AMod
(January, 2025)
AMod is a mod for Half-Life 2, which was created in a weekend to learn how to work in the Source Engine.
Video Demo
About AMod
AMod was never meant for publishing, and never was published. It was only a small learning project with
a tiny timeframe of 1 weekend to learn all the steps involved in Source Engine modding.
I set myself a goal of adding three new weapons to Half-Life 2, having to learn everything from importing files,
authoring new child-classes, and ensuring compatability with Source tools, such as the Map Editor, Hammer.
After just 3 days, I had a functioning set of new weapons, and had become familiar enough with the engine
to apply to the Vance team, to help contribute with that project!
Important skills I learned or improved:
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Setting achievable goals and challenges | Using new tech can be hard, but not trying enough things with it may let you to not try at all. So I set myself a goal of 3 new weapons with unique mechanics, to be well familiar with many things. The Grenade launcher would be working with projectiles, and a unique firing system, the G11 taught basic loops and adding new ammo types and icons, and the wrench was what taught me how damage and logic loops, and assets / animations work in Source. |
| Delving into new tools | The Source Engine is huge and very segmented. Each part of the engine is in it's own executable and the C++ code acts as the meeting point. Having to use all of these, and get familiar with them so fast, proved to myself I can learn new things easily if I need to. |
| Tailoring my skills | While I was already quite familiar with Unreal and their C++ code base, learning a new one and one which is 20 years old, challenged me to drop my standards and assumptions from other frameworks. It helped me break out of just knowing C++ for Unreal, and was a great benefit when I applied to be a programmer for Vance later that month. |
The assets were borrowed from creators on GameBanana, due to the short dev-time.
Animations were made by me, but are rough.
- Grenade Launcher: https://gamebanana.com/models/1981
- Wrench: https://gamebanana.com/models/1155
- G11: https://gamebanana.com/models/3818.