GLadOS rocks!!!!!!

I thought it was about time to ask Garry some questions about how Garrysmod is getting on, some plans for the future and a few other things. So here’s a chatty kind of interview thing.

Icemaz: Thanks for giving us the opportunity to ask us a few questions and taking the time out to do so. The big change that’s happened over the past year for Garrysmod itself was of course Toybox, are you happy with the way that has turned out so far and how well do you think the community is utilising those features it brings?

Garry: Yeah I’m pretty happy with Toybox. Part of me wishes that more people would make entities and stuff – but part of me wants it to stay the way it is. Right now the people who can figure out how to make them are the people that kind of know what they’re doing. It’s probably best to leave it like that.

I am surprised that we haven’t really seen people pushing the edges of what’s on there. Like making tools and things. The scope of what could be on there is huge compared to what is there.

Icemaz: Another thing is when someone makes something and puts it online, they still use Garrysmod.org link as the main download in their forum posts and don’t really mention it being on Toybox. You mentioned that when Toybox was released you wanted Garrysmod.org to become redundant, is this still the way you’d like to go or do you think it’s better to keep them both as they are now?

Garry: I do want to look into making toybox addons downloadable and installed sometime in the near future. I want all of Garry’s Mod addons, maps, gamemodes etc to all be on the cloud.

Icemaz: The other thing this year which was big for Garrysmod was the release of the Mac version of Garrysmod in line with the Source Engine being updated for Mac. Do you think this was completely successful?

Garry: Sure it was. It didn’t take any extra time to do – compiling for Mac is built into the engine. There were a few special cases where my code wasn’t compatible or I had to change a few things to make it work.. but other than that it’s gone well. The only change in day to day stuff is that I have to compile for Mac before each update. This isn’t a big deal, it’s just a script I run.

Sales-wise I don’t think the Mac sales have been huge. They don’t eclipse the PC sales for instance. But they’ve made it worth doing.

Icemaz: In fact generally I think this year has been one of the biggest years for Garrysmod updates, in not just things like Toybox but new content being added such as L4D, HL NPC’s and the Sourcemod content as well as a good amount of bug fixing. The amount of updates which you give Garrysmod which add new things is quite incredible considering you first released to Steam nearing on 5 years ago, and the communities response must be rewarding. Are you planning to keep Garrysmod updates as frequent and substantial whilst you work on other projects?

Garry: Yeah. Garry’s Mod is still giving me my living so I need to give it back just as much as it gives me. I’m going to be working on Garry’s Mod for as long as the Source Engine is around.

Icemaz: Do you have any big new features for Garrysmod in the works?

Garry: Not really. I have big features in my head but I haven’t started work on them yet. Still going through the list of bugs and feature requests. I don’t like to talk about ideas I have.. just incase I don’t do them.

Icemaz: One last question on the topic of Garrysmod, with the undoubted success of the Fretta contest which produced Trouble in Terrorist Town and other great gamemodes, have you considered doing a similar contest thing with a monetary prize or something similar with large amounts of coverage to help motivate those creative juices in the community, or do you feel the community is doing okay at the moment in terms of mod output?

Garry: It has crossed my mind, but the level of work that we had to do to get the Fretta contest going made me want to not do anything like that ever again. The whole thing was hard work.