December 26th, 2023

Black Orchestra has reached Top 5 on ModDB's "Mod of The Year"!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from the Black Orchestra Team

We are grateful to be accepted into the 'ModDB's Mod of The Year' Top Five. This gesture has proven that our little project has a place in people's hearts; people believe in our efforts and our visions and want us to be successful. As 2023 is closing, we would like to walk you down the memory lane and address how our project come about.

Our mod started out as two separate identities: Desert Rats and Red Orchestra Remake. Desert Rat's ambitious goal was to introduce the Second World War North Africa and Mediterranean front to Rising Storm 2. Red Orchestra remake aims to not only port Red Orchestra 2, Rising Storm 1, and Heroes of The West but to completely overhaul it with modern quality-of-life features. After the launch of Talvisota: Winter War, the need for a World War Two game in the Rising Storm 2 formula has been recognized.

Since there is a great overlapping of talents from both teams, and both were working on very similar visions, we have found that a merge was beneficial to the development of both. In fact, we have known each other for a long time, for most of us have worked on Talvisota: Winter War, another total conversion for Rising Storm 2. As people said, divided we fall, together we win; it was fated that we would combine our efforts.

Desert Rats' (or DR) core strength was it maps. Their dedicated mapper created wonderful levels that is not only eye-catchy, but also is aim to deliver good performance and gameplay. RO Remake (Or RR) excelled in quality-of-life changes, as it was created on the Gameplay Overhaul Mutator (GOM) framework, and is also championed with a dedicated animator and modeller that breathes life into the game. We take what's best of both worlds and combine it to one project that we all know as Black Orchestra.

As a final note, it would not have been possible without the hard-working contributors and the loyal followers who believed in us.

That's our little fireplace story to you. Take care and enjoy the Holidays. - Hoover