Grim Fandango HL2 Mod

[James Isaac]

Over the past week or so, we've actually started work on the mod, and have been making progress. One of our modellers has almost finished Manny's gun (modelled and textured). I've started mapping the streets outside the D.O.D., and have nearly finished the front of the D.O.D..

 

But, we are currently seeking programmers and texture artists. This is really all we need, and then the mod will be well on its way. Click here for the recruitment thread we put on various forums. It has some good information about the mod too, so you might want to read it. Like it says there, if you think you could help, email me

 

But note - even though we are only asking for texturers and programmers, any help would be appreciated, as this is a big task, and it would be easier with more people. So if you could help with anything else, such as mapping, modelling, GUI art, then please get in contact.

 

With texture artist(s) and programmer(s), we could finish the D.O.D. (one of our modellers will do the props, and it can then be textured) and we can get Manny's gun into the game. This would be a great achievement, so please help if you can .

 

Over the next few days, I'll try to post renders of Manny's gun on The Department of Death. And then if we make any significant progress with the mapping I'll show that too.

 

But another thing is, we wanted to see if we could get permission for this mod. We just want to finish this mod, so what is the best method. Should we:

• Just get on with it and stop if we're asked to (but that would be a waste of a lot of work)
  
• Ask Tim Schafer for permission (does he have control over it?)
  
• Ask LucasArts for permission (doubtful they'll say yes)
  

 

We want a solution that's legal, and that should allow us to continue with the mod. What should we do...

[Sanspoof]

Crazy bump but you should really just go on with it. LucasArts can't stop a non-profit fan mod of another game anymore than they can stop other fan creations like art or fiction.

[Samnmax221]

Sure wish I had HL2 being the cheap bastard that I am. Oh well Schools coming to an end gotta spend money on the important stuff Stinkbombs and paint grenades!

 

But back on topic I hope Lucasarts doen't decide to chase you away like some companies have been doing recently. Because it's not a direct ripoff I'm sure they won't care.

[James Isaac]

Woah, two replies. To thank you both for posting in this thread, here's an old and outdated render of the standard gun which Manny uses:

 

(Thumbnail - click for larger image)

 

Thanks to Mark Davidoff, our 3D modeller, for making this for us . The new version is animated, wider, less poly-hungry, has an actual hole in the front, and has loads of other improvements. I'll post some pictures on The D.O.D. soon. We also have some more models completed for the mod, which we'll show soon enough

[Sallim]

Iam very excited to see it !

 

 

Nice job guys!

[Sanspoof]

You could just extract the model of the normal Sproutella pistol from the game with SCUMM Rev. At least I think it's possible.

 

Also: You're not planning on 'improving' the usual character design, are you? You know, making 3D teeth and eye sockets and stuff like that. That wouldn't be as fun if it wasn't all moderately basic models and textures, like GF itself.

[Sallim]

Originally posted by Sanspoof

You could just extract the model of the normal Sproutella pistol from the game with SCUMM Rev. At least I think it's possible.

 

well as far as i know its not that easy, its hard to get the 3do format converted to anything else. there are two types of 3dos from my knowledge. There are one compressed and not. the only not comressed I found were in the demo files of GRIM FANDANGO. But you should aks the guys at the Gfnet irc room, they are alot smarter.

 

Besides that, the weapon out of the game would be really low poly and I doubt you can use them anyway. And after all, it makes alot of fun to rework something from GRIME.

 

Also: You're not planning on 'improving' the usual character design, are you? You know, making 3D teeth and eye sockets and stuff like that. That wouldn't be as fun if it wasn't all moderately basic models and textures, like GF itself.

 

I agree. There shouldt be any big changes in design if that is possible.

[James Isaac]

Originally posted by Sallim

well as far as i know its not that easy, its hard to get the 3do format converted to anything else. there are two types of 3dos from my knowledge. There are one compressed and not. the only not comressed I found were in the demo files of GRIM FANDANGO. But you should aks the guys at the Gfnet irc room, they are alot smarter.

 

There is a program which can view them, but I haven't yet found one that can extract. But anyway, the models are extremely low poly and with low detail textures.

 

Also: You're not planning on 'improving' the usual character design, are you? You know, making 3D teeth and eye sockets and stuff like that. That wouldn't be as fun if it wasn't all moderately basic models and textures, like GF itself.

 

We'll try to keep it as similar to GF as possible... but we're still not decided on what the story-line of our mod is going to be. We've been given a few ideas, like:

 

Manny started that underground revolution thing with the guy who sprung him fron Glottis' shack right?

 

Well why not make the HL2 mod story about the fight against the corrupt D.O.D. and their hitmen? Make it about the revolution.

 

It would take place while Manny is on his adventures, somewhere between year 1 and year 2?

 

You wouldn't have to include any of the characters of the characters from the original game (in fact I dont think you should).

 

And we could invent some wacky objectives.

[Thrik]

I wouldn't think that revamping the character models a little would be a problem, so long as you keep the actual design style the same and only update them on a technology level -- it might help to look at the concept art to see their pre-limitation vision. You know, remove the technological limitations that they had such as low polygon shapes and low resolution textures, so that you can smooth off the top of Manny's head and such. Just don't go crazy, since above anything else they must be instantly recognisable as the originals.

[kitmit13]

wow this is looking good can't wait

[James Isaac]

Thanks. Progress is being made, but it's quite slow. We're still in need of a programmer.

[Rubacava]

Wow, that would be so awesome. The amount of time I spent playing HL2 would go way up. But... you wouldn't be able to play as some of the main characters? That's no fun...

[King Dando]

Thats so cool! For some reason I cant play HL2 anymore

[Sanspoof]

Bad news bears. I can't do any modelling of any kind like you asked me to, my schedule's kinda full already with different things. Sorry.