New World Interactive director Jeremy Blum questions viability of total game conversions
There is a serious decline in the number of people making mods for games, says Insurgency developer Jeremy Blum.
There have been a number of successful game modifications such as DayZ and Natural Selection that have won plaudits and even gone on to become standalone games in recent years.
But speaking to Develop, New World Interactive game director Blum, who has previously worked on titles such as Red Orchestra, said that although game modding had been a very important movement between the year 2000 and 2010 for aspiring developers, it has experienced a sharp decline during the last few years.
Blum said this could be down to the lack of development tools shipped with many games, and the complexity and time it takes to mod current triple-A games and engines, especially when creating a total conversion modification.
He explained that while a few years ago creating mods could anywhere from one-to-two years, it could now take upwards of six years to complete.