Noesis Interactive's Mod Your World series is a line of DVDs designed to train would-be Half-Life 2 modders in everything from basic model manipulation to advanced character animation. Like the Gnomon Workshop series of videos, Mod Your World presents a full view of the teacher's desktop, allowing you to follow along and rewind for further instruction.

I ran into Noesis at this year's Game Developers Conference. As it turns out, it was there that the young company struck a distribution deal that will see the Mod Your World series loaded onto store shelves stores around the country. The series can already be found on Valve's online store, as well as the Noesis homepage.

Sitting down to talk with Noesis co-founder Case Noland, I was ready for a shill session. To my relief, Noland is a nice, genuinely enthusiastic guy, who actually started out modding for Duke Nukem 3D. We talked about the mod community, Microsoft's XNA platform, and Noesis' future plans.

Shack: How did Noesis get started?

Case Noland: A partner of mine, Antonio Govela, had a school master's program in [the 3D rendering tool] Softimage|XSI. As a way to kind of get kids engaged in the school, he started doing modding for a couple games, including Half-Life 2. And that kind of took off and became one of the most popular things about the school. So he decided that this is really something that a lot of people are into, and ended up moving to Santa Cruz, California. I worked for a post production company, doing a lot of DVDs and some production for featurettes, and a lot of video and audio work. But we decided that [modding] was a pretty fun thing. We'd both been gamers for a long time, and I had done a little bit of modding in the past, so--

Shack: I read on the back of this box that you were into some Duke Nukem stuff?

Case Noland: Yeah, that was kind of my first experiment, doing some mod group levels and stuff like that with different mod teams. We never actually released anything that got huge, but we had a pretty good fan following. We really tried to push the limits, a lot of huge levels that ran really slow on a lot of computers. But that was kind of the most fun stuff to do, just making things split and explode and change as you were going along.

Shack: Cool. So when was Noesis officially founded?

Case Noland: So Noesis started just about a year--just over a year ago now. It was kind of slow rolling at the beginning. The company I was working for--Leftcoast Digital--kind of established Noesis as a sister company, and we've kind of independently produced through them, so we haven't had to go outside yet. And we've just been kind of picking up steam.

Shack: How big is the team right now?

Case Noland: It's still a pretty small group. I think--let's see--well, I can count em. We're up to about 8 guys right now, doing various things from creating tutorials. We have some outside developers who do a lot of work for us.

Shack: Are you familiar with the Gnomon Workshop series of videos?

Case Noland: Yeah, completely. My other job here is definitely more in the more special effects, post-production world. Yeah, they're really great for people who want to get further into film.

Shack: Your videos reminded me of them. They both seem very similar in terms of production.

Case Noland: Yeah, there's a couple of other tutorial companies out there. They mainly focus on a lot of 3D stuff, but it's all really film oriented, not game oriented. And you know, the gaming industry is becoming massive, and with the whole web 2.0 thing, everyone just wants to create their own stuff. With Valve, these tools are freely available if you buy any of their games. For $20, you can basically use their engine to start bolstering your portfolio.

Shack: So do you think most modders out there now are doing it from a career-oriented perspective, or do you see a strong hobbyist community still plugging away?

Case Noland: I think it's split. There's plenty of people out there, especially on the level design side which is where I started, that just want to create a few maps that them and their friends can play. A lot of these like Killbox have really caught on. Maybe they're moving on in the industry now, but it started off as a hobby.

Ultimately, when there's 1000 people in the room applying at Valve, those guys are interested in seeing the kind of stuff you're able to accomplish. So it's a great resume builder as well. We kind of go after both crowds, but if you want to get into game development, it's definitely the way to go.

Shack: One of the downsides to a talented mod community is that the modders don't stick around very long--they tend to get noticed and picked up by companies.

Case Noland: The whole gaming industry is, and it's been said a good amount, but it's becoming more and more like Hollywood. I guess that's what Microsoft is trying to do with XNA, is try to give indie developers--and most of those guys come out of modding groups and stuff--the opportunity to create for the large platforms. And I think that's become more possible, at least to get the ideas off the ground. Now to publish a game, it's still costing like $50-60 million. You really have to get in with the big publishers. Hopefully with the GarageGames initiative, and people playing more games online, they'll have more choices. You know, you'll be able to kind of direct the industry with the wallets, and with what you're playing, so that [the big companies] will pick up the smaller independent guys.

Shack: Do you think there is a need for more independent distribution venues for mods/independent games?

Case Noland: Yeah, you know, Microsoft announced their sandbox [XNA], which again on the surface is a good idea, but it's Microsoft. [Laughs] So I definitely think there are more avenues for independent websites, or something where you can go and check out the latest releases by indie developers. If those sites start getting traffic and these big companies take notice of what's getting played on them, I think it'll be a good shift for the game industry.

Read on as Case explains Noesis' relationship with Valve, his company's future plans, and his advice to those intimidated by modding. _PAGE_BREAK_

Shack: What's your relationship with Valve been like?

Case Noland: It's been pretty good. I guess they're notoriously a little hard to work with, because they've got a really good thing going and they know how to get it done, so they kind of have their own objectives. Kind of by coincidence, we've had a really good relationship with Softimage|XSI, and they've had a good relationship with Valve, working with them to produce the character animations for Half-Life 2. So we got some introductions there and told [Valve] what we were working on. They basically said, "Sounds interesting, can't take any time out of our schedule, why don't you just try it?" So that's what we did.

We did the first couple of products, and they helped us out get some assets, not really doing any publicity or anything. They've supported us by just sort of pointing us in the right direction I guess. And then as we had some products available, they did some testing and review, liked what they saw, and they've been giving us more support since. They're actually selling [the DVDs] on their site, we're one of the top sellers on their store. They're realizing the potential, and you know, modding has kind of kept a lot of their games alive for so long.

Shack: I'm surprised nobody's done this before.

Case Noland: That's kind of what we thought. We were surprised to see that we were really the only people doing it. A lot of the problem in the industry is people are kind of scared to get into it. There's a little bit of a fear factor that we have to get over with a certain audience, but that's kind of been our struggle--making sure that we're being accessible to as many people as we can. And usually the audience is really technical, so you don't need to dumb it down too much.

Shack: Have you considered expanding to cover engines other than Source?

Case Noland: Absolutely. Our goal is to develop a product line that makes sense for an engine--Source--and try to cover a lot of different areas that people are interested in. Then basically replicate that kind of family-line mentality for other games. We're actually working right now with Softimage and the XNA platform, and we're really excited about the potential there. And we've also been looking at the Epic and Unreal 3 engine. Their release schedule is a little ways off, but we'll definitely have some Unreal 2007 stuff going on with Unreal ED. And maybe even a little more into the engine if we can fanagle it.

Everyone around here's into gaming, so we look at what we like to play, and what's easily accessible, and what's not. So the Call of Duty series is popular around here, and with the new one coming out, I'm sure that'll be something we look into. And maybe something even a little bit less shooter, like Second Life.

Shack: Second Life isn't a bad idea, considering the entire game is about working with mod tools.

Case Noland: Those games are evolving so quickly. From being able to do importing from more robust aps, to doing easy stuff in Poser. A lot of different initiatives we're hoping to get out this year.

Shack: Any plans to get your tutorials up on an online distribution service like Steam?

Case Noland: Yeah, definitely. We have a bunch of compression stuff going on as we speak, just figuring out what kind of compressors give us the best option. We're workin' to get into Steam, going through that process. Then ultimately using all of those versions just to do downloads straight off our site or our affiliate's site.

Shack: How much are you paying attention to the community feedback in terms of the topics you cover in future tutorials?

Case Noland: When we started one of our core things was making sure we were focused on community feedback. We're hoping to do a revamp of our website real soon. We were pretty sure up front it wasn't going to be the biggest forum, but we did want people to give feedback easily and give feedback to each other. The overall response has been overwhelmingly positive. We're growing our library of free tutorials, little things that we might not build a disc around. But our topics people are discussing on other forums to see what kind of topics come up. That community support is part of the whole independent game spirit. We try to make sure we're a part of the community.

Shack: Any favorite mods you've been playing lately?

Case Noland: Oh man, we just did the Mod DB awards not too long ago. Everyone was voting on their favorite. To pick a favorite right here, I might be letting somebody down. As far as mainstream ones, I was a big Team Fortress player. I'm really looking forward to Team Fortress 2. We're already planning our after-work-hours sessions.

Shack: So what would you say to someone who has a good idea for a mod, but has never touched a 3D program?

Case Noland: Right, I think intimidation is a problem. And I just say to them, if you have a pretty clear idea of where you want to go, there are simpler routes to get there, that we can help streamline. These 3D programs have so much built into them that is possible, for film, for games, all kinds of different stuff. If you are able to streamline that process, distill it down to, "Okay we need to create what assets? For a character, for a level? And then how should each of those assets act?"

I would say don't be intimidated. If you're not a great artist, you could download models online and tweak them, or you can use reference images to create objects. That's what we use a lot in tutorials, just to help people along. Give them a couple images to follow, trace this, create some curves, extrude, and you get something that looks pretty good. And then if you're not a coder, don't worry either, because these engines are so robust that you can use the built-in features to start and kind of learn as much as you want.

Shack: Anything you want to add?

Case Noland: Any feedback is great. We're all gamers, we all have our own ideas about what makes a good game, and what makes a good mod. If anyone else has any other opinions, we'd just like to hear them. We want to get more people involved. If there are any of your readers are modders right now and have a great idea, we're trying to expand pretty aggressively, so we'd love to hear from them.

Think the mod you play is under-appreciated? Have some feedback you need to get off your chest? Want to give me some Smash Bros. tips? Nick@Shacknews.com