Add mod support to a Unity game in 48 hours with mod.io

Who said that mod integration needs to be complex? The creators of Neanderfall certainly don’t. With a pre-built Unity Plugin and instant setup, supporting user generated content is easy with mod.io.

Neanderfall is a Unity game that supports user generated content and was developed in 48 hours during the 2020 GMTK Game Jam. Bilal Akil and Ethan Close created Neanderfall with the goal of crowd-sourcing their level development by enabling modding. They chose mod.io because of its instant setup and a Unity Plugin which takes minutes to get running. Within 48 hours they had a level editor built, which used mod.io to provide the storage, search and distribution of mods in-game.

How Neanderfall uses mod.io

For Bilal and Ethan, choosing mod.io was an easy decision. After being exposed to the sheer volume of user generated content seen on games such as Totally Awesome Battle Simulator (TABS) and Snowrunner, they knew they had to use mod.io.

What they weren’t prepared for was how easy it was to use mod.io as their modding platform of choice. The pre-existing Unity plugin makes enabling mod support time-efficient and user-friendly. When we interviewed the game creators, Bilal (game developer) had this to say: “We really enjoyed the smooth, minimal user experience” and “the Unity plugin was very helpful as it solved a lot of problems we would have had to deal with such as authentication”.

You build the mod creation tools & game, mod.io does the rest

As the game developer you provide the mod creation tools and the ability to play the mods. mod.io solves everything else such as hosting, moderation, authentication, discovery, tagging, rating, community, marketplace, in-game integration and more. As such, we are similar to the Steamworks Workshop, however, mod.io also works on Steam, Epic, GOG, console and mobile which is perfect if you want a cross-platform solution.

Key features include:

• Clientless API and open-source SDK + engine plugins (for Unity, Unreal and others) make integration quick and easy
• Our Discord bot is a great example of how you can engage your existing community by sending notifications when new mods are released. You could easily build your own Twitch bot, or mod browser to embed on your homepage to take complete control of your mod community and get your players engaging in the places you want them returning to
• Want to do more with modding like run a mod marketplace, enable patronage, trading etc? Unlike store-provided solutions which have a limited feature set, our platform is continually evolving to enable you to maximise the potential of UGC for your game, creators and players
• Our platform is free to use unless you want to run a mod marketplace, where we take a fee on all sales and manage payments to your creators for you. We also offer a white label solution if you want a private mod platform for your games and brands.

We help 37 games power 200,000+ mod installs daily on PC, console and mobile, and we would love to help you engage and entertain your players by enabling your modders to share creative and captivating new content everyday in-game using mod.io.

Steps to add mod support to your Unity game

It’s as easy as four simple steps:

1. Add your game to mod.io
2. Download and import the mod.io plugin from the Unity asset store
3. Drop the _ModBrowser prefab onto the canvas (Plugin → mod.io → Mod Browser → Prefabs → _ModBrowser)
4. In the Plugin settings, insert your game id & game api key from the mod.io website. Content you submitted to your games page should now start appearing.
5. Done !

Take a look at the Youtube video below or head to our Unity Mod Support documentation to learn more.

If Bilal and Ethan can do this in 48 hours with a fully functional game, so can you. You can find us on Discord if you have questions.