Noesis Interactive's Mod Your World series is a line of DVDs designed to train would-be Half-Life 2 modders in everything from basic model manipulation to advanced character animation. Like the Gnomon Workshop series of videos, Mod Your World presents a full view of the teacher's desktop, allowing you to follow along and rewind for further instruction.

I ran into Noesis at this year's Game Developers Conference. As it turns out, it was there that the young company struck a distribution deal that will see the Mod Your World series loaded onto store shelves stores around the country. The series can already be found on Valve's online store, as well as the Noesis homepage.

Sitting down to talk with Noesis co-founder Case Noland, I was ready for a shill session. To my relief, Noland is a nice, genuinely enthusiastic guy, who actually started out modding for Duke Nukem 3D. We talked about the mod community, Microsoft's XNA platform, and Noesis' future plans.

Shack: How did Noesis get started?

Case Noland: A partner of mine, Antonio Govela, had a school master's program in [the 3D rendering tool] Softimage|XSI. As a way to kind of get kids engaged in the school, he started doing modding for a couple games, including Half-Life 2. And that kind of took off and became one of the most popular things about the school. So he decided that this is really something that a lot of people are into, and ended up moving to Santa Cruz, California. I worked for a post production company, doing a lot of DVDs and some production for featurettes, and a lot of video and audio work. But we decided that [modding] was a pretty fun thing. We'd both been gamers for a long time, and I had done a little bit of modding in the past, so--

Shack: I read on the back of this box that you were into some Duke Nukem stuff?

Case Noland: Yeah, that was kind of my first experiment, doing some mod group levels and stuff like that with different mod teams. We never actually released anything that got huge, but we had a pretty good fan following. We really tried to push the limits, a lot of huge levels that ran really slow on a lot of computers. But that was kind of the most fun stuff to do, just making things split and explode and change as you were going along.

Shack: Cool. So when was Noesis officially founded?

Case Noland: So Noesis started just about a year--just over a year ago now. It was kind of slow rolling at the beginning. The company I was working for--Leftcoast Digital--kind of established Noesis as a sister company, and we've kind of independently produced through them, so we haven't had to go outside yet. And we've just been kind of picking up steam.

Shack: How big is the team right now?

Case Noland: It's still a pretty small group. I think--let's see--well, I can count em. We're up to about 8 guys right now, doing various things from creating tutorials. We have some outside developers who do a lot of work for us.

Shack: Are you familiar with the Gnomon Workshop series of videos?

Case Noland: Yeah, completely. My other job here is definitely more in the more special effects, post-production world. Yeah, they're really great for people who want to get further into film.

Shack: Your videos reminded me of them. They both seem very similar in terms of production.

Case Noland: Yeah, there's a couple of other tutorial companies out there. They mainly focus on a lot of 3D stuff, but it's all really film oriented, not game oriented. And you know, the gaming industry is becoming massive, and with the whole web 2.0 thing, everyone just wants to create their own stuff. With Valve, these tools are freely available if you buy any of their games. For $20, you can basically use their engine to start bolstering your portfolio.

Shack: So do you think most modders out there now are doing it from a career-oriented perspective, or do you see a strong hobbyist community still plugging away?

Case Noland: I think it's split. There's plenty of people out there, especially on the level design side which is where I started, that just want to create a few maps that them and their friends can play. A lot of these like Killbox have really caught on. Maybe they're moving on in the industry now, but it started off as a hobby.

Ultimately, when there's 1000 people in the room applying at Valve, those guys are interested in seeing the kind of stuff you're able to accomplish. So it's a great resume builder as well. We kind of go after both crowds, but if you want to get into game development, it's definitely the way to go.

Shack: One of the downsides to a talented mod community is that the modders don't stick around very long--they tend to get noticed and picked up by companies.

Case Noland: The whole gaming industry is, and it's been said a good amount, but it's becoming more and more like Hollywood. I guess that's what Microsoft is trying to do with XNA, is try to give indie developers--and most of those guys come out of modding groups and stuff--the opportunity to create for the large platforms. And I think that's become more possible, at least to get the ideas off the ground. Now to publish a game, it's still costing like $50-60 million. You really have to get in with the big publishers. Hopefully with the GarageGames initiative, and people playing more games online, they'll have more choices. You know, you'll be able to kind of direct the industry with the wallets, and with what you're playing, so that [the big companies] will pick up the smaller independent guys.

Shack: Do you think there is a need for more independent distribution venues for mods/independent games?

Case Noland: Yeah, you know, Microsoft announced their sandbox [XNA], which again on the surface is a good idea, but it's Microsoft. [Laughs] So I definitely think there are more avenues for independent websites, or something where you can go and check out the latest releases by indie developers. If those sites start getting traffic and these big companies take notice of what's getting played on them, I think it'll be a good shift for the game industry.

Read on as Case explains Noesis' relationship with Valve, his company's future plans, and his advice to those intimidated by modding.