Team Fortress

Another now Valve owned IP started out as a mod for Quake. Team Fortress revolutionized team gameplay in multiplayer games and even today is a rare example of co-op done justice in gaming. Ironically enough if you asked me to list some other games that similarly do co-op justice, I would end up naming a few more Valve games…I swear I’m not a fan boy. This mod was created by Robin Wallker, John Cook and Ian Caughley and just like Counter Strike was bought by Valve and the creators were hired to create a standalone version of the game. They first made Team Fortress Classic and then released the now free to play Team Fortress 2.

Garry’s Mod

Yet another Valve title that started life as a mod. Garry’s Mod is hard to describe to those that don’t know what it is. Essentially it is a sandbox physics game that gives the players different assets from Valve’s Source Engine to do whatever they want with. This has led to a plethora of machinima’s from the community which almost all somehow apply the humorous ragdoll physics the engine allows. Garry’s mod has also created several game types one of which is a favourite of mine called Trouble in Terrorist Town which is commonly referred to as TTT. Creator Garry Newman created the first mod by modding Half-Life 2 and released it as an early Christmas present for the Internet on Christmas Eve in 2004.Today it has made over 22 million dollars. Gary Newman is hard at work on his new game Rust which just entered free Alpha and combines elements from Minecraft and DayZ. Needless to say I will be getting my hands on it very soon.

Red Orchestra/Killing Floor

This mod was so good it started a company. Red Orchestra has always been known for its sense of realism. From bullet drops, to managing your ammo, the game was very much grounded in reality. Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 was first created as a mod for Unreal Tournament. The team behind the mod entered and won NVIDIA’s Unreal Contest and got a free licence to use the Unreal Engine 2 and 3. After winning the contest they created their company Tripwire Interactive (did not get bought by Valve) and released Red Orchestra Combined Arms and followed that with Red Orchestra 2: Hero’s of Stalingrad. Tripwire Interactive also created the cult classic Killing Floor which also began as mod for Unreal Tournament 2004.