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 (including separate engine software such as the Source SDK) in order to run.
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Game | Original dependency | Mod release | Standalone | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
0 A.D. | Age of Empires II | 2000 | 2010 April 2 | The standalone version is under development by Wildfire Games and using the Pyrogenesis engine. |
Alien Swarm | Unreal Tournament 2004 | 2004 May 28 | 2010 July 19[1] | The standalone version was developed by Valve and ported to the Source engine. |
Angels Fall First: Planetstorm | Unreal Tournament 3 | 2008 October 20[2] | 2015 October 1[3] | |
Antichamber | Unreal Tournament 3 | 2009 | 2013 January 31[4] | The mod was originally known as Hazard: The Journey of Life.[5] |
Auto Chess | Dota 2 | 2019 January 4[6] | 2019 May 30[7] | The standalone remake of the Dota Auto Chess mod from within Dota 2, developed by Drodo Studio.[8] |
The Ball | Unreal Tournament 3 | 2008 | 2010 October 26[9] | |
Bid For Power | Quake III Arena | 2004 | 2004 | Bid For Power is a total conversion for Quake III that plays nothing like the original game. Players take control of Ki-powered superheroes and battle it out in a mostly aerial fight. The game is highlighted by the work of a great art team and an original style, and the gameplay is extremely fast paced. |
Black Mesa | Half-Life 2 | 2012 September 14 | 2020 March 6 | The game is a 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.[10][11] It was the first video game ever to be included in cereal boxes as a prize.[12] | |
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare | Half-Life 2 | 2007 December 1 | 2012 October 16[13] | 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.[14] |
Counter-Strike | Half-Life | 1999 June 19 | 2000 November 8 | The game received multiple sequels and a Source Engine remake named Counter-Strike: Source. |
Cry of Fear | Half-Life | 2012 February 22[15] | 2013 April 25[16] | |
D-Day: Normandy | Quake II | 2000[17] | 2002 | |
The Dark Mod | Doom III | 2009 October 17[18] | 2013 April 14[19] | Several demo missions were released before the mod was made available, the first of which went up for download on 18 January 2008,[20] nearly two years before the mod was actually released. |
Day of Defeat | Half-Life | 2001 | 2003 May 1 | The game received a Source Engine remake named Day of Defeat: Source. |
Day of Infamy | Insurgency | 2016 January 16[21] | 2017 March 23 | A WWII remake of Insurgency. |
DayZ | ARMA 2 | 2013 February 21 | 2013 December 16 | The standalone version has been released as a full version on 13 December 2018. |
Dear Esther | Half-Life 2 | 2008 | 2012 February 14[22] | |
Dino D-Day | Half-Life 2 | 2009 November 12[23] | 2011 April 8[24] | |
Dota 2 | Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | 2003 | 2013 July 9[25] | The rights to the original mod (Defense of the Ancients) were acquired by Valve and a derived standalone game was developed in the Source Engine and later ported to Source 2.[26] |
Element TD | Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | 2006 August 20[27] | 2016 June 15 (Android)[28] 2016 July 29 (iOS)[29] |
After the mod was ported to StarCraft 2 and Dota 2, it was made into a paid standalone app using the Unity Engine for Android and iOS mobile devices in June 2016.[30] A second similar app was released on both platforms during mid-October,[31][32] now available as free to download but with some content locked behind a paywall.[33] The monetised version of Element TD was later ported to Microsoft Windows in January 2017.[34][35] |
Element TD 2 | 2020 February 28 (early access)[36] 2021 April 2 (full release)[36] |
The sequel was released into early access on Steam in late February 2020, subsequently rebuilding Element TD once again in the Unity Engine but now designed for Microsoft Windows.[37] A full release occurred the next year in early April.[38] | ||
Falcon BMS | Falcon 4.0 | 2003 | 2012, version 4.32[39] | The mod is under development by Benchmark Sims. |
Fistful of Frags | Half-Life 2 | 2007 December 21[40] | 2014 May 9[41] | |
The Forgotten City | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 2015 October 2 | 2021 July 28 | The Forgotten City was first released as a Skyrim mod in 2015, winning a Writers Guild of America award for its script.[42] |
Forgotten Hope 2 | Battlefield 2 | 2006 | 2007 | Forgotten Hope 2 is a World War II modification for Battlefield 2TM and is based on the original Forgotten Hope, a modification for Battlefield 1942TM, one of the most popular multiplayer games ever. |
Garry's Mod | Half-Life 2 | 2004 December 24 | 2006 November 29[43] | 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.[43] |
Gunman Chronicles | Half-Life | 2000 November 20 | 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 | 1997 September | 2010 October 9[44] | |
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.[45] |
The Haunted: Hell's Reach | Unreal Tournament 3 | 2010 | 2011 October 25[46] | |
Heroes of the Storm | StarCraft II | 2010 | 2015 June 2[47] | The game originated as a custom map called "Blizzard DOTA", as a part of the arcade feature for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.[48] |
Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat | Half-Life 2 | 2007[49] | 2014 January 22[50] | |
Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Great War | Hearts of Iron | 2005 | 1 December 2016[51] | |
Killing Floor | Unreal Tournament 2004 | 2005 July 2nd | 2009 May 14[52] | Killing Floor, originally a total conversion mod for the game Unreal Tournament 2004, first released in 2005, introduced the cooperative wave-based survival game mode.[53][54] |
Legion TD 2 | Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | 2017 November 20 (Early Access) 2021 (planned release) |
Legion TD 2 is being developed by the same developers of the original Warcraft III map (Legion TD). | |
Natural Selection 2 | Half-Life | 2002 October 31 | 2012 October 31 | Natural Selection 2 is a sequel to the original mod named Natural Selection. |
Nexuiz | Quake | 2001 | 2005 May 31 | 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 | 2011 October 31[55] | 2013 October 31 | |
Nuclear Dawn | Half-Life 2 | 2011 September 26 | ||
Path of the Midnight Sun | Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones | 2014 May 23[56] | 2023 January 10 | Original mod was called Fire Emblem: Midnight Sun. |
PUBG: Battlegrounds | Arma 3 | 2015 April 9[57] | 2017 December 20[58] | |
Project Reality: BF2 | Battlefield 2 | 2005 July 8 | 2015 May 30[59] | 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. Squad was released on September 23, 2020. |
Red Alert: A Path Beyond | Command & Conquer: Renegade | 2004 July 29[60] | 2007 September 14[61] | Original mod was called Renegade Alert. |
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 | Unreal Tournament 2003 | 2003 October 10[62] | 2006 March 14[63] | The original mod was called Red Orchestra: Combined Arms. The game has also received a sequel. |
Renegade X | Unreal Tournament 3 | 2009 September | 2012 January 28 (Black Dawn standalone release) 2016 February 26 (multiplayer standalone release) |
The game has not been fully released. |
Unturned | Roblox | 2013 January 1 | 2014 July 7 | The game was fully released on July 7, 2017 after exactly three years. |
Smokin' Guns | Quake III Arena | 2001 | 2009 January 5[64] | 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.[65] |
Spellsworn | Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | 2018 March 13 | Spellsworn is the stand alone version of the map Warlocks.[66] | |
The Red Solstice | Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | 2014 July 10 (Early Access)
2015 July 9 (full release) |
The original map was called Night Of The Dead, often shortened to NOTD.
Instead of fighting aliens, the marines were fighting zombies. The classes and gameplay aspects remained the same. The original developers were also involved in the production of The Red Solstice. A sequel, Red Solstice 2: Survivors, was released in 17 June 2021.[67] | |
The Stanley Parable | Half-Life 2 | 2011 July 31 | 2013 October 17 | Originally a mod for Half-Life 2. The 2013 release is built on Portal 2's version of the Source engine. Ultra Deluxe is a standalone remake using the Unity engine. |
Sven Co-op | Half-Life | 1999 January 19 | 2016 January 22 | 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. |
Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror | Unreal Tournament | 1999 December 23 | 2002 April 24 | |
Team Fortress Classic | Quake | 1996 | 1999 April 7 | The original mod (simply named Team Fortress) 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 | Command & Conquer: Renegade | 2008 | 2013 June 1[68] | Original mod was called CnC Reborn. |
Tower Unite | Garry's Mod | 2009 July 7 | 2016 April 8 | 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 | 2005 August 11 | 2006 March 31 | 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 | 1999 September | 2007 April | 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.[69] While the engine is open source, Urban Terror's assets and code are closed source. |
The Wastes | Half-Life | 2000 April 12 (as Wasteland Half-Life) 3 June 2003 (as The Wastes) |
2018 April 12 | 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 | 2015 April 8[70] | ||
World of Padman | Quake III Arena | 2004 June 19[71] | 2007 April 1[72] | 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.[73] 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 | 2011 December 22[74] | 2012 May 4[75] | |
X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse | Quake | 1997 November 30 | 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. |
Klaus Veen's Treason | Counter-Strike: Condition Zero | 2004 March 23 | 2023 January 31 | Klaus Veen's Treason is a free social deduction FPS game which is heavily derivative of Trouble in Terrorist Town & Murder which were popularized in Garry's Mod. However, Treason actually had humble beginnings as a map collection within the Counter-Strike: Condition Zero TTT mod before it became a standalone Source project. The creative lead Klaus Veen is also fairly well known for his musical works in the popular indie fighting game franchise, Lethal League. |