The network behind online mod and game development communities like GameFront, IndieDB, and ModDB has released mod.io, a platform geared at making it easier for developers to include mod support in their games.
Typically, a mod-friendly game would require additional resources from developers or a decent amount of coding experience from players, but mod.io aims to eliminate both of those barriers by offering devs a cross-platform way to enable mod support through a customizable API.
The platform has three games, each with different mod-based needs, signed up right at launch that developers can check out on the mod.io website: 0 A.D, ECO, and Sinespace.
“We are excited to work with foundation partners doing something different,” explained mod.io CEO and co-creator Scott Reismanis in a statement. “In the case of 0 A.D, it is working with the open source community. In ECO, mods are purely serverside and Sinespace is a virtual world that treads mods as templates that are there to be built and modded themselves.”
For developers more curious about the nuts and bolts behind mod.io, the tool has an open-source SDK and a wealth of documentation up as well, in addition to plugins for Unity, Unreal Engine, Lumberyard, and GameMaker Studio 2.