Dev Diary: Modding

It's Pavel again from Haemimont Games. In today’s DevDiary we’re going to be looking at an important aspect of the game - the ability of players to modify the game. Haemimont Games and Paradox both believe that it’s important for players to be able to express their creativity, change the game in interesting and novel ways, and generally to be able to (fuck around) tinker.

Our tools = Your tools

Our commitment to the modding community extends to providing the same tools our developers use, enabling modders to create richer and more complex modifications. This allows the mods to be better integrated with the game.

Let me give you an example of this. If you want to make a new Mission Sponsor, you will need to make the relevant mod item. In that mod item UI you can now find the button “Open in Mission Sponsors”. If you click that button it will open the OG MissionSponsorPresetEditor where all of the existing Mission Sponsors exist. Besides the actual functionality, this can be a great reference resource as well.

Steam post image MissionSponsorPreset Editor

To further support modding, we are shipping a debug executable across all PC platforms, including Steam, Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store. It will offer developer functionalities, such as additional asserts for debugging, cheats, and a wider array of editors.

While the full mod authoring experience will be exclusive to PC, players on consoles will still be able to enjoy and play with the mods created by the PC community.

New art pipeline

Previously, importing assets into Surviving Mars was a more convoluted process. It involved a Blender Exporter addon, which was a separate piece of software that required support and was dependent on specific Blender versions. This presented challenges for modders and for us, as we didn't use Blender internally at the time.

Steam post image Surviving Mars Cemetery Sample mod Blender scene

However, since the original Surviving Mars released in 2018, we’ve transitioned to using Blender ourselves, allowing us to streamline the asset import pipeline. Now, modders can directly import FBX files via a simple drag-and-drop mechanism, utilizing the same pipeline we use for our own assets. This change ensures consistent support from our end, making the modding experience much smoother and more integrated.

Mod Managing & Paradox Mods

As for loading and unloading mods - The mod manager is seamlessly integrated directly into the game, making it easy for players to access, manage and publish mods on Paradox Mods.

Steam post image In-game Mod Manager

Furthermore, mods published to Paradox Mods are not limited to PC players, as they are fully functional on both Xbox and PlayStation.

For those who prefer Steam Workshop, rest assured that it's still fully supported and operational. And you can still publish your mods directly from the game.

Closed Beta for Modders

During the past couple of months we’ve invited creators from the modding community to join in a closed beta. They’ve had access to the game (much of which was still in development) and have been experimenting and sharing their opinions with us.

Some of them have been with us through all of our titles ever since the original game when we first added modding support to our engine. If you are a modder and want to join the Modders Beta you can apply here: Modders Beta Application Form

In closing

We can’t wait to see what players come up with in the form of mods! Whether it's new buildings, game rules or… statues of pink fluffy unicorns in astronaut suits, we’ll try to keep up with everything.

Cheers,

Pavel