Yeah, that's the title of the book I've been reading. Some time ago I planned with a friend of mine to design a mod, just for fun. He is good at drawing and using computers, I am good at making up stories and using computers.

new combine concept drawing

Well the problem was we didn´t really know how to mod and the guides you can find at the internet are just horrible, too complex or just stupid. Until I found this book (I didn't buy it, I just downloaded it). It's called ``Half-Life 2 Mods for Dummies (2007)´´. It is perfect for those who don't know a heck about modding (like me) and want to start from 0 and finish with a good level. This books has everything from using hammer, XSI, faceposer.. the essentials for modding.

first map the book teaches you how to make

hammer tool

And this has been also my reason of being a bit off the gamespot community.