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Adding mods to your game? Take a look at the mod UI's designed by popular games for ideas about how to proceed.

Posted by on - Basic UI/HUD

The full version of this guide can be found on mod.io. Our mission at mod.io is to make modding accessible for players, and drive adoption by creating tools for game developers that help you launch and run a successful mod community with as little effort as possible.

  1. Step one in this mission is using our API to make mod installation a beautiful one click process.
  2. Step two and the purpose of this guide is how to present mods to your players.
  3. Let's begin!

Game UI's vary quite a bit, which is quite apparent when you see how differently each game approaches the presentation of mods. Some like Garry's Mod have browsing and searching interfaces built in, while others use web overlays and links only and do all of the work of installing mods silently behind the scenes. Below is a selection of interfaces, head to mod.io for more examples.

0 A.D. (using mod.io)

Main menu has a link to the mods section:

Displays a screen which shows "Available" and "Enabled" mods. Mods can be enabled/disabled here. (stretch image to zoom in)

Clicking "Download Mods" connects to mod.io and shows that it is fetching mods:

Shows a list of all mods that can be downloaded:

Double clicking on a mod begins the download and prompts the user of the status:


Civilization VI

Link to the mods section on the main menu.

Shows official content as well as user-generated content. There is no ability to browse content in-game.

Clicking on an item on the left shows the details.

You must subscribe to mods via the Steam Workshop website, you cannot subscribe to items in-game. Once subscribed to an item on the website the game instantly picked it up.

Day of Infamy

Mods link on home screen which then shows your installed mods.

Clicking Browse Workshop replaces the main section with the Steam workshop browse page.

After clicking subscribe on an item on the store, the game picks it up and is shown under "Library".

You can also submit mods in-game to workshop.

Epic Games Launcher

Launcher has a "Modding" tab with a screen for each game to download that games custom editor. (no generic editor). No ability to browse.

Garry's Mod

Simple grid with pagination, picks up whether the user is subscribed to mods/addons and installs them. Clicking on a browse item opens the Steam web-browser overlay that goes to the page.

Clicking on the "Download" button shows a black box in the bottom-center of the screen showing the download status of the mod.

The menu lets you select workshop items by "Trending, Top Rated & Last Uploads".

Once a mod is downloaded, there is a subscribed tab which is the same as browsing and simply shows what items the user is subscribed to.


Kerbal Space Program

Kerbal Space Program has no in-game support. They have a "Addons & Mods" link in the menu which clicking it simply leads you to the curse KSP page:

Planet Coaster

Main menu has a slim Steam Workshop toolbar where you can select a user (shows top workshop users). Clicking on the Steam Workshop button or typing in the search opens a browser window to workshop.

Clicking on a user shows their uploads in the game.

Clicking on subscribe doesn't show any download progress, but gives you the option to unsubscribe.

Starcraft 2

"Custom" tab exists at the top of the menu which leads you to the UGC.

Clicking on an item shows the UGC info on the right-hand side.

Stellaris

When Stellaris is launched a launcher appears with a "Mods" tab.

Clicking on "Mod tools" allows you to upload a mod as shown below:

Submitting a mod allows you to select the directory, which gets submitted behind the scenes.

Western Press

When launching Western Press you get a dialog to open the Workshop uploader, which shows the following content:

Clicking on "Edit" attempts to fetch the items from workshop, clicking on NEW shows the following dialog:

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed this roundup of mod UI's. If you have created a mod UI for your game - we encourage you to let us know and we will include it in this guide.

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ns-mars
ns-mars

cool UIs these developers made!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
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