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It's all incremental. Here's some ancient history; some dates might be wrong.
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It's all incremental. Here's some ancient history; some dates might be wrong.
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1997: a commercial game, Total Annihilation, is released (by Cavedog Entertainment, led by Chris Taylor). It introduces a lot of concepts such as physically simulated weapons and streaming economy. One of the reasons for its popularity is that it is highly moddable.
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1997: a commercial game, Total Annihilation, is released (by Cavedog Entertainment, led by Chris Taylor). It introduces a lot of concepts such as physically simulated weapons and streaming economy. One of the reasons for its popularity is that it is highly moddable.
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1998: UberHack is created by BraveSirRobin. It is a simple mod for TA with some design changes (like anti-air only targetting planes) and fixes, and becomes a popular base for other modders' work. A lot of standalone units start being created and distributed over the TA community, usually in various unit packs.
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1998: UberHack is created by BraveSirRobin. It is a simple mod for TA with some design changes (like anti-air only targetting planes) and fixes, and becomes a popular base for other modders' work. A lot of standalone units start being created and distributed over the TA community, usually in various unit packs.
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1999: TA Demo Recorder is created by a clan called Swedish Yankspankers. It is basically a mod that allows to record games and play them back (something the retail game lacked).
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1999: TA Demo Recorder is created by a clan called Swedish Yankspankers. It is basically a mod that allows to record games and play them back (something the retail game lacked).
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2001: Swedish Yankspankers figure out that TA has orthogonal camera and no ability to rotate it, which makes TA's 3D world look 2D. They decide to evolve the demo recorder into a 3D engine able to use TA content.
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2001: Swedish Yankspankers figure out that TA has orthogonal camera and no ability to rotate it, which makes TA's 3D world look 2D. They decide to evolve the demo recorder into a 3D engine able to use TA content.
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2001: Absolute Annihilation (AA) is created by Caydr. It is a decently popular TA unit pack mod based on UberHack.
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2001: Absolute Annihilation (AA) is created by Caydr. It is a decently popular TA unit pack mod based on UberHack.
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2004: first public release of Swedish Yankspankers' engine, by this time called TASpring (which eventually became just Spring). There's a separate infrastructure from TA (including a lobby server that makes it easy to play different mods). AA is ported to Spring and becomes the #1 most popular mod there. People learn about Spring from TA communities.
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2004: first public release of Swedish Yankspankers' engine, by this time called TASpring (which eventually became just Spring). There's a separate infrastructure from TA (including a lobby server that makes it easy to play different mods). AA is ported to Spring and becomes the #1 most popular mod there. People learn about Spring from TA communities.
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2006(
ish)
:
Balanced
Annihilation
(
BA)
is
forked
from
AA
(
by
Noize)
,
focusing
on
competitive
1v1
play.
Also
quickly
becomes
the
#1
mod
because
the
author
of
AA
left.
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2006(
ish)
:
Balanced
Annihilation
(
BA)
is
forked
from
AA
(
by
@DayWalkeR
and
Noize)
,
focusing
on
competitive
1v1
play.
Also
quickly
becomes
the
#1
mod
because
the
author
of
AA
left.
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2007: @Saktoth is amazed after some noob pwns him in 1v1 BA with 1 Dart by driving around his factory. "Wow, you can do that!?". Decides to make a mod where physical unit interactions are important, forking BA to create Complete Annihilation (CA), and gathers a bunch of enthusiastic players to help (these are just Spring players he met in the lobby, mostly). @[LCC]quantum[0K] helps with game design (they come up with the idea of unit roles and balancing guidelines to keep units unique); @Licho creates autohosts that ease keeping the mod played and @detrino designs an update system which automatically downloads game updates, which allows very quick development. @[LCC]jK creates the GUI framework and @CarRepairer creates GUI. @Histidine (aka KingRaptor) contributes in all areas. CA is where ZK really got its identity.
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2007: @Saktoth is amazed after some noob pwns him in 1v1 BA with 1 Dart by driving around his factory. "Wow, you can do that!?". Decides to make a mod where physical unit interactions are important, forking BA to create Complete Annihilation (CA), and gathers a bunch of enthusiastic players to help (these are just Spring players he met in the lobby, mostly). @[LCC]quantum[0K] helps with game design (they come up with the idea of unit roles and balancing guidelines to keep units unique); @Licho creates autohosts that ease keeping the mod played and @detrino designs an update system which automatically downloads game updates, which allows very quick development. @[LCC]jK creates the GUI framework and @CarRepairer creates GUI. @Histidine (aka KingRaptor) contributes in all areas. CA is where ZK really got its identity.
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2010: @GoogleFrog proposes a redesign of CA (merging CA's two factions into one and flattening the tech tree, alongside the needed factory changes). This becomes ZK. @Licho creates further infrastructure (website, later on the server) which lets ZK become a standalone game.
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2010: @GoogleFrog proposes a redesign of CA (merging CA's two factions into one and flattening the tech tree, alongside the needed factory changes). This becomes ZK. @Licho creates further infrastructure (website, later on the server) which lets ZK become a standalone game.
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