Gmod Tower Now Open Again 2019
How a 'total accident' led to Garry's Mod's funniest characteristic and 15 years of twisted success
There'southward a fun holiday surprise over on the Garry'south Mod website called the 12 Days of Garry'due south Modernistic. The page displays some astonishing Garry's Mod creations, like "Half-Life: Full Life Consequences"—a charmingly awful story written by a Fanfiction.net author named squirrelking and turned into a hilarious and unforgettable short motion-picture show by YouTuber Djy1991.
You'll also see Ross Scott's comedy series Civil Protection, moody sci-fi drama Shelf-Life Role 1 and Part 2, the gorgeously atmospheric twoscore-infinitesimal long picture Haven, and several other notable machinima highlights, all made with Garry'due south Mod, the physics sandbox created past Garry Newman and Facepunch Studios mode dorsum in 2004.
Information technology must take been difficult narrowing the option downward to but a dozen features, because Garry's Mod has been around for 15 years at present. Along the way from gratuitous sandbox mod for One-half-Life 2 to standalone game on Steam, it'due south sold millions of copies, it'southward been used to make thousands of videos and webcomics, and has hundreds of popular mods and gamemodes created by users, like Prop Hunt, Jailbreak, Problem in Terrorist Town, and more than.
The xv yr anniversary is the perfect fourth dimension to chat well-nigh the strange legacy of Garry'south Mod, so I fired over some questions via email both to Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman and Valve's Erik Johnson. Here's what they had to say.
Origin stories
PC Gamer: How did you come upwardly with the name?
Garry Newman: Yous know, I recollect I kind of really stole the proper noun, it wasn't my idea to name stuff after myself. At the time there was another mod chosen JBMod, made by a guy that went by "jb55." So it made sense that my take on that mod would be called Garry's Mod—considering I went by the proper noun "garry". I probably wouldn't take named it chosen Garry'southward Mod if I knew where it would finish up.
Garry's Modern has been in the top 10-twenty games on Steam for as long equally I can remember. Tens of thousands still play information technology every day, but how are sales present?
GN: It sells about 1.5m copies a year, and it'southward sold but over 15m copies full. Which is kind of pleasing since it'due south also 15 years onetime. Plus yous know, money.
Exercise y'all remember when Valve first became enlightened of Garry's Modernistic? What were your first thoughts about it?
Citizen 17
What'due south it like being a citizen under the oppressive thumb of the Combine on a Garry'south Mod roleplaying server? We went secret to observe out.
Erik Johnson: The specific signal in time is a little catchy to pin down. I do remember in that location being a pretty meaning, and somewhat underground, mod community that was working off of the Half-Life 2 source lawmaking leak from 2003. While having the lawmaking for One-half-Life 2 out in the wild earlier the game was finished wasn't a super positive experience for the squad finishing the game, information technology's pretty absurd to run across what the modernistic community could go working with that unfinished codebase. It felt like Garry'due south Mod grew correct out of that community afterward 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 there whatsoever tools in GMod that surprised you to see?
EJ: A lot of the identity of the gameplay of One-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. Then, on 1 paw, it wasn't surprising that Garry started in a similar place that nosotros did. That said, information technology would have been pretty difficult to predict the Garry's Mod of 2022 dorsum in 2004.
We've always been impressed by Garry'south ability to iterate on the game and ringlet feedback from his community into the game and so well. It's a more difficult process than information technology sounds, because it really comes downward to navigating a constant stream of feedback, but being limited in the corporeality of time to go everything done. Garry has ever been near as expert as it gets at picking the correct direction to take his game.
What'southward it like to see the dear characters from Half-Life and other Valve games being used with Garry'south Modernistic for machinima and comics and videos?
EJ: Information technology's pretty absurd. Part of the process for us in shipping any of our games, but especially the single player ones, is letting get of them once they are released, and letting the community take $.25 and pieces of them in any direction they want to. Information technology will exist fun to scout what people build with the editor we're releasing along with Half-Life: Alyx next year.
Pay to play
Paid mods are (all the same) a peachy source of ire among (some) players. When did the thought to start selling GMod on Steam come along? Was information technology Valve'south idea or Garry's?
EJ: It was the early on days of getting Steam congenital, and it was pretty clear that Garry's Mod had a large (and growing) audience. Our philosophy dorsum then was the aforementioned equally information technology is today, which is that we wanted a platform that connected the people who created valuable content with the people that consumed it. It was clear that it was a perfect example of a product that would benefit from this, and so we reached out and asked him if he was interested.
Garry being able starting at edifice a product that he thought 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 cool to come across it happen over the past xv years for Garry and his team.
GN: It was near a yr before we started selling it. I was emailing [Valve] to enquire about something else and they mentioned that they think it'd sell well. I was like, yeah right, what a dumb idea, it'south already costless—why would anyone pay for it?
As time went past and it kept getting more pop, I thought virtually things I'd like to reprogram, stuff I'd like to improve and innovate on. I couldn't justify spending a decent corporeality of fourth dimension doing this stuff. Then it clicked that if we were going to sell the new version information technology could justify spending more time on information technology and justify people buying it rather than sticking with the free version. Then so I had to become on my hands and knees and ship an email to Valve where I explained that information technology wasn't a impaired thought and can we do it please.
Was the negative reaction [to selling Garry's Mod] worse than you lot idea it might be, or not as bad?
So I'chiliad thinking, fuck, I've announced it'southward 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 really 1 of the almost embarrassing things that has ever happened to me. We'd been working on it in secret for a few months and the community were getting quite worried. They had got used to weekly updates before that. Then we decided to announce that we were going to exist on Steam and everything was going to exist okay. This wasn't like announcing that you lot're gonna be on Steam nowadays, this was when there were about 3 games on Steam. This was a big bargain and blew up everywhere.
Then the next forenoon I woke up to an email from Valve, saying something similar "Information technology's customary to wait until the agreements are signed before announcing." So I'yard thinking, fuck, I've announced information technology'due south going to be on Steam and now I've pissed off Valve—and then it'due south not going to exist on Steam. It took me a couple of weeks to recover from that. I couldn't enjoy any of the community happiness, I felt like a right knob caput.
How did yous settle on the $10 price? After xv years (sales aside) why is it still $10?
GN: I don't think I ever contemplated charging more. It was costless and now it's not, the price had to exist low enough to people that they'd simply be like... yes certain why not. It's important to remember that earlier Steam pretty much no-one bought games on the PC. Everything was pirated. And while Garry'due south Mod was a multiplayer game—which offered some protection from piracy—it could be played single actor too. It had to be inexpensive and piece of cake plenty to stop people pirating it.
Apart from having coin from sales, how did selling GMod change its evolution?
GN: I think Garry'south Mod would have died fifteen years ago if we didn't sell information technology. It gave u.s. a reason to continue development. Besides that Steam manifestly allowed u.s.a. to update the game much easier. Previously when it was complimentary yous'd download a null file from my website with the new version in. This would limit the frequency of the updates.
Back and then, because Steam was in its infancy, they didn't have an automated update organization. I had to upload the new builds to an FTP and electronic mail Valve to brand them live. Considering of the fourth dimension difference this could mean that a patch could go out at four am my time, while I was in bed. If there was a issues in information technology I'd be in a lot of trouble when I woke up. Merely once again considering of the time difference I wouldn't exist able to become a patch out until Valve were back at their desks the side by side day.
Strike a pose
What practice most players do in Garry's Modern these days? Practise you know what the most popular mode or mod for it is? When is the final fourth dimension you played it yourself?
GN: The roleplay gamemodes are nevertheless a huge thing, but that in itself tin can embrace a one thousand other sub gamemodes. Between Facepunch, Rust, two kids and trying to lookout man 10 hours of TV every twenty-four hour period—I don't have much time to play present. I used to feel bad about that, like a slap-up chair maker that doesn't similar to sit down on chairs. Merely I recollect information technology'southward just that I enjoy making them a whole lot more than playing them.
Beingness able to pose ragdolls made Garry's modernistic a bang-up tool for comics, videos, and machinima. How did that function outset come about?
GN: A full blow. I was trying to pose ragdolls, merely non by freezing their joints. I was trying to make it so they would motility like the temper was actually thick, so they'd stay in place. The physics in Source dorsum then weren't every bit stable as they are now. You could really easily cause a crash by giving it numbers that it wasn't expecting. I used the wrong values and it locked one of their bones in identify. I made a quick pose—I recall it was Kleiner giving birth. I was actually excited—I immediately knew the fun everyone was going to have with this.
I had a phone interview [with Valve] and I don't recollect information technology took them long to realise that I didn't know shit.
Garry Newman
What's the biggest requested feature y'all get from Garry'southward Mod players?
GN: The biggest thing, by about a million miles is the "Played with Garry" achievement. It's one of the hardest achievements to become on Steam—for obvious reasons.
Valve has hired a number of people who modern their games. Am I remembering correctly that y'all tried to go a job with Valve at one bespeak?
GN: Yeah I applied for a job, I think information technology was earlier Garry's Modern went on auction. Or might have been just after. Around that time anyway. I had a phone interview and I don't remember it took them long to realise that I didn't know shit. I didn't get offered a position. In retrospect it's a practiced thing. Helk (Rust lead) had an interview with them besides, he fabricated information technology all the way to an in-office interview. They had him writing out code on a whiteboard. I tin't even code without Google—and then I wouldn't stand up a take chances at that.
Accept you hired any people at Facepunch based on mods they've made in Garry's Mod?
GN: No, it wasn't something nosotros were prepared for, every bit a company, back then. It's something we should have been doing. I run across the stuff the Tower Unite guys accept managed to practice after their Gmod Tower gamemodes and kick myself. It's a great matter for them, to go out and make their own game but in an ideal world we could have fabricated information technology good for all of us.
Future tense
Garry's Modern is still being updated, but how often do yous personally all the same work on Garry's Mod?
GN: I oasis't personally worked on it for about 3 years. Rubat and Willox take washed a really good job of taking it off my plate. I found that it got to a place where anything I tried to change I got yelled at past the customs for breaking something else. So I felt like it'due south better to merely maintain it, to go on it ticking over and so the modders can do their matter. Or risk breaking 15 years worth of content.
What's the Garry'southward mod mod that hasn't happened yet, but you really wanted to happen?
GN: In that location's actually a ton of things I want to do, but I don't like to talk virtually it too much. If you talk nearly stuff you desire to do you don't stop upwards doing information technology, because you feel similar you already did it. You 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, just let them all down when the idea eventually has to collide with reality.
What's the status of 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 south&box on UE4. It'due south actually quite far forth merely we decided to pause it for now. We're hoping you'll hear more than about it side by side year—if not information technology's probably dead forever.
Will Garry's Mod still be around in another 15 years? What will it look like so?
GN: In 15 years I'll be 52. An old man. We'll have the iPhone 35, Steam's friend listing volition be its own operating system and my son will be the age I was when I showtime made GMod. It's 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 house. But who knows. We'll keep updating equally long equally people continue playing. Maybe nosotros'll practice a sequel.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/garrys-mod-interview/
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