Article on an SDK for The Witcher 2

[Dark0ne]

I thought I would put up this post I made on The Witcher 2 forums recently and see what others had to say here. It's a topic that's pretty relevant to most PC RPG games these days. From the position I'm sat in with all the sites figures to chew over I do sometimes wonder why game developers wouldn't release an SDK for their games. The mind boggles. Anyway, here goes:

 

Hi folks,

 

I wanted to post up an article on these forums stirring up some support for a proper Software Development Kit (SDK) for The Witcher 2, to discuss the modding community for the original Witcher game and how people think that CDProjekt, and the community, can improve upon the original in this regard.

 

My name is Robin Scott and I am the owner and administrator of the Nexus sites (TESNexus, Fallout 3 Nexus, etc.) and I'm a strong supporter of modding communities both in games I actively run sites for and other games outside my scope. For those not in the know the Nexus sites are home to over 2 million members who either create mods for games or actively mod their games using mods freely available from the sites.

 

I attempted to make contact with CDProjekt on this issue but have been told that they are not ready to discuss any plans for an SDK as yet. That's understandable and their prerogative, but it doesn't mean the community cannot voice their wishes and concerns on what, for some (including myself), is a very important issue that can make or break the game.

 

Modding is a hugely popular past time in the Elder Scrolls series, Fallout series and Dragon Age and The Witcher is a prime example of a game series that should have a strong modding community to lift up the merits of the game. Unfortunately modding for The Witcher never really took off like it did for, as an example, Oblivion. Indeed I'd argue the reason why we still hear about games like Oblivion, now almost 5 years old, and see "The Witcher vs. Oblivion" comparisons is because of the strong support and longevity provided by the bountiful modding community.

 

I would argue that strong games make strong modding communities. The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, The Sims, Civilization, Half-life and Unreal modding communities are where they are today because the original games the mods are based off are extremely good quality, fun to play and top-class GOTY winners or contenders. Ergo it makes sense that CDProjekt focus their attentions on making their game the best it can be. However each of the developers behind the above communities have gone above and beyond contemporary norms to insure that their modding communities have flourished by providing the adequate tools and community support to lay the foundations for what have become extremely useful and successful communities. Would we still hear as much about old games like Half-Life 2, Oblivion (and even Morrowind) or UT3 if it weren't for the abundant and diverse array of mods available for the games? I doubt it.

 

I want make just three simple suggestions that I believe would give The Witcher 2 a good chance of creating a successful modding community. If you wish to add (or rubbish) any criteria based on your experience in or out of this community then please feel free.

 

The tools

 

Most flourishing modding community has a good set of developer tools (the SDK) available. These tools should enable the modification of almost all aspects of the game; enabling modification of the original game as well as the ability to create stand-alone plug-ins and new world spaces. This was, perhaps, the failing in The Witcher's D'jinni software. The D'jinni was a nice idea but from my understanding it had one fatal flaw; it only allowed the creation of new modules rather than modification of the original game campaign and content. Such limitations only serve to "gimp" the development of the mod community as many of the early mod releases for games come from small tweaks and bug fixes to the original campaigns.

 

By limiting the SDK to only creating and modifying custom modules you create a huge time gap on the community as new modules invariably take far longer to create than small tweaks and fixes. As a result many impatient people move on from the community never to return as their gaming appetites are satisfied elsewhere. By the time some worthwhile mods have actually been released the community is already dead and modders and users alike are disheartened.

 

 

The timing of release

 

While most SDKs and modding tools are released as after thoughts by the developers at least some planning needs to go in to the release of the SDK. Most importantly the release should be very close to the release of the game itself. If the SDK is released months after the launch of the game most people have finished the game and moved on. The SDK needs to come out ASAP to insure the mod authors have a fighting chance of grinding out some mods and creating a proper modding community.

 

Fallout: New Vegas used practically the same SDK as Fallout 3, for example, and had over 1,000 modifications available for download within the first few weeks.

 

 

The level of support

 

If CDProjekt provide the tools then invariably the community can do the rest. If they truly care about nurturing a proper modding community then they need to go a bit above and beyond simply releasing the SDK. Creating special forums just for modding on the official Witcher forums are a good start as many people like to use official websites when it comes to modding. Similarly an officially supported Wiki, like those provided by Bioware for Dragon Age and Bethesda for the Elder Scrolls go a long way towards showing the community that you actually care about the modding community and want to see it succeed.

 

Official mod hosting seems to have mixed results. Bioware's attempt at hosting files for Dragon Age, for example, was widely considered to be a flop due to the abundant limitations of the web software they were using and the apparent disinterest in getting them fixed in a timely manner. There are similar worries about censorship as game developers may not wish to be associated or seen to be supporting certain aspects of the modding community.

 

Often times the community can support itself so long as the tools are fit for purpose; wiki's and hosting are both aspects of modding communities that can be run by the communities themselves. However developer supported wiki and hosting projects are always welcome providing the level of support is adequate and they haven't merely been provided as an after thought. Bethesda, for example, regularly cover modding related articles on their BethBlog, which is a simple but nice touch.

 

 

 

At the end of the day the success or failure of the modding community is really in the hands of CDProjekt. There are always arguments for and against releasing modding tools and invariably the largest argument against is the time issue. Similarly there are some games that have flourishing mod communities without SDKs, including GTA and STALKER, but what harm can it do? I believe if CDProjekt would invest some time in to providing support for a proper modding community then they would reap the dividends of their labours in a game that is just screaming for modding attention.

 

What are your thoughts?

[HellsMaster]

I agree wholeheartedly. The witcher 2 is bound to be a great i think, but all game has it flows, it would be great if they actually had a good SDk for more personalization of the character, i imagine mods of everything and anything would come out for it, more armors and weapons ect and effectively prolonging the life of the game.

By the way, can we have a link to the forum thread? i want to check it out.

[Dark0ne]

Here's the link

[Marthos]

Indeed, it seems they need a prod in the right direction, especially going by what Corylea has posted.

 

Well done for trying Robin :thumbsup:

[JimboUK]

Right at the end of the Developer Diary #3 video he mentions making the engine available to fans to make their own content, he says maybe after the game is released, seems they haven't learnt anything from the failure to build a modding community for the the first game. It would be nice if they took DarkOnes thoughts on board, I find it odd that a company hugely in to PC gaming ignore one of the PCs greatest strengths.

[carywinton]

I see many aspects of why this has not come to pass. The most important one that comes to mind from a Developer point of view is the rights to the tools and software used to make The Witcher or The Witcher 2. From what I know and understand , The Witcher was based on the Aurora engine and that was provided through licensing and agreement with Bioware, even they were amazed at what CDProjekt.Red was able to accomplish on the little engine that could. So the tools and such were already present for much of The Witcher, hense out came Dejinni , granted not the worlds most new developer friendly interface, but it was workable. The Witcher 2 , to my knowledge was based on a new engine that CDProject.Red made themselves, so in my mind it is a total mystery to me if all the tools and engine were mostly in house, why not release them? The only explanation I can think of is there is some business reason why they are not able to as of yet. My money is on the funding sources being the hold up, not CDProject.Red, it is usually the "money" that causes the most problems throughout the developer and production process. Excelent post "BTW" Robin, but then I expected nothing less, you have done a fine job here.

 

Regards to all. :geek:

[Illiad86]

Holy Thread Necromancy, Batman! :P Edited August 3, 2012 by Illiad86

[hector530]

Holy Thread Necromancy, Batman! :P

 

holy crap no wonder i couldnt find the post on red forums

[naomis8329]

Maybe for Witcher 3 they will do so :D

[brokenergy]

What are the chances that they would never do it or give a proper SDK?