Today we're ready to roll out Steam Workshop integration for testing! Details below. Please post feedback in the forums!
Downloading and playing mods
You can manage your mod subscriptions via the
Hack 'n' Slash workshop. Subscribed mods will automatically be downloaded when you boot up the game.
Starting a new game with a mod
Select "NEW GAME" from the save select screen. A "mods" menu will appear, and you can add mods that you've created or subscribed to by selecting the [+] option and then selecting a mod.
Adding and removing mods from an existing save game
Navigate to the game in the save select screen and select the [ Mods ] option. From here you can add additional mods using the [+] option or remove mods using the [delete] option.
You can also reorder mods via the [move] option. This controls the order in which the mods are loaded. Some mods may need to be loaded in a specific sequence in order to function correctly.
Example mods
We're also releasing two example mods today.
Translation Kit
Translation Kit is a mod that makes it easy to create custom translation mods of Hack 'n' Slash. When you launch a game with Translation Kit active, it will scan over all of the scripts in the game using the game's disassembly tools and identify text that's displayed in dialogs and cutscenes.
It will then ask you for the name of the translation mod you want to create and will build a directory tree of .translation files that contain string overrides for the code and a mod script that loads these translation files and applies them to the game.
ebg13
ebg13 is an example mod created with Translation Kit that applies the
ROT13 transformation to all of the translated strings.
What kinds of mods can I make?
Hack 'n' Slash supports very extensive modification. You can overwrite any script in the game's file system and add any kind of content that you want. You can change the base game or create your own game using the engine. You can even use the game's built-in disassembly tools to programmatically analyze existing code and make modifications to it. This is how Translation Kit works.
All mods have a patch script written in Lua that is responsible for applying its modifications to the base game. This script can overwrite existing files or add new files to the game's file system.
Patch files are initially generated with some documentation on the methods your mod has access to, but we've also decided to ship the main game engine scripts in plaintext so that you can dig around yourself and learn how the engine works.
The content scripts for the game itself are still precompiled so that you can't spoil anything just by browsing the directory structure, but you can now browse the core engine scripts directly.
- Right click on Hack 'n' Slash in your Steam library and click "Properties."
- Click on the "LOCAL FILES" tab.
- Click "BROWSE LOCAL FILES" to launch an explorer window.
- Navigate to Data/Scripts.
- Open up any .lua file to see the code for that component.
Please note that this does
not mean that the engine is open source. We still retain all rights to the engine code. We're simply trying to make it easier for you to make interesting mods!
Creating a mod
You can create a new mod from the "MANAGE MODS" menu on the save select screen by selecting [ Create new mod ]. You then choose a name for the mod and the game will create a stub patch script for you at:
/Hack 'n' Slash/Mods//Patch.lua
The stub file will have some documentation comments at the top describing the functions you have access to from the patch. You can also clone existing mods and look at their patch scripts to see how they work.
Cloning an existing mod
You can clone a mod you subscribe to in order to figure out how it works or make your own custom modifications. From the "MANAGE MODS" menu, select the mod to open its menu and then select [ Clone mod ].
Please make sure to attribute the original work if you publish a cloned mod!
