5 votes

What are your favorite custom games?

Posted by pekt
Tags: ask.discussion, games.custom, personal

Custom games/game modes/rulesets give gamers the ability to enjoy some games nearly infinitely. Gary's Mod, Rust, Minecraft, Robolox, Fortnite, and many others keep people coming back as people create new ways to play.
When I was younger I played a ton of Warcraft 3 custom games. I remember there being a solid ~2 years when that was almost entirely what I would play whenever I was able to use the computer and then another 3-4 years after where I would play at least a couple of times a week.

I remember loving custom games like:

  • Defense of the Ancients (DotA)
  • Island Troll Tribes (also Jungle Troll Tribes to a lesser extent)
  • Risk (and it's many versions)
  • Wintermaul and Wintermaul wars (along with all the other tower defense and tower defense wars)
  • Vamperism
  • Pest Control
  • Many others as this list would drag on

I remember chatting with a lot of interesting people, though I didn't have any friendships I made move past Warcraft 3 in to other games.

I know there are many other games with custom games or customer game modes that the community developed, with DotA 2 coming full circle from being the sequel to a custom game to having custom games of its own.

To get the conversation going:

  • What games had your favorite custom games?
  • What custom games were your favorite?
  • Did you make or contribute to any custom games?
  • Any favorite memories?

8 comments

  1. [2]
    first-must-burn
    Link
    One time I bought a 3D pinball game, and it came with an OS. The pinball game was just so-so, but I customized the heck out of the operating system. I used that thing every day for years.

    One time I bought a 3D pinball game, and it came with an OS. The pinball game was just so-so, but I customized the heck out of the operating system. I used that thing every day for years.

    3 votes
    1. goose
      Link Parent
      Bringing me back to the days of Snood and Bonzi Buddy!

      Bringing me back to the days of Snood and Bonzi Buddy!

      1 vote
  2. DFGdanger
    Link
    StarCraft Brood War Fastest Possible Map: Your base spawns right next to (touching) a bunch of minerals stacked on top of eachother, and a bunch of vespene geysers semi-stacked closeby. Lets you...

    StarCraft Brood War

    • Fastest Possible Map: Your base spawns right next to (touching) a bunch of minerals stacked on top of eachother, and a bunch of vespene geysers semi-stacked closeby. Lets you mine crazy fast off 1 base as the workers don't have to spend any time moving.
    • Penguin Warz: You spawn zealots in your base, get currency for killing enemies. You can spend currency on "hero" units (no XP or special abilities really just buffed HP and attack). The zergling can really quickly mow through zealots, the hero zealot can beat the zergling and kind of camouflages in with the free spawn ones. Then there are a bunch more.
    • Cannon Defense: typical tower defense game but used some weird glitch to add fog of war over your own stuff and let you build cannons on top of each other.

    WarCraft 3

    • Footmen Frenzy: pretty similar idea to Penuin Warz except with custom WC3 heroes. Could upgrade the spawning units.

    Halo 3

    • Rocket Race: Teams of two (a driver and a passenger with a rocket launcher and unlimited ammo) drive a mongoose (atv) around with invincibility and try to get to the checkpoint before the other teams do.

    Halo Reach

    • Infection: One player spawns as a "zombie" with fast movement, no shields, and an energy sword and has to kill the human players (who have pistols and shotguns), who will then respawn on the zombie team...until all the humans are gone.

    Celeste

    • Loopy Lagoon: One of the maps from the Strawberry Jam mod. It adds these "cereal blocks" that are really fun to interact with, flinging you far.
    • Strawberry Orchard: you have to carry a jar of jam with you through the level similar to carrying Theo. You can throw it into glass tubes and bounce along with springs and catch it as it comes out the other side.
    • Square the Circle: Cool neon aesthetic, cool use of red bubbles spinning against moving kevin blocks
    2 votes
  3. [2]
    Shevanel
    Link
    I’m on mobile and can’t find the link to my old comment at the moment, but I’ve posted on Tildes before about the world of DOOM WADs, aka downloading free user-created maps and levels for a lot of...

    I’m on mobile and can’t find the link to my old comment at the moment, but I’ve posted on Tildes before about the world of DOOM WADs, aka downloading free user-created maps and levels for a lot of the old id2 engine games from the early-mid 90s. It requires a healthy bit of tinkering to get everything playing nicely, but there is a TON of content out there for free (if you own the original game files that are needed to run the mods). Some play just like old DOOM games, some might as well be entirely new games in and of themselves, like Ashes 2063 and Castlevania: Simon’s Destiny. If anyone is interested in learning more about how to do this, I’d be happy to help get them set up!

    Ninja edit: Selaco is a modern (paid) DOOM WAD taken to the extreme - an entirely new game built off the same engine. The devs just chose to charge for this one (and I don’t blame them) vs. many other free offerings.

    2 votes
    1. pekt
      Link Parent
      Huge fan of DOOM WADS, I made a post about it awhile ago. I actually got the popular DOOM source port for Android Delta Touch but then quickly realized I never picked up mobile controls for FPS...

      Huge fan of DOOM WADS, I made a post about it awhile ago.

      I actually got the popular DOOM source port for Android Delta Touch but then quickly realized I never picked up mobile controls for FPS games and haven't spent the time getting used it.

      I'm a Chocolate DOOM guy usually, but I've been thinking about diving down the rabbit hole of all the DOOM Wads. A great list for people looking to try some WADs out and for some history: https://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/

  4. [2]
    goose
    Link
    The Age of Empires 2 custom maps. The only one I can clearly remember is "Castle Blood", but there were many others that were also tremendous fun. I also spent a fair amount of time in the various...

    The Age of Empires 2 custom maps. The only one I can clearly remember is "Castle Blood", but there were many others that were also tremendous fun.

    I also spent a fair amount of time in the various arcade modes on StarCraft 2, once upon a time.

    1 vote
    1. pekt
      Link Parent
      I don't think I ever tried Age of Empires 2, though I was a bit too young when I played it to think to go look for them. I never got back in to AoE2, but I have friends who still play regularly....

      I don't think I ever tried Age of Empires 2, though I was a bit too young when I played it to think to go look for them. I never got back in to AoE2, but I have friends who still play regularly.

      That made me think that I never got in to custom campaigns for Warcraft 3 either and there's probably a whole wealth of content I missed out on there.

      1 vote
  5. PraiseTheSoup
    Link
    We had a custom mode for Halo 3 lan parties called TTT: Take the Tower. It was only playable on the Ascension map. You could add a turret to the tower on one side and I think it used modified...

    We had a custom mode for Halo 3 lan parties called TTT: Take the Tower. It was only playable on the Ascension map. You could add a turret to the tower on one side and I think it used modified juggernaut rules so 1 player spawned in the tower and the rest of the players all had to assault the tower but they had no shields and were easily picked off by the turret. It was great fun.

    For Warcraft 3 I enjoyed all the previously mentioned maps as well as some of my favorites like
    -Hero Line Wars
    -X Hero Siege
    -Uther Party
    -Enfos

    Warcraft 3 is in my top three all time games and it's an atrocity what blizzard did to it with that piece of garbage they call "reforged".