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Recently I've given the good old Warcraft III World Editor a blast, mostly to put my proverbial money where my mouth is regarding game design, and I'd like to share what I've been up to.

Many Happy Returns is my first mod available for download, although I finished working on it a few months back. Paralleling the Warcraft storyline, we see Arthas returning to old ground after the events of the Undead campaign. It's extremely short, probably takes between 6-10 minutes depending on how much you want to explore, and 'unpolished' is putting it lightly. It's mainly just a bit of extra practise with the editor, but it's clever and there are some nice touches. You need Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and, possibly, the latest patch if you'd like to play it. I might get round to posting a video of the entire level at some point. Be warned: it's riddled with RoC and TFT spoilers. Link below. If you do see it through, any thoughts or criticisms?

Many Happy Returns @ Incgamers

My style follows, or certainly tries to follow, the Portal and Shadow of the Colossus school of how to make a mod: stick to one fundamental and unique gameplay idea, make the characters interesting or entertaining, maintain a distinct atmosphere, and, most importantly, end the game early before it has a chance to lose its appeal. I'd rather have a 10 minute game to play three times over than a 30 minute game to play once.

Currently I'm working on a new idea I've been occasionally musing over for months now. I'm not quite sure which genre to think of it as; RPG is probably closest. The ideas are all mapped in my head and I've worked out how most of the key triggers are going to work - in theory anyway. I've very nearly finished the terrain and doodads. Some of the main programming and character detail is also finished, so the whole idea is taking shape quite nicely. I'm reluctant to share what it actually is because so many things could change, but once it becomes more solid I'll happily post screenshots. If you like Many Happy Returns then you'll probably like what I'm cooking up here. I'm aiming to make it available by the end of the September.

This post has been edited by sweetdude on 4th July 2009 11:33

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

I finally got round to posting that video. It's still much better to play the map on WarCraft III if you have it, but for those of you who don't, please click the link below to have a look. It will make a lot more sense to somebody who's completed the Reign of Chaos campaign. What do we think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2SSgT4hY70

Work on the next one has stalled a little while I get some coursework finished. I'm trying to commit at least one day a week to it, but even then it's quite difficult. Just when I think I've got a few days off something else pops up.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.