Author: (CTDP)Dahie

After covering the Timing of your mod release and the File Distribution methods available in our tutorial about how to release a mod, we are going to have a look at the Communication. Obviously this is a very wide topic, so I cover just some basics, you should provide on your release day. Continue reading How to release a mod … 3. Communication

The second part of our tutorial on how to release a mod is about File Distribution methods. In case you haven’t, check out the first part about Introduction and Timing. Continue reading How to release a mod … 2. File Distribution

This is the first part of our tutorial about how to release mods. This part will cover aspects of organisation and project scheduling before your actual release. Continue reading How to release a mod … 1. Timing

Out there are many Tutorials covering the technical side of sim modding. If you want to find something about modeling, mapping, texturing you are sure to find something. Codan gave me the idea, that one tutorial was actually missing, which could be interesting for individuals and especially for novice modding groups facing their first release.
CTDP released their first big mod in 2003 and since then we had a few big releases. Since 2005 I’m coordinating and organizing the releases and follow everything live on release day. When suddenly the homepage changes and a download link pops up, that’s me. I also spoke with mirrors and did alot of the preparation beforehand and I figured, I could share some of these experiences I made during the last years and write a tutorial, about how to successfully release a mod. When you are done with the work, it’s not just uploading the mod somewhere. There are precautions you should think about beforehand.
This is no step-by-step program, but rather a checklist on topics you should cover for your release. I present some of the solutions we apply at CTDP, however those are not carved in stone and they rely on my personal experience. Other groups may do things differently and that’s alright. There is no best way and many differences between modding groups result from differences in release philosophies. This is our philosophy.

A short disclaimer. I’m writing about some communicational aspects especially related to the release dates. I have no intention to be unrespectful or even harmful. Talking about release dates is like talking about a surprise birthday party. You have to bend the rules to make it a surprise. I don’t endorse lieing in any way and on the contrary I think being fair and being respectful towards the community is one of the most important things. And another word about the community. My tutorial generalizes alot! You may not like, that I speak about users in such a generalized form, however there is a differences between one individual user and a faceless-mass of users. I say it again, I have no intention to make anyone feel screwed. 🙂

The topics we are covering in the next few days are these:

1. Timing
   1. Schedule
   2. Have a date and a fallback
   3. Be vague on the dates
   4. Load estimation
2. File Distribution
   1. Organize Mirrors
   2. Alternatives
   3. Leave time for upload
3. Communication
   1. Prepare your news
   2. Be Available
   3. Prepare ways to contact you
4. Release day
   1. Checkup
   2. Packaging
   3. Relax!
   4. One switch
   5. Celebrate!
   6. Aftermath