Timberborn Mod Competition - the winners and more!

When we announced our first official mod competition, we were not sure what to expect. We asked ourselves: Will people care? Well, let’s just say that after reviewing all 77 submissions (*), we realized there is so much good stuff it would be so dam difficult to choose the best entries.

Since this is our first mod contest, we’ve decided to bend the rules this one time only… in your favor, of course.

On top of the three winners who win 750 EUR, two handmade wooden beaver figurines, a place in the in-game credits, and a special rank on our Discord, as well as the three runner-ups (250 EUR, two figurines each), our team picked seven extra honorable mentions across all categories. The honorably mentioned will each receive a sweet merch pack from us.

(*) The number of mods published in the contest period was higher but sadly, not everyone submitted their work via the entry form. We'll try to make that requirement even more visible next time.

Without further ado, here are the winners of the first Timberborn Mod Contest!

New game content - winner

View on Steam There were several new beaver factions in the contest, but the Dirtclaws - coupled with all the extra mining-oriented mechanics, waste management, and trading - quickly emerged as our favourite due to the sheer amount of original content, its quality, and how much it changes the game while staying true to what Timberborn is about. If you yell “rock and stone” every now and then, this one is for you!

New game content - runner-up

View on Steam This new faction also comes with a set of extra cool game-changing mechanics, turning Timberborn’s gameplay on its head. It may take a moment to understand the faction’s unique approach to living in harsh conditions, and the blizzard of new mechanics may be overwhelming, but figure it all out and you will have a grand time, chilling with Frosty Whiskers.

New game content - honorable mentions

View on Steam Our studio’s official take on endgame buildings is wonders, and Grauschweif’s idea was to give the beavers a megatree that needs to be carefully nurtured across the entire playthrough. We really appreciate the extra angle Timberborn’s gameplay gets with this, with an overlapping objective that can be both a reward and a punishment.

View on Steam We are floored by the quality of work REDIC put into the alternative - yet fitting Timberborn’s aesthetics - designs for the existing in-game buildings, as well as a few extras they included. Judging by the community’s universal love for this creation, it is quite a common sentiment!

View on Steam This extra beaver faction ties neatly into the existing Timberborn mechanics, especially the badwater interactions. This applies to the grown flora, the beavers themselves, and there are even some other clever general additions, such as the water turbine. We can’t wait to see how the mod develops, especially the aspect of beavers going feral.

View on Steam The final honorable mention in this category goes to one of the most prolific Timberborn mod creators we have in the community. If you’ve ever wanted the campaign mode in the game, with role-playing choices and events, you may now create it thanks to this mod. Extra kudos go to Luke for preparing the sample campaign, Campfire Mystery.

Quality-of-Life - winner

View on Steam Speaking of Luke’s many creations, we were really impressed with this take on the in-game toolbar. This mod shows that, while typically used in other genres, the radial menu is a huge boon even in the underexplored beaver city-building genre, speeding up all kinds of gameplay actions! As a side note, we want to give our winner a shoutout for Dynamic Tails & Banners. While submitted to the Tails & Banners category, it is an unmatched mix of QoL, new content, and new patterns. Highly recommended!

Quality-of-Life - runner-up

View on Steam While it is already possible to plan out parts of a colony in the base game, with this mod, you are no longer limited by whether or not a particular building was already unlocked. In other words, you could make plans for your grand metropolis before your first Sawmill starts operating. If you want to avoid redoing your colony, this is the way!

Quality-of-Life - honorable mentions

View on Steam If you’re a beaver overseer that likes to know what their workers are doing - or a content creator who names their beavers after viewers, hoping nothing bad happens to them - you will love this neat addition. With this mod, you can click a beaver to see what they are currently doing and where they’re headed - route visualizations included.

View on Steam While it is possible to simply switch to the Big Picture mode on Steam without leaving the game, ModMenu makes it much easier to navigate Timberborn’s vast mod repository, check dependencies and identify possible conflicts, and even create and share mod loadouts - very helpful when you alternate between playthroughs requiring different mod combinations.

Tails and banners - winner

View on Steam We adore these colorful designs with floral motifs - and we can easily imagine beavers putting up banners with mythical forest creatures like squirrels to add color to their wasteland homes. By the way, we also liked the other, albeit much more toned in color, pattern collection published by zazu - the Wood Workers. Check it out as well!

Tails and banners - runner-up

View on Steam This collection of banners is smaller but fits existing Timberborn aesthetics very well - and acknowledges that life in the post-apocalyptic world can get dangerous. Perhaps with one of these, you will avoid some explosive accidents down the road. Yeah, right.

Tails and banners - honorable mention

View on Steam Here, on the other hand, we have a large collection of 95 tail patterns (some of them being recolors). These designs are pretty subtle and add a great selection of patterns that do not break immersion while still allowing you to customize your dwellers’ most important asset.

Congratulations!

We’ll contact the winners, runner-ups, and the honorably mentioned via email in the coming days. It’s a long weekend in Poland, so please bear with us.

And once again, from all of us at Mechanistry, we thank you for all your amazing submissions to our Mod Contest. Even with the extra prizes, there are so many others that deserve praise, so be sure to check out all the other entries on Steam Workshop (just search for ModContest1).