Modding Tutorials/First Steps

< Modding Tutorials

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Roaring to go? Here's a good tutorial that introduces a lot of things gradually. Want to take it slow? Smart. It's strongly recommended to do the following before you start making a mod:

Step 1: Search for a mod already doing what you want

Seriously. There are so many mods, there is generally one, probably of high quality, doing what you want it to. You might not need to make a mod!

• Search Steam's Workshop. These have ready to go and managed by Steam mods. Click to use them.
• Check the RimWorld Mod Forum
• Use Google because it works.
• Ask on Discord or reddit to see if they know of one.

Step 2: Read Other Info On Modding

• RimWorld Wiki - Modding
• RimWorld Wiki - Modding Tutorials
• RimWorld Forum - Modding Help
• Tynan's Readme.txt in your Rimworld directory (in RimWorldMac.app for Mac people)

Step 3: One Time Reads

• RimWorld Wiki - XML file structure and loading
• RimWorld Wiki - Testing
• A17 Modding Updates - https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=32735.0 - by ZorbaTHut

Step 4: Useful Links, Reference Constantly

• Wiki - Folder Structure
• Ludeon Forum - Modding Help
• RimWorld XML Database - xml explained for XML modders

Step 5: Tutorials by Others

• How to make a .dll-mod (Power Generation) - https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=3408.0

Step 6: Reference the works of others

It's how most of us learned how2mod.

• Core. If it's (close to) something that already exists in RimWorld, use what RimWorld provides you. What better source of "how to do X" than the game itself?
• Maybe there's some inspiration on this list of modders and their GitHub links
• Use GitHub search to find how other modders handled a problem
• Use Google because it works.