Modders are the unsung heroes of the gaming industry. Without their creativity, genres like MOBAs (born from RTS mods like StarCraft and Warcraft III), auto battlers (evolving directly from MOBAs such as Dota 2), and even the explosive Battle Royale genre (thanks to an ARMA 2 mod) wouldn't exist. That's why Valve's recent announcement is such fantastic news for the gaming community.
Valve has updated its Source SDK, generously including the complete Team Fortress 2 codebase. This empowers modders to build upon Valve's established framework, creating entirely new games. While the license requires these creations and their content to remain free, history shows that successful, freely available projects often pave the way for commercially viable iterations.
Furthermore, Valve has released a significant update for all Source engine multiplayer games. This update introduces support for 64-bit executables, a scalable UI and HUD, crucial fixes for client-side prediction issues, and a host of other improvements.
This is a monumental day for modders, and we eagerly anticipate the innovative and groundbreaking games that will undoubtedly emerge from this opportunity.