Experimental mod envisions Dota 2 as a third-person shooter

Built in a cave with a box of scraps

Not that I’ve been counting, but I’m sure I’ve spent more time with Awesomenauts and SMITE than I have with traditional multiplayer online battle arenas like League of Legends and Dota 2 . Hey, I like what I like!

I also dig when modders turn games on their heads. That’s what BMD is working toward with this custom mode for Dota 2 that morphs the overhead strategy title into a frenetic third-person shooter. Why? Why not!

To achieve the desired result, the creator ditched Dota 2‘s built-in controls and devised a custom replacement. “I created my own system of motion that allows me do to things like have characters jump and strafe, and turn at an infinite rate,” he explained on reddit. “In fact, no unit orders are given at all in the game, nor are any hero abilities or items used.” There’s some early test footage above that’s rough but shows potential.

The camera is set up in such a way that players have to click on a flying Enigma unit, as shown in the video, before the system can provide them a third-person point of view. It’s “extremely hacked-in (but functional),” BMD admitted. “There is no facility currently available for me to manually reposition the camera except by locking the camera to the created ‘camera’ unit [the Enigma], which results in some unfortunate limitations.”

Still, as a proof of concept that will presumably look and feel better with future iterations, this is neat.