Game modifications, or “mods”, are the unsung hero of the video game industry. Games got their start off as being an underground scene of sorts and mods have been a critical part of the industry since the late 90s and beyond—particularly as many of the most popular games you know and love today were likely based on a mod to a popular game or software!
Since those days have passed, game modding has never been more prevalent than ever, with many modders being able to build a career out of the skills made from tinkering at existing software. And recently, I had the opportunity to ask two of the most popular mod creators around, Tyler (Darkhax) and Jared (Jaredlll08) about how they got started making mods, what it’s done for them, how you (yes, you, my fine reader) can make your own mods, the CurseForge modding platform, and more. These two have mods that have a combined total of well-over 2.7 billion downloads on the aforementioned modding platform, creating mods for ‘Minecraft’ and the like—so you know these peeps mean business.
Now, without further ado, check out our interview with Darkhax and Jaredlll08!
Heads Up! This interview has had its formatting adjusted to improve readability, but otherwise its contents remain intact.
Tell me a bit about yourselves. Who are you lovely people? And I’ve heard you’re both married to one another – that’s lovely! If it’s okay with the both of you, could you tell us how the fateful encounter came to be?
Tyler: Thank you for having us! I am Tyler (Darkhax), and this is my husband Jared (Jaredlll08). We are both software developers that have turned modding games into our full time careers. You’re right, we did get married last year. And yes, we are married! It still feels a bit funny but also awesome to say that.
As for how we met, it was actually through the modded Minecraft community. Initially things were strictly professional but we clicked pretty quickly after working on a few projects together. One thing led to another, and now here we are working together on things we love and enjoying getting to share that with the world.
Right, let’s start with a small catch up. Both of you and I know what game mods are, but I’m gonna ask that you take the centre stage on this one and explain to our readers: What are game mods and why do you think that someone who enjoys video games should be interested in checking them out? What do mods mean to you as creators?
Tyler: I like to describe mods as unofficial updates for your favorite games. While mods typically add new content, they can also fix bugs, improve performance, or even add accessibility features. Mods can really bring new life to old games and greatly improve their replay value. As a creator, I see mods as a way to help players get more enjoyment out of their games.
Jared: For me, I see mods as a way to ensure that your favorite game never gets stale, whenever you start getting bored, you can just install some new mods and it is basically a brand new game!
An example of how powerful mods can be!
How did you both get into the game modding scene? How do you take what is typically seen as a hobbyist role into something that can be done as a full-time career? Matter of fact, would either of you advocate for pursuing game modding as a potential full-time job to aspiring modders?
Tyler: I initially got into the modding scene by hosting a Minecraft server for me and some friends. Things were starting to get stale after a few months, so we started looking into mods as a way to freshen things up. This eventually led to me learning how to make my own mods so I could make custom experiences for each of my friends. For example, one of my friends was obsessed with the Legend of Zelda series, so I added the master sword to the game and hid it at the end of a dungeon I created just for them. Things were very primitive and janky in retrospect, but it was a lot of fun.
Jared: I first got into Minecraft when I was learning to code in Java in high school. After finding out that Minecraft was also made in Java, it piqued my interest, and I started looking into how modding the game works. After all, it is a sandbox game, so messing with the game internals kind of seemed intended in a way.
Tyler: On the business side of things, modding is kind of similar to making YouTube videos or writing blog posts. Ad revenue forms your baseline revenue, which can be supplemented by sponsorships and community support. I really like this model because it allows me to make a living without putting my content behind a pay wall. With enough dedication, I believe that anyone could turn modding into a full-time job and we are seeing more and more modders make it work every year.
Jared: As Tyler said, anyone who puts their mind to it can make a living off of modding. Beyond uploading mods for free on platforms like CurseForge, there is even a lucrative market for doing mod commissions for YouTubers. I think the biggest issue is having to explain what you do to your family when they ask.
What sorts of mods are you two typically interested in creating? Can you give us an idea how a mod goes from planning to reality? And which games would you say either of you enjoy making mods for the most? Which mod is your favourite?
Tyler: I create all kinds of mods, but I enjoy working on content mods the most. I like being able to create experiences for players to enjoy and challenges for them to solve. I also enjoy working on QoL mods and bug fixes. While they’re not very flashy, it feels great to solve a pain point for players and help them enjoy the game more. Those types of mods are often smaller and easier to maintain than content mods.
When I take a mod from concept to reality, I usually sit with the idea for a few days and consider how practical it is. I take a mental note of all the things I don’t know how to do and start looking into them. For example, when I made my first mod for Balatro I had no experience with LUA, the scripting engine used by their game. So I read some primers and looked at their example mod to get a feel for how it works.
My favorite games to mod are the ones I enjoy playing and have no previous experience modding. You can learn a lot about a game by trying to make mods for it, and it poses an interesting challenge to solve. It can also be fun to join new modding communities and meet people with different experiences and backgrounds.
Jared: While I enjoy making all types of mods, I have found the most success for myself in the quality of life mods that I make, such as what is probably the favorite mod of mine, Controlling, which adds a search bar and filters to Minecraft’s keybindings menu, letting users search for a specific keybind they are looking for. In the current modding scene where the biggest, most popular modpacks are kitchen-sinks where there are hundreds of mods all thrown together, being able to find a specific keybind can be very tedious to do.
Funnily enough, the reason I made Controlling was because I was playing vanilla Minecraft without mods and I couldn’t find a keybind that Minecraft itself adds.
I understand that Darkhax is a community leader within the scene, organising events such as “SpookyJam” and “Modtoberfest”. Can they give us a brief rundown of both events and any highlights you’d like to share such as interactions with entrants and entered mods you’ve overseen?
Tyler: SpookyJam is an annual Minecraft mod jam that we host each October. It’s a fun celebration of autumn, and we invite modders of all skill levels to join in. The goal of the event is to foster a sense of community and encourage people to learn new things and improve their skills. It started out as a personal tradition where I would make a new autumn themed mod each year, but we decided to open it up for everyone to join in 2017 and this year will be our 9th annual SpookyJam! It’s awesome to see all the cool things people create, and we usually play them all together on our community’s Minecraft server. In recent years, we have been sponsored by CurseForge, which has helped us grow the event and give out awesome prizes to those who participate.
And because running one event in October wasn’t enough, we also host Modtoberfest! The entire Minecraft modding community depends on open source projects that are often maintained with little thanks or fanfare. Modtoberfest is a celebration of these projects and the open source Minecraft community in general. As part of this event we challenge community members to submit four valid pull requests to participating projects and if they complete the challenge we will send them a sticker pack in the mail featuring designs from projects all across the community. We usually see over 1000 pull requests merged each year, with most of them being bug fixes and localizations. Modtoberfest started out as a Minecraft-themed companion event to Hacktoberfest, which is a similar concept but for the broader open source community.
What are your thoughts on CurseForge as a platform?
Tyler: CurseForge is a great platform for finding and sharing mods. I think they have repeatedly demonstrated that they are working in the best interest of both players and creators, and see themselves as an active part of our community. In my experience they take things very seriously and regularly work with the community to release updates that address their concerns.
Jared: CurseForge as a platform has really come a long way from when I first started using it all the way back in 2014. While it has had some rough times over the years, I truly believe that the current team is working on making the platform the best it can be.
Would either of you say that modding is something easy to do? Say I wanted to create a mod for Minecraft but I have nil programming experience—what would I need to do to get started?
Tyler: Modding is an interesting field to be in because the required skillset can vary so much from game to game. Many games, especially indie games, will provide an API and some documentation you can use to get started. There are also tools for modding games made using popular game engines like Unity or Godot. Older games often rely on proprietary game engines and file formats, requiring technical knowledge and experience reverse engineering software to fully mod them.
The first thing I do when trying to mod a game is check platforms like CurseForge to see what others are doing. You can often find tutorials and example mods shared by the community. I also recommend finding the language mods are written in for that game and search out a free course. You don’t need to become an expert in the language, but you should learn the basic terminology and get a rough idea of how writing software works.
Jared: In my opinion, making a mod isn’t that much harder compared to working on a project of a similar size, the main issues you run into is working with a codebase that is not your own, sometimes without documentation or a line of communication with the original developers to ask for help.
The best case scenario is that the game you want to mod offers an official modding API and documentation for it, then it is just a matter of learning the programming language they use.
Game mods are typically associated with PC gaming, but mods have been slowly making their way to the console space these days as more PC-specific titles make their way to these closed-wall gardens. Do either of you think there will be a day where your mods can make their way to consoles? And would you two be interested in making mods for console versions of games?
Tyler: It may be surprising, but there is actually a very vibrant modding scene for console games. This is especially the case for older consoles like the Wii or GameCube. Unfortunately modding these games often require some form of circumvention or exploit. In terms of modern games, some studios like Mojang are allowing creators to publish Add-Ons and other creations which function similarly to mods. Unfortunately, these systems also exist within the walled garden and are not accessible to beginners. I personally enjoy playing games on the Steam Deck because it offers all the benefits of PC gaming like mods while still feeling like a console.
Jared: Console modding has become much more common in recent years, for example, ARK Survival Ascended has official support for CurseForge, letting you install mods even on consoles!
No job is truly work if you enjoy it as a passion! But I do have to ask, would you say there are downsides to doing the kind of work you do as a career?
Tyler: One of the biggest drawbacks to modding can be dealing with game updates. When a game updates, mods will often break and require updates from you to make them work again. This isn’t a big issue if you only have a handful of projects, but can quickly get out of hand when you’re managing a lot of them. Every time Minecraft updates, it usually takes me a month to go through and update everything. That is time that I would rather spend fixing bugs and improving my projects.
Jared: The biggest downside would have to be keeping up with the base game and its rapid release cycle. It feels like I am in a constant state of porting my mods to new versions, getting very little chance to make new mods or add new features.
Besides the games you both create mods for, are either of you playing other games at the moment?
Tyler: Lately, we have both been really into playing the Pokémon TCG and our local league. After working with digital games for so long, it can be nice to play something more analogue.
Jared: Recently, I’ve been playing a lot of Valve’s Deadlock and Pokémon TCG!
Are there any final thoughts you both would like to share with our readers?
Tyler: If there is a game you enjoy, I would highly recommend checking out the mods that have been made for it and trying a few out. And if you’re feeling adventurous, look into how you can make your own mods for that game. You will learn all kinds of new skills, and it may even be a gateway to a new career.
Jared: See if any mods exist for your favorite games and go and check them out, you don’t know what you may be missing out on!
Thank you both for your time!
Mods are a great way to breathe life into games you know, love, and still play today. As Tyler and Jared have said, console games have seen their fair share of mods, but the real deal lies solely on PC. Visit sites like CurseForge and Nexus Mods to learn more and to begin adding to your favourite games. Who knows, you might just start making mods yourself!
