On November 29, 2006, the commercial version of Garry's Mod (known in the community as "Gmod 10") went live on
Steam.
Garry's Mod was, and probably still is, one of the most popular Source engine modifications ever made, due to the degree of power it gives its players to manipulate their surroundings.
Starting with its first release in 2005, the popularity of Garry's Mod increased dramatically. It began with very basic tools that allowed you do manipulate constraints between multiple props and create basic contraptions. Its functionality evolved, you were soon able to spawn props out of nowhere, and later in the releases can the crown of Garry's Mod's functionality: Scripted tools and weapons, allowing users with Lua scripting skills to add on to the game, giving it infinite possibilities for enhancement.
The popularity of it did not go unnoticed. Valve Software contacted Garry Newman, and negotiated a contract with him that allowed him full source code access to the Source engine, giving Garry the ability to work around limitations imposed on him previously.
Now over two years later, Garry's Mod is stronger than ever, with over 160,000 people currently signed up on its message boards, and a highly active Mod hosting website,
GarrysMod.org.
As a way of celebrating, we are having a
quick challenge. The objective? Make a birthday Party scene in Garry's Mod, take pictures of it and send it in. (the
Left 4 Dead challenge is still going with two days left as of this news post, so you still have a chance to send in pictures on that challenge too.)
Congratulations everyone for helping give this mod the success it has, and we'll undoubtedly make it to a 3rd birthday next year![...]