List of video games derived from mods
This is a list of standalone video games that have been ported from a modification of another video game, and/or that are entirely based on a modification of another video game. A game is considered standalone when it does not require the purchase or installation of any other game in order to run.
List
Game | Original dependency | Mod release | Standalone | Notes |
0 A.D. | Age of Empires II | 2000 | 2 April 2010 | The standalone version is under development by Wildfire Games and using the Pyrogenesis engine. |
Alien Swarm | Unreal Tournament 2004 | 28 May 2004 | 19 July 2010 | The standalone version was developed by Valve and ported to the Source engine. |
' | Unreal Tournament 3 | 20 October 2008 | 1 October 2015 | |
Antichamber | Unreal Tournament 3 | 2009 | 31 January 2013 | The mod was originally known as Hazard: The Journey of Life. |
Auto Chess | Dota 2 | January 4, 2019 | May 30, 2019 | The standalone remake of the Dota Auto Chess mod from within Dota 2, developed by Drodo Studio. |
The Ball | Unreal Tournament 3 | 2008 | 26 October 2010 | |
Black Mesa | Half-Life 2 | 14 September 2012 | 6 March 2020 | The game is the remake of Valve's game Half-Life. |
Chex Quest | Doom | 1996 | A total conversion of The Ultimate Doom, Chex Quest was a Chex cereal promotion aimed at children aged 6–9 and up. It was the first video game ever to be included in cereal boxes as a prize. | |
' | Half-Life 2 | 10 September 2011 | 16 October 2012 | The original mod was called Age of Chivalry. The standalone version did not use the Source Engine like Half-Life 2. Instead, it was developed for Unreal Engine 3. |
Counter-Strike | Half-Life | 19 June 1999 | 8 November 2000 | The game received multiple sequels and a Source Engine remake named '. |
Cry of Fear | Half-Life | 22 February 2012 | 25 April 2013 | |
D-Day: Normandy | Quake II | 2000 | 2002 | |
The Dark Mod | Doom III | 17 October 2009 | 14 April 2013 | Several demo missions were released before the mod was made available, the first of which went up for download on 18 January 2008, nearly two years before the mod was actually released. |
Day of Defeat | Half-Life | 2001 | 1 May 2003 | The game received a Source Engine remake named '. |
Day of Infamy | Insurgency | 16 January 2016 | 23 March 2017 | A WWII remake of Insurgency. |
DayZ | ARMA 2 | 21 February 2013 | 16 December 2013 | The standalone version has been released as a full version on 13 December 2018. |
Dear Esther | Half-Life 2 | 2008 | 14 February 2012 | |
Dota 2 | ' | 2003 | 9 July 2013 | The rights to the original mod were acquired by Valve and a derived standalone game was developed in the Source Engine and later ported to Source 2. |
Falcon BMS | Falcon 4.0 | 2003 | unreleased | The mod is under development by Benchmark Sims. |
Fistful of Frags | Half-Life 2 | 21 December 2007 | 9 May 2014 | |
Garry's Mod | Half-Life 2 | 24 December 2004 | 29 November 2006 | The standalone release originally required that the player own a game made by Valve that runs on the Source engine; this requirement was later dropped as assets for Half-Life 2 are now included with the game. |
Gunman Chronicles | Half-Life | 20 November 2000 | The mod was originally under development for the Quake engine, but switched twice: first to the Quake II engine and finally to GoldSrc, the engine used by Half-Life, which it remained using for its standalone release. | |
Hacx: Twitch 'n Kill | Doom II | September 1997 | 9 October 2010 | |
Half-Life: Threewave | Quake | 1996 | unreleased | The creator of the original Threewave CTF mod Dave "Zoid" Kirsch was hired by Valve to port it to the GoldSrc engine. However, the game was never released, and its unfinished code was found years later in a leak and polished by community members to allow for public play. |
The Haunted: Hell's Reach | Unreal Tournament 3 | 2010 | 25 October 2011 | |
Heroes of the Storm | StarCraft II | 2010 | June 2, 2015 | The game originated as a custom map called Blizzard DOTA, as a part of the arcade feature for . |
' | Half-Life 2 | 2007 | January 22, 2014 | |
Killing Floor | Unreal Tournament 2004 | 2005 | 14 May 2009 | The game received a sequel in 2015. |
Natural Selection 2 | Half-Life | 31 October 2002 | 31 October 2012 | Natural Selection 2 is a sequel to the original mod named Natural Selection. |
Nexuiz | Quake | 2001 | 31 May 2005 | The game received a sequel with the same name by IllFonic and the project was forked by its community and renamed Xonotic. |
No More Room in Hell | Half-Life 2 | 31 October 2011 | 31 October 2013 | |
Nuclear Dawn | Half-Life 2 | 26 September 2011 | ||
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds | ARMA 3 | 9 April 2015 | 20 December 2017 | |
Project Reality: BF2 | Battlefield 2 | 8 July 2005 | 30 May 2015 | A sequel was announced in 2009 based initially on C4 Engine then shifted to CryEngine 3 but was never released. On October 10, 2014 Project Reality:BF2 developers announced Squad, based on Unreal Engine 4, which is still in early access. |
Red Alert: A Path Beyond | ' | 29 July 2004 | 14 September 2007 | Original mod was called Renegade Alert. |
' | Unreal Tournament 2003 | 10 October 2003 | 14 March 2006 | The original mod was called '. The game has also received. |
Renegade X | Unreal Tournament 3 | September 2009 | 28 January 2012 26 February 2016. | The game has not been fully released. |
Smokin' Guns | Quake III Arena | 2001 | 5 January 2009 | Smokin' Guns was originally developed by Iron Claw Interactive under the name Western Quake 3 until 2005. A new team, going under the name of Smokin' Guns Productions, released Smokin' Guns 1.0 as a standalone version based on the open-source Quake III engine in January 2009. |
The Stanley Parable | Half-Life 2 | 31 July 2011 | 17 October 2013 | |
Sven Co-op | Half-Life | 19 January 1999 | 22 January 2016 | This game had the longest delay between its mod release and its standalone release compared to all other games on this list: just over seventeen years. |
' | Unreal Tournament | 23 December 1999 | 24 April 2002 | |
Team Fortress Classic | Quake | 1996 | 7 April 1999 | The original mod was a mod for Quake, but it was acquired by Valve and ported to GoldSrc for its standalone release as Team Fortress Classic. The game has also received a sequel. |
Tiberian Sun Reborn | ' | 2008 | 1 June 2013 | Original mod was called CnC Reborn. |
Tower Unite | Garry's Mod | 7 July 2009 | 8 April 2016 | Tower Unite is the standalone version of GMod Tower by Pixeltail Games, which was a mod for Garry's Mod. Garry's Mod, in turn, was a mod for Half-Life 2. |
Tremulous | Quake III Arena | 11 August 2005 | 31 March 2006 | Inspired by the Quake II modification Gloom, which also features alien vs human teams with distinct user classes. Following the release of the Quake III Arena source code under the GPL on August 19, 2005, the developers decided to rework Tremulous into a standalone, free and open source game. |
Urban Terror | Quake III Arena | September 1999 | April 2007 | Urban Terror is a freeware multiplayer first-person shooter total conversion of id Software's Quake III Arena. Released as a free standalone game in 2007 utilizing ioquake3. While the engine is open source, Urban Terror's assets and code are closed source. |
The Wastes | Half-Life | 12 April 2000 3 June 2003 | 12 April 2018 | Began as a modification for the game Half-Life titled Wasteland Half-Life created in the year 2000. The mod would change the name to The Wastes sometime in the year 2002. |
Wings of Dawn | Freespace 2 | 8 April 2015 | ||
World of Padman | Quake III Arena | 19 June 2004 | 1 April 2007 | Began as modification for the game Quake III Arena titled PadMod created in the year 2004. After the source code for Quake III Arena was released, the game became standalone. The idea is based on the Padman comic strip for the magazine PlayStation Games created by the professional cartoon artist Andreas 'ENTE' Endres, who is also the man who made many of the maps included with the game in 1998. Later versions run on an enhanced version of the ioquake3 engine. |
Wreckage | Crysis Warhead | 22 December 2011 | 4 May 2012 | |
' | Quake | 30 November 1997 | 2006 | Despite being officially licensed by Marvel Comics, the game required Quake to be installed in order to play. In 2006, it was released as freeware and modified to not require Quake. |