Modkits/SDKs

If you want a thriving mods community, you should provide tools to make things either possible at all, or just easier. While community created tools can cover many bases that developers won’t, it always makes sense for official tools to be created.

A "modkit" refers to an Unreal Engine project that provides access to code and asset references - even if there is no "implementation" behind the references in the modkit project itself.

They are seen as the ultimate form of a developer SDK as they provide almost unrestricted access to the internals of the game natively. This doesn't mean it requires no work to make them, nor mean you can relax your efforts on improving the "moddability" of the game - it just makes the modding process first class.

There are a few types of modkit that can be created. These are explained in more detail later:

• Uncooked editor - contains only source assets
• Cooked editor - contains only cooked assets
• Mixed editor - contains a mix of uncooked and cooked assets, depending on your legal requirements and other reasons

Modkits can be created "unofficially" by modders as a stopgap until the game releases an official one, if it ever does. They are handicapped in several ways but a good modkit will still provide most of the required functionality to make itself useful in the modding scene.