It wasn't long ago that user-generated content was a feature only the biggest PC games supported. Back then, mods were generally total conversions that gave rise to classics like Counter-Strike (Half-Life), DotA/LoL (Warcraft 3), PUGB/Fortnite (ArmA 3) and many others.

Mods in more places

Fast forward a few years and modding is emerging in more places than ever. Platforms like Steam Workshop and our own mod.io that make modding accessible to more players via in-game interfaces means even the smallest games can support healthy communities of creators. A shift towards cosmetic and item-like mods has helped this trend, and plays well with the persistent service-based style modern games try to adopt. Cross-platform play and first party games like Super Mario Maker, Minecraft and Dreams has opened up the door to mods appearing on consoles, with a handful of studios like Paradox Interactive and Bethesda leading the charge. All in all the future is bright for gamers who like to create, or want more content for their favorite games.

Mobile the next frontier

Today is another big day in the history of modding with Supercell launching Make, their content creation platform. What's interesting about this, is for the longest time UGC hasn't really happened on mobile because creating content on the device is severely limited by the form factor and tools available, and mobile platforms are still quite closed when it comes to custom content. We've never really considered the first point a barrier to entry, because passionate modders will always find a way to personalize and mod their favorite games. Clearly Supercell doesn't consider this a barrier to entry either, because in order to make content for Brawl Stars they recommend you use traditional PC 3D modelling tools.

However, whether it is deliberate or by design, or the fact that mobile is still quite a closed platform, it appears that in order for your content to make it into the game, you need to win a submission process and be picked by the Supercell team + community. Despite this limitation, this is an incredible first step for UGC on mobile from such an influential company in the space, and we look forward to seeing others follow in their footsteps.

What's next for modding

Despite the fact that modding has been around for 20+ years now, the next few years are going to get really interesting. Content is such a powerful and user-friendly way of retaining players and building goodwill. With competition for attention fiercer than ever, games that are serious about engaging players long-term, opening up to support UGC feels like the perfect way to do it. Your players will thank you with their loyalty, and that will in-time open up new business models and ways to succeed that haven't been considered yet.

Talk to us about modding in your game

If you like what Supercell are doing and want to explore new ways to succeed with UGC in your game on mobile or elsewhere, we'd love to chat to you. We are big believers in the future of UGC, and have built a cross-platform mod API @ mod.io that includes all the features Supercell have, and are ready to power your users creativity in bold new ways.

Introducing mod.io, an open platform for hosting mods from the team behind ModDB.com and IndieDB.com. Created over the last 2 years, the mod.io Mod Browser and Manager for Unity makes it easy to integrate user generated content directly into your game. It is highly adaptable, open-source, supports all stores, is platform agnostic and takes minutes to setup and get running through the use of the pre-built UI.

If you are familiar with Steam Workshop but need a solution that works on Steam as well as the Epic Games Store, itch.io, Discord, GOG and other places in the future, then mod.io for Unity is the tool for you. Our aim is to make it easy to enable the creativity of your community, and extend the life and success of your game with mods.

Features include:

• Platform agnostic, supporting 1 click mod installs on Steam, Epic Games Store, Discord, GOG, itch.io with plans for full-console support.
• Clientless, with no other dependencies and works behind the scenes in your game.
• Simple C# interface for connecting with workshop API built on the Unity Engine that manages all the interaction with the mod.io servers, supporting basic caching and download management.
• User Management, allowing for synchronized subscriptions, mod rating, and content submission.
• Powerful and flexible default UI, providing a solid and extensible mod browsing interface to facilitate easy integration.

Fast and easy integration:

• Download the Unity package and import it into your project.
• Drop the _ModBrowser prefab into your menu scene, or adapt the ExampleScene for your purposes.
• Set up your game on mod.io (or our private test environment) to get your game ID and API key.
• Input your ID and API key by selecting "Plugin Settings" on the ModBrowser component inspector, or under the mod.io/Edit Settings menu item.
• In your code, make a call to ModManager.GetInstalledModDirectories() to get a list of mod data your player has installed.
• Done!

Join our community:

This project is constantly receiving updates, has an active development community who have built Discord bots, wrappers and command line tools you can use. We welcome feedback to help us ensure we're providing your game with the best mod support possible. Join us on Discord if you need support or have questions and we will continue to share updates here.

Asset Store | Discord Channel | Official Website | Documentation

Yesterday's announcement from Paradox Interactive and Xbox comes as no surprize to me, that the next frontier for mods is consoles. With a continually shifting gaming landscape and increased competition coming in from a deluge of daily releases, it's important to be able to engage and retain the players you have.

The games that do it well like Fortnite become juggernauts, but unless you are Epic Games and have an army of creators releasing skins, emotes and updates daily - it's impossible to compete. Mods help in this regard because they give you an army, but there is so much more to it than that.

Today studios can sell their games direct for much greater upside, Discord and Epic Games offer a viable alternative to Steam, and everyone is trying to create the "Netflix" of games. It's impossible to know where your next customer will come from, what matters is that when the customer comes, you are able to forge a lasting relationship with them.

Because mods deliver a deeply personalized experience between the player and the game, it's a solution that can work everywhere your game is sold. There isn't much that can do that without adding friction to the user experience, so it's easy to see other studios following Paradox Interactive's lead, and leveraging the goodwill of mods to unite their playerbase.

As the creator of ModDB.com i'm naturally biased to the news, but it's hard not to get excited when I see studios moving in this direction. For the past 2 years we have been building mod.io, a mod API for game developers (think of it as a cross-platform Steam Workshop which can be run in-house, can be embedded anywhere and can be deeply customized to fit your use-case as rules are applied on a game-by-game basis).

We see mods playing a huge role in the future of gaming, so if you are a developer interested in discussing your approach to modding, we have a lifetime of experience we are happy to lend and a platform ready to help you harness the potential. Reach out to start a conversation on email or Discord. Oh and if you are a Unity developer, check out our newly launched Unity mod plugin.