Hello All, I apologize for my first post being one seeking consultation, however here goes: I am looking into the idea of making a Half Life 2 Mod (or similar) where players load their account with real money, and on being killed a token amount (10 cents?) is transferred to the player who killed them. This would add a level of excitement to the game. I know this has been done before, Kwari for example, which didn't go down well. But I would put this on the poor graphics, and game play more than the idea. I have little knowledge of programming, and so I am looking for advice on feasibility. Also, so you know this is not a pipe dream I earn roughly $5 million per year and would be financing this venture myself. One question I have is would the Half Life Mod allow to incorporate a secure, billing system? Or is it too closed up. Open for advice, and criticism of the idea. Thanks for your time.

My immediate thought: if you thought cheaters were bad enough in multiplayer FPSes, image what it will be like when money is on the line.

Yep that would be a concern. Another is laws relating to online gambling, though Kwari seemed to get round them.

Thanks

A half-life mod consists of a C++ DLL running on the server, and one running on the client.
There's no (technical) reason why the server DLL couldn't open up a SSL (or other secure connection) to a central transaction server to report game-statistics, which could later be processed into monetary transactions.

Obviously with cash involved, people are going to try and game the system, such as running their own hacked servers and pretending to kill people, etc... so you'd probably have to make the game client connect to this central secure server and report their version of the game-statistics as well so that you can detect any data discrepancies (such as a server reporting stats on a player who isn't actually playing!).
Alternatively, you could not publicly release the server-DLL and just run your own game-servers privately, which would reduce the amount of effort required to keep fake game-stats being uploaded. Obviously this would drastically increase operational costs though.

Quote: Original post by Hodgman
A half-life mod consists of a C++ DLL running on the server, and one running on the client.
There's no (technical) reason why the server DLL couldn't open up a SSL (or other secure connection) to the server to report game-statistics, which could later be processed by your own private money-transaction server.

Obviously with cash involved, people are going to try and game the system, such as running their own hacked servers and pretending to kill people, etc... so you'd probably have to make the game client connect to this central secure server and report their version of the game-statistics as well so that you can detect any data discrepancies (such as a server reporting stats on a player who isn't actually playing!).

Yeh, good advice.

And is it free to create a HL mod? Do I need an agreement with Valve? How does the ground lie there?

Apart from the technical issues for cheating, there's also social ones that you'd need to address. For example, it would be dangerous to allow people to choose their own matches, as there'd be nothing to stop a team of people to collude in working together.

There's also legal issues: if you were to mod an existing game, you'd need to contact the dev team and publisher to check whether it's okay to make money off of their game.

Edit: didn't see your last post. I'd check the TOS of Half-Life 2, but I'd be contacting Valve to see it's okay regardless. Obviously you'd be needing a lawyer to check everything's tight before going too far with this regardless; this is the sort of thing that you want an iron-clad legal agreement for everyone involved before going live.

I am pretty sure all HL modes must be for non-commercial purpose. Aka, valve will not like this idea on bit...

Quote: Original post by Koobazaur
I am pretty sure all HL modes must be for non-commercial purpose. Aka, valve will not like this idea on bit...

There's the clanger, I'll look into that... However what other engines are there?

And how much harder is it to develop from scratch?

As Koobazaur says, Valve's game engine and modding tools are for non-commercial use only. You would need to get a license from Valve to use it for commercial purposes which would require either a big up front payment or a 50% back end royalty. - either way a big dent in your project.

Also, as others have pointed out, cheats would very quickly ruin your project.

Quote: Original post by Obscure
As Koobazaur says, Valve's game engine and modding tools are for non-commercial use only. You would need to get a license from Valve to use it for commercial purposes which would require either a big up front payment or a 50% back end royalty. - either way a big dent in your project.

Also, as others have pointed out, cheats would very quickly ruin your project.

Ok thanks. This is fast being shot down, with logic... Though are there any other engines similar to Valves?

If not how hard to develop my own? And how much would it cost, $1, $2 million etc.

** Edit **

... Just doing more research and saw this open source engine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Tech_3

Any comments?