’t list names for fear of inadvertently skipping one, but their assistance in my personal journey through modspace has been invaluable -- and unpayable, outside what content I generate that they might enjoy.

9.) And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment? :smile:

Answer: Well, that’s why I told my story. Do what you enjoy. Get good at it. Join up with enthusiastic people that have gotten good at other things than you. Money not really a requirement -- just time, curiosity, the boldness that comes with passion, a bit of dumb luck, and a sense of fun.



 
Saxondragon​
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

Papa of Prophesy of Pendor - Game Designer​



1.) Hello, Saxondragon. You are a legendary modder of many years and the creator of one of the most popular warband mod, Prophesy of Pendor. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.

Answer:  Hello Efe, thank you for the interview.  My real name is Jim Landes and I am a game designer.  Currently I teach digital game development at a college in the United States and also I am a founder of a small development group Gwythdarian where we are in the process of creating our first web based offering.  I started in the business many years ago in the early 1980’s when the industry was fledgling and I have been involved with maybe a half a dozen companies since.

2.) How did you get started on modding this sequel for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?

Answer:  The short answer this many pronged question is that I wanted to return to entertainment software after a very long hiatus.  In 1993 I sold my Play-by-mail game company (think of MMO’s before the internet), returned to the university for a few years, then subsequently worked in Business to Business software for over 10 years.  I wanted to return to my roots so to speak and needed to demonstrate that I still had relevant skills in this field.  I chose Prophesy of Pendor and Taleworlds Mount&Blade and subsequently Warband to be the vehicle that would ultimately enable a career change.

3.) So, Pendor. What was your drive behind while creating this world? How could you create such a diverse and an in-depth world, that is loved by so many people? Did you start on world-building before actual production began?

Answer: Thank you for that compliment.  Pendor was created on the fly in November through December in 2008, then finalized through June 2009.  Most elements were from past personal role-playing worlds I had created, some of it was influenced by authors such as Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, Robert Jordan, and Joel Rosenburg to name a few.  Other elements were derived from discussions on quantum mechanics and some elements were sparked from the open source artwork available at the time. 

As more team members with varied degrees of experience came on board, they helped breathe life into areas such as the D’Shar and made them more real.  I should also point out that one writer, whom you know here on the forums as M0rdred, was especially adept at taking over arching story concepts and filling them in with fascinating and detailed history.  Mason Purcell aka Fawzia dokhtar-i-sanjar, was also a key member who’s unparalleled knowledge of history and culture played a significant role in the world development at this time.

World building is about laying out an overarching concept, preferably one that has a premise that is intellectually engaging.  Then filling in the details and the struggles, aspirations, hopes and fears of those that live in the world and conveying their limited, flawed and often biased worldview.  This makes the world, and the characters living in it, seem real.

4.) What was it like working on Pendor? What was your main role? How was the team atmosphere like? Did you face too many challenges?

Answer: It started with just myself and a proof of concept in late 2008.  From there I gave myself 6 months to work on a 2.0 release to implement as many features as I could.  Up to this point I had rarely worked in such a distributed development environment much less with all part-time unpaid volunteers and most of whom you did not know, except for a user name.  To further complicate matters, most of those were working in a non-native language, which posed additional communication and collaboration issues. 

From a leadership perspective this became a challenge.  I was surprised that so many individuals answered the call I put out for help.  I was hoping for three or four people, but over the years, scores of folks stepped up to help out to one degree to another.  We have over 240 people registered on our development forum today.
 
What I quickly learned was the vast majority of folks who play games do not have the fortitude to create them. For every 6 people who joined the development team, only 1 would produce something and maybe one out of 30 would become what I would term a “core member” and continue with the project.  Some would come and go as their life situations changed.

The model that emerged from this experience was the main coder, or “Implementer” was the center of the development effort who also served as a producer who organized others to get specific tasks completed which they had passion around.  The main challenge, which is true for any development efforts, is the effort is limited by the skills of the people who are attached to the project. 

5.) Was world of Pendor meant only for a warband mod? Or, did you create this world with thoughts-in-mind like turning this into a sequel or a brand of some sort, like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings?

Answer: It was created just for Mount&Blade/Warband.  However, the popularity has inspired the possibility of a novel and I am investigating subsequent entertainment offerings around this intellectual property.

6.) Since I know you are mainly affiliated with your own company, Gwythdarian. Is this something that long-existed before you started modding or after?

Answer: Gwythdarian was launched after the release of POP and within two years of having relocated to Michigan. 


7.) Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?

Answer: The answer to the first part of this question is a resounding yes.  What impressed me the most was that a team of people, who never met, came together and created such an amazing piece of work over a period of years. 

This taught me that a virtual company, working with volunteers was possible.  It is a model I have incorporated into the first offering of Gwythdarian.  A methodology where we break the traditional client-artist relationship so that the creative vision can be fully realized and that the people who put the work into a project reaps the majority of the rewards for the success of the project. 

I have been involved in several startups and young companies where the client who holds the purse strings manages to destroy the project by demanding changes that they do not understand.  Many existing games have fallen victim to this sort of behavior and the results are always disastrous.

The other salient piece that bubbled up in this process of making Prophesy of Pendor, was the realization that modding was not sustainable.  Like making games or playing them, this is not done in a vacuum.  We all have to work to put food on the table, pay mortgages and save for our retirements.  Very few people are in a financial position that will enable them to put thousands of hours into projects indefinitely.  Most will do so for a specific reason, such as building a portfolio to get a job, and over a specific period of time. 

After that period, they will move into professional jobs that take up all of their time.  We all have problems to solve in real life, and it takes most of our effort to address them.  The only way to make modding scalable and sustainable is to find a way to compensate the modder for their time.  This is why great modders enter the scene, then leave, most never to return.

I worked on a project for a few years that solved this problem in an elegant way but we were never able to fund the project and it was shelved.


8.) Are you working on any project at the moment? A warband mod, indie game or maybe a glorious return to Bannerlord with something completely new?

Answer: Yes, all of my spare time is taken up with a development effort through Gwythdarian.  We are working on a web based persistent interstellar odyssey called StariumXCV.  I wish to be mindful of Taleworlds so I, with respect and deference, will not go deeper into this effort here.

9.) What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?

Answer:  Prophesy of Pendor honestly.  I have played many others, but they just do not hold my attention for long.  Mostly I play to gain insights into unique features and understand what I like and do not like to build a more robust body of knowledge for future designs.

10.) What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?

Answer:  There are many amazingly talented people here and the possible potential is astounding.  I have found the modding community to be helpful and by and large promoted by people who want to create the best possible offerings. 


11.) And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment? :smile:

Answer:  So much to say, so little time and space.  I will limit myself to 6 points.

First,: Just do it.  If you want to utilize your skills, then offer to help an existing team.  Be persistent.  Get stuff done.  Focus on execution.  Facilitate the success of the modding team lead.  Be open to change, and especially as an artist and writer, your work will change... always.

Second: Check your ego at the door.  Realize that at any given moment an idea or thought you may have, is not who you are.  If an idea is rejected, then it is the idea or concept that is rejected, not you.  You have more value than a million ideas.  Do not shut down or feel resentment if your concept is modified, or rejected.  Keep your eye on the ending release, and what you can do to make it better. 

Third: No one has all of the answers.  Feel content if you even know what questions to ask.  Every single time I have had an amazing concept I throw it out to my team and they make it better.  Not a few times, not sometimes, but every-single-time.  What goes with this process is to listen to your team and what they say and understand why they are taking a particular position.  Listening is a primary skill here.

Fourth: How to make great games.  This is a bit outside the scope of the question, but the key can be summed into a few short sentences. 
You are creating an experience that your players will consume as they eat a meal.  Remember always that your players consume your content.  There is the early game (appetizer), mid game (main course) and end game (desert).  You must design for all three phases of play. 

The most helpful key in design is to create never ending relevant unanswered questions for your player.  Systems that interact in interesting ways will add longevity and popularity to your offering.  What Taleworlds have done is to provide a solid platform to build upon and with the OSP resources, there is almost infinite possibilities. 

Fifth: Be mindful of the Return of Investment (ROI) of your time.  Do not spend 100 hours on a design that will give a player 3 minutes of “consumption”.  Always ask “What is the return for my time spent?  What will the player experience?  Is it worth the effort?”
Lastly: Ideas have no value until there is work put into them.  Having a “Great Idea” is nice but to be brutally honest, you have to be able to execute on that idea in order for it to be taken seriously. 

See the first point: Get stuff done.



 
Interesting interviews with special guys which make great mods for a great game, respect for all M&B modding community :iamamoron: :iamamoron: :iamamoron: I can't live honestly without Brytenwalda and Pendor
 
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