How to Make Gmod Fun Again
How a 'full accident' led to Garry'due south Mod'southward funniest feature and 15 years of twisted success
There'southward a fun vacation surprise over on the Garry'south Modernistic website called the 12 Days of Garry's Mod. The page displays some amazing Garry'southward Mod creations, like "One-half-Life: Total Life Consequences"—a charmingly awful story written past a Fanfiction.net author named squirrelking and turned into a hilarious and unforgettable short pic by YouTuber Djy1991.
You'll also run into Ross Scott'due south comedy series Civil Protection, moody sci-fi drama Shelf-Life Part 1 and Part two, the gorgeously atmospheric 40-minute long film Haven, and several other notable machinima highlights, all made with Garry's Modern, the physics sandbox created by Garry Newman and Facepunch Studios fashion dorsum in 2004.
It must take been difficult narrowing the selection down to simply a dozen features, considering Garry'southward Mod has been around for 15 years now. Along the fashion from free sandbox mod for Half-Life 2 to standalone game on Steam, it's sold millions of copies, it's been used to make thousands of videos and webcomics, and has hundreds of popular mods and gamemodes created by users, like Prop Hunt, Jailbreak, Trouble in Terrorist Town, and more than.
The 15 year anniversary is the perfect time to chat about the foreign legacy of Garry'southward Mod, so I fired over some questions via electronic mail both to Garry'due south Modernistic creator Garry Newman and Valve'due south Erik Johnson. Here'due south what they had to say.
Origin stories
PC Gamer: How did y'all come upwardly with the proper name?
Garry Newman: Yous know, I recollect I kind of actually stole the name, information technology wasn't my idea to proper noun stuff after myself. At the time there was another mod called JBMod, made past a guy that went past "jb55." And so it made sense that my take on that modern would be called Garry's Mod—because I went by the name "garry". I probably wouldn't have named it called Garry'southward Modern if I knew where it would stop up.
Garry's Mod has been in the meridian ten-20 games on Steam for equally long as I can retrieve. Tens of thousands still play it every day, only how are sales present?
GN: Information technology sells about ane.5m copies a year, and it's sold just over 15m copies total. Which is kind of pleasing since it's also 15 years old. Plus you know, money.
Do you lot recall when Valve first became aware of Garry's Modernistic? What were your first thoughts about it?
Citizen 17
What's information technology like being a denizen under the oppressive pollex of the Combine on a Garry's Modern roleplaying server? We went undercover to find out.
Erik Johnson: The specific point in fourth dimension is a fiddling tricky to pin down. I practise remember there being a pretty significant, and somewhat cloak-and-dagger, mod customs that was working off of the Half-Life ii source code leak from 2003. While having the code for Half-Life 2 out in the wild before the game was finished wasn't a super positive experience for the team finishing the game, it's pretty absurd to see what the mod community could get working with that unfinished codebase. Information technology felt like Garry's Mod grew right out of that customs subsequently One-half-Life ii shipped.
Did anyone at Valve take any idea the Source engine could be used the way it is in Garry's Mod? Are in that location any tools in GMod that surprised y'all to see?
EJ: A lot of the identity of the gameplay of Half-Life 2 centered around physics. Even in the early days of development, most of the experiments that people were running had the physics engine at its cadre. And then, on one mitt, it wasn't surprising that Garry started in a similar identify that we did. That said, it would have been pretty hard to predict the Garry'south Modern of 2019 dorsum in 2004.
We've always been impressed by Garry's ability to iterate on the game and ringlet feedback from his community into the game and so well. It'south a more difficult process than it sounds, considering information technology really comes downward to navigating a constant stream of feedback, but being express in the amount of fourth dimension to get everything washed. Garry has always been about equally good as it gets at picking the right direction to take his game.
What'south it like to see the beloved characters from Half-Life and other Valve games being used with Garry's Mod for machinima and comics and videos?
EJ: It'southward pretty cool. Part of the procedure for us in aircraft whatever of our games, merely especially the single player ones, is letting go of them one time they are released, and letting the customs take bits and pieces of them in whatsoever management they want to. It will exist fun to watch what people build with the editor nosotros're releasing along with Half-Life: Alyx next twelvemonth.
Pay to play
Paid mods are (still) a cracking source of ire among (some) players. When did the idea to commencement selling GMod on Steam come along? Was it Valve'southward thought or Garry'due south?
EJ: Information technology was the early days of getting Steam built, and it was pretty clear that Garry'southward Mod had a big (and growing) audience. Our philosophy back then was the same every bit it is today, which is that nosotros wanted a platform that continued the people who created valuable content with the people that consumed it. It was clear that information technology was a perfect instance of a product that would do good from this, and so we reached out and asked him if he was interested.
Garry existence able starting at building a product that he idea people would like, to where he is today, is the kind of story we're ever trying to make happen. Reducing the friction between the creator of interesting content and the consumer of it has a number of really positive side effects. It's been absurd to see it happen over the past fifteen years for Garry and his team.
GN: It was about a twelvemonth earlier we started selling it. I was emailing [Valve] to ask about something else and they mentioned that they think information technology'd sell well. I was similar, yep right, what a dumb thought, it's already gratuitous—why would anyone pay for it?
As fourth dimension went past and it kept getting more than popular, I idea most things I'd like to reprogram, stuff I'd like to improve and innovate on. I couldn't justify spending a decent corporeality of time doing this stuff. Then it clicked that if we were going to sell the new version it could justify spending more time on information technology and justify people buying it rather than sticking with the complimentary version. And so then I had to become on my easily and knees and send an electronic mail to Valve where I explained that information technology wasn't a impaired idea and can we do information technology please.
Was the negative reaction [to selling Garry's Modernistic] worse than you lot thought information technology might be, or non as bad?
And then I'one thousand thinking, fuck, I've announced it'south going to be on Steam and now I've pissed off Valve.
Garry Newman
GN: I can't remember much of information technology—it was actually one of the virtually embarrassing things that has always happened to me. We'd been working on it in underground for a few months and the customs were getting quite worried. They had got used to weekly updates earlier that. So we decided to announce that we were going to be on Steam and everything was going to exist okay. This wasn't similar announcing that you're gonna be on Steam nowadays, this was when there were virtually three games on Steam. This was a large deal and blew up everywhere.
And so the side by side morning I woke upwardly to an email from Valve, saying something like "It'southward customary to look until the agreements are signed before announcing." So I'm thinking, fuck, I've announced information technology'due south going to be on Steam and at present I've pissed off Valve—so information technology'southward not going to exist on Steam. It took me a couple of weeks to recover from that. I couldn't enjoy any of the customs happiness, I felt like a right knob head.
How did you settle on the $ten cost? After 15 years (sales aside) why is it still $x?
GN: I don't recollect I ever contemplated charging more. It was free and now it's not, the price had to be low enough to people that they'd simply be like... yes certain why non. It's important to recollect that before Steam pretty much no-one bought games on the PC. Everything was pirated. And while Garry'southward Mod was a multiplayer game—which offered some protection from piracy—it could be played single player too. It had to be cheap and easy plenty to stop people pirating information technology.
Apart from having money from sales, how did selling GMod change its development?
GN: I recollect Garry's Mod would have died 15 years ago if nosotros didn't sell it. It gave us a reason to go on development. Likewise that Steam obviously immune u.s.a. to update the game much easier. Previously when it was free y'all'd download a zippo file from my website with the new version in. This would limit the frequency of the updates.
Back then, considering Steam was in its infancy, they didn't have an automatic update system. I had to upload the new builds to an FTP and electronic mail Valve to brand them live. Because of the fourth dimension difference this could mean that a patch could become out at 4 am my time, while I was in bed. If in that location was a bug in it I'd be in a lot of trouble when I woke upward. Only again because of the fourth dimension difference I wouldn't be able to get a patch out until Valve were dorsum at their desks the next day.
Strike a pose
What do most players do in Garry'due south Mod these days? Do you know what the nearly popular mode or mod for information technology is? When is the final time you played it yourself?
GN: The roleplay gamemodes are still a huge matter, but that in itself tin encompass a 1000 other sub gamemodes. Between Facepunch, Rust, ii kids and trying to watch 10 hours of TV every day—I don't have much time to play nowadays. I used to experience bad about that, like a great chair maker that doesn't like to sit on chairs. But I remember it's just that I bask making them a whole lot more than playing them.
Being able to pose ragdolls made Garry'southward mod a great tool for comics, videos, and machinima. How did that function starting time come most?
GN: A total accident. I was trying to pose ragdolls, but non past freezing their joints. I was trying to get in so they would movement like the atmosphere was really thick, so they'd stay in place. The physics in Source back and so weren't as stable as they are at present. You lot could really hands cause a crash by giving it numbers that information technology wasn't expecting. I used the incorrect values and information technology locked one of their bones in place. I made a quick pose—I call up it was Kleiner giving nascency. I was really excited—I immediately knew the fun everyone was going to take with this.
I had a phone interview [with Valve] and I don't retrieve it took them long to realise that I didn't know shit.
Garry Newman
What'due south the biggest requested feature you get from Garry'southward Mod players?
GN: The biggest thing, by near a million miles is the "Played with Garry" achievement. It'southward one of the hardest achievements to go on Steam—for obvious reasons.
Valve has hired a number of people who mod their games. Am I remembering correctly that y'all tried to get a job with Valve at one bespeak?
GN: Yeah I applied for a job, I remember it was earlier Garry's Mod went on sale. Or might accept been just after. Around that time anyhow. I had a telephone interview and I don't think it took them long to realise that I didn't know shit. I didn't get offered a position. In retrospect it'due south a good thing. Helk (Rust lead) had an interview with them too, he made it all the way to an in-office interview. They had him writing out code on a whiteboard. I tin't even code without Google—so I wouldn't stand a chance at that.
Have you lot hired whatsoever people at Facepunch based on mods they've fabricated in Garry's Mod?
GN: No, information technology wasn't something we were prepared for, as a company, back so. It's something we should have been doing. I run into the stuff the Tower Unite guys have managed to practise after their Gmod Tower gamemodes and kick myself. It'south a great affair for them, to become out and make their own game merely in an ideal world we could have made information technology adept for all of us.
Future tense
Garry'southward Mod is withal beingness updated, simply how often exercise you personally still piece of work on Garry's Mod?
GN: I oasis't personally worked on information technology for well-nigh three years. Rubat and Willox have done a really proficient job of taking it off my plate. I found that it got to a place where annihilation I tried to alter I got yelled at by the community for breaking something else. Then I felt like information technology's better to only maintain it, to go on it ticking over so the modders can do their thing. Or hazard breaking 15 years worth of content.
What's the Garry's mod modernistic that hasn't happened yet, but you really wanted to happen?
GN: There'south actually a ton of things I want to do, simply I don't similar to talk about it also much. If you talk about stuff you desire to do you don't stop upwards doing it, because you lot feel like y'all already did it. Y'all get all the positive feedback from it. Plus I don't want to pull a Peter Molyneux and talk about a bunch of stuff that gets people excited, but let them all down when the thought somewhen has to collide with reality.
What's the status of Due south&box, which sounds like a Garry's Mod for Unreal Engine 4. The last devblog was in 2018.
GN: We did a lot of experimentation with s&box on UE4. It'south actually quite far along merely we decided to suspension it for now. We're hoping you lot'll hear more about information technology next year—if not it'southward probably dead forever.
Will Garry's Modern all the same be around in another xv years? What will it look like then?
GN: In 15 years I'll be 52. An old human being. We'll have the iPhone 35, Steam'southward friend list will exist its own operating system and my son will be the age I was when I first made GMod. Information technology'southward possible it might exist renamed Alex's Mod and is primarily used to watch exploited/spoilt american kids play with toys in their massive Youtube business firm. Merely who knows. We'll keep updating equally long as people keep playing. Maybe we'll practice a sequel.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/garrys-mod-interview/
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