Hello Mr. Coomer,
My name is Kevin Whipp, and I am following up to a conversation I had with you under the alias "KGtheway2B" a while back on Steam friends. As I recall, we informally discussed the possible addition of a third party trailer to Steam Media. I had put the thought on the backburners while we were busy preparing ourselves for another release. Now, as our release is nearing completion with only some nagging Linux server issues remaining I thought I might as well inquire whether or not this is still something Valve feels is possible. If implementing something (in the wiki or elsewhere) to provide fair access for other mods is something that has to be completed this isn't a problem, however on behalf of our team we would be greatly appreciative to be the first third-party mod to be featured in Steam Media.
Here is a link to our proposed trailer.
http://www.sourcefortsmod.com/downloads/videos/SourceForts-Trailer_High.avi
Following is perhaps some explanation as to why our game may warrant some added exposure:
Some facts:
- Our modification is known as SourceForts, we have a website located at www.sourcefortsmod.com
- As of the writing of this message the "Steam Network Status" page reports that we have 1.370 million player minutes per month, not an exorbitant amount but obviously an indication of the potential of our mod.
- A previous version of our mod, SourceForts 1.9.0 was awarded thirteenth place in the Mod Database Mod of the Year award show of 2006 despite the small amount of additional media. Awards list: http://features.moddb.com/218/mods-of-2005/?fpage=1
- A long standing, and one of the first mods for Halflife 2, SourceForts first released on February 25th 2005 and has not "died off" since that time.
- Implementation of Capture the Flag in version 1.3.1 marked the first time a Source mod used the common and popular gameplay.
Now, onto our mod itself:
SourceForts takes the traditional capture-the-flag gameplay and adds a major twist: players must build a fort to deter would-be flag thieves .
It was one of the first, and is one of the few games that takes physics into vital gameplay elements; without building any protection, assailants will make short work of the open and available flag.
Teamplay is an important factor, without players working together the defensive properties of the built structures often suffers.
The mod has a large competitive potential, there are already a good dozen clans despite the fact that our website based league is not currently in working order.
Our next version, SourceForts 1.9.2, will address some minor bugs found in our 1.9.1 version and will be vigorously beta-tested prior to release to ensure that the game will run smooth and be enjoyable to all; this release will also bring about a fully functioning league. With SourceForts 1.9.2 released, our development team, Aduro Studios, will, hopefully, be free to continue development on version 2.0 of SourceForts. This somewhat large departure from the 1.9.x release of our mod will involve a great amount of media not previously seen. We plan to use almost entirely new weapon and player models and will implement some new gametypes that fit well with our "fort-building" gameplay.
The greatest reason we would love the added exposure is because of the fact that our mod is one of those things that doesn't really look impressive when viewing screenshots but has a very intuitive and greatly fun manner of play. It provides a refreshing change from traditional shooters while feeling instantly familiar: new players almost instantly comprehend what is going on and yet the intricately balanced combat paired real time fort destruction and repair keeps even experienced players interested and entertained.
I, on behalf of Aduro Studios hope that you take our request into consideration and thank you for your time.
Respectfully,
-Kevin Whipp
(KGtheway2B)