I recently had the opportunity to discuss the progress of the popular Doom 3 modification, “The Dark Mod” thus far, with their PR spokesperson, New Horizon.

OMG! PC Games:
Hello New Horizon, thank you for your time. First of all – what are you hoping to accomplish with your modification entitled “The Dark Mod”?

New Horizon:
You're very welcome, and thank you for the opportunity.
With The Dark Mod, our aim is to provide a fully functional toolset for the Thief community so they can create Thief inspired fan missions.


OMG! PC Games:
 So far, how well do you believe you have captured the essence of the ‘Thief’ series that The Dark Mod is influenced by?

New Horizon:
Based on the feedback we received after releasing the Thief's Den alpha map several months ago, I believe we have been very successful in capturing the essence of Thief. With the release of our second Beta Map, Saint Lucia a few days ago, the overall opinion has been that we have truly managed to capture the classic essence of the original games. At the same time, we have made it our own and not copied it exactly. I'm very proud of the team. Whenever I fire up a map, I'm always amazed at how much it truly captures the spirit of the first two games.


OMG! PC Games:
 What are some of the more impressive gameplay features you have implemented thus far, and what do you hope to implement in the future?

New Horizon:
I think the AI would have to be at the top of the list right now. We have had several great programmers working on the AI systems and those pesky AI have truly come alive in the last year. Our coders Angua and Greebo have really given the AI an overhaul. They can use elevators, do pretty much all of the things the original AI do, and are truly becoming formidable foes. As for the future, I think we've implemented almost all key features. Anything that is left would still be core tech, so new tech really isn't the menu at this time.


OMG! PC Games:
We are to understand that The Dark Mod is not actually an unofficial Thief sequel, but is however, a modification that is inspired by the series. Do you have any information about the future plot of the modification?

New Horizon:
Since our goal is to make a toolset, we don't really have a storyline plotted for a campaign, although we have spent considerable time fleshing out a TDM universe on our wiki, so fan mission authors have a reference to the inner workings of the game world.

OMG! PC Games:
Have you picked a name for the main character yet, or are you leaving this up to future level developers for the game?

New Horizon:
I guess we have some names that we toss around internally, but we're not locked into anything for the toolset. Ideally, I think we would like level designers to use their imaginations and come up with their own ideas for who the main character is. Our wiki provides some very detailed information about the TDM universe, so we hope designers pay attention to that and use their imaginations to fill in the gaps.

OMG! PC Games:
Do you plan any multiplayer aspect to the modification, or will this be solely a single player experience?

New Horizon:
Multiplayer is not part of our design platform, as it is a completely different gameplay dynamic. Our goal is to make a focussed, single player toolset. If another team decided to make a multiplayer branch of Dark Mod after we release our source code, I think that would be great.


OMG! PC Games:
Will the modification be open-ended, like Thief 3, or will it be similar to the original Thief in which there are set levels and missions to accomplish?

New Horizon:
Since our modification is a toolset, not a campaign with a storyline, that will be up to future mappers to decide. I'm sure we will see some mini campaigns in the future where missions progress like the original game. We certainly hope that people following the mod are clear that this is a toolset and not a campaign. We have tried to be very clear on this from the start. When the toolset is released, we will package several of our Beta Mappers missions with the mod. After that, there should be enough missions to keep people busy until mappers in the Thief community release something.


OMG! PC Games:
Have you implemented any graphic enhancements, such as Bloom, or are you running solely on the graphical abilities of the original Doom 3 game?

New Horizon:
There is an option for bloom, but we do not support it officially. One coder has contributed a fix to improve Doom 3 ambient lighting, and we have also implimented some graphic tweaks to improve performance on low end systems.


OMG! PC Games:
When are you hoping to release the tool-kit? How about the campaign?

New Horizon:
We really can't say when the toolset will be released, but hopefully sometime in 2009. As for a campaign, I can't really comment on that as we don't have one planned at this time. After five years of development, we may just release the toolset and leave it in the capable hands of the Thief community to come up with a killer campaign. With the never ending stream of talent in the community, I am looking forward to seeing what they do with the tools we have made for them.

To sum up the more important information released in this interview – there is internal debate surrounding the idea of creating an official campaign mission-set following the release. Nothing yet is certain, and regardless, there will be plenty of amateur mappers willing to create a new mission-set, so this news is far from disastrous. 

There will also be an option for bloom, although it will not be officially supported by the team.
New Horizons confirmed what many already assumed was true, and in many cases, idyllic – that there will not be a planned multiplayer mode.

I’m anxiously awaiting the release of this modification personally – and I can’t wait to give Hands on Impression following the release.

If, after reading this interview, you are also wondering about the latest updates regarding the project, why don’t you jump on over to the Dark Mod website?