From Mod to Retail: Tripwire Interactive Builds Videogame Business on Old Blueprint (You Can Too)
Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:08PM 
People often ask me “how do I get into the videogame industry?” Having entered only three years ago, I try to formulate a response concocted from two parts quotes I’ve read and heard, mixed with one part my own story and experiences. I feel it’s a winning combination – chewy, spicy, and textured enough to reveal new flavors upon repeated tastings. If you possess the necessary cooking skills (any kind of industry experience), give the recipe a try. But keep in mind, the better you know your audience the better the dish.
Budding audio engineers, mixers, masters, noise makers, and sound mavens comprise most of mine. I know these guys and gals, and not only from inhabiting their school as a teacher. I once wore their shoes. As a student here at the Institute of Production and Recording, I wanted nothing more than to make Ben Burtt’s contribution to film audio seem tiny and inconsequential compared to my involvement in videogames.
As an outsider looking in, I obsessively approached the profession of “game audio dude” from every possible angle. I applied a critical ear to every game I played, listened and watched every interview and podcast involving an industry professional, and joined any and every relevant community. I contacted people too, asking for career advice, tips, and more contacts. And then I graduated, became an employee at Activision, and subsequently discovered people would pay me to write about videogames, another lifelong dream. I may pursue the audio career path once again in the future, but right now the student body can benefit from the information I acquired.
To my young game audio kin, I often recommend joining the modding community – groups of game designers, young and old, who take existing title assets and code and add, change, or dismantle content to suit their artistic vision. Modifications may be small – a reskinned weapon or minor gameplay adjustments, and sometimes they’re much larger – former “world’s most popular online action game,” Counter-Strike,” began as a mod in 1999.
Immeasurable experience and contacts may be gained from participating in a mod’s development, regardless of the product’s ultimate quality. All that and a self-inflicted pat on the back may be all you receive for your first project, depending on distribution, popularity, and the originality of the content. Oh well.
Copyright’s a nasty, pervasive little bugger who’ll prevent the sale of mods utilizing any number of the original title’s assets. If monetary return sounds more delectable, seek employment in the development of total conversion mods, where all assets used are original and lawsuit-free. Ideally, you want to take this route. The potential’s incalculable.
In fact, the financial success of one total conversion mod, Red Orchestra: Combined Arms, warranted the opening of an entirely new development house.
After winning the “Make Something Unreal” competition, and the $50,000 prize money, the Red Orchestra developers founded Tripwire Interactive and decided to take the “franchise forward as a retail game.” According to the company site, the subsequent release “achieved both critical and commercial success garnering several awards including “Multiplayer Game of the Year” and “FPS of the Year” for 2006.
Most recently, Tripwire developed and released Killing Floor, a cooperative first-person shooter built on a “survive as long as you can” gametype and infused with qualities most often found in role-playing games, such as class-based play, leveling, and an in-game store with purchasable guns, grenades, ammo, and body armor.
Pre-sales catapulted Killing Floor to...