Modders Helped Deliver Second Wave to XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was one of the most lauded video games of 2012 and the team working on it at Firaxis wants to keep it relevant in the new year by launching a piece of free downloadable content called Second Wave, with more on the way.

Jake Solomon, the leader of the team that created the turn-based tactical experience, believes that modders, who dug up the options in Second Wave soon after launch, were very helpful in the actual development of the DLC.

He is quoted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun as saying, “I’m thrilled by that kind of stuff, it doesn’t bother me at all. We were all kind of laughing about it, they found it so quickly. I had to go back, because I hadn’t balanced them, some of them were broken and didn’t work.”

Firaxis actually used the mod in order to start the creation of the DLC and quickly understand what needed to be fixed and what part of the content already worked well enough for launch.

This sped up development and gave the team more time to focus on those aspects of Second Wave that were not up to standard.

Solomon adds, “The idea for Second Wave came about really, really late in the project – well past alpha, well past beta probably.”

With the new DLC, players can choose from a number of new options that add more variety to XCOM: Enemy Unknown and bring the experience closer to that offered by the classic game on which it is based.

Pretty much the same enhancements were offered by curious modders less than one entire week after the game was launched.

Solomon also says that the team plans to give gamers more content in the near future, presumably missions built around a scenario that plays out similar to the Slingshot DLC.