How to Make a Minecraft Mod: Fun Tutorial
In this blog post reveal how to make a Minecraft mod, and explore the different types of Minecraft mods that you can create. We’ll also share the programs and websites available to help make modding fun — including free live online Minecraft classes. Plus, you’ll enjoy step-by-step instructions (with a helpful video!) on how to code a very simple mod in Minecraft.
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Discover how to make Minecraft mods
Before we go into too many details, we will first address what a mod is. The word mod is short for modification. In this case, a Minecraft mod will modify the game’s behavior. Meaning that you can make things happen in the game that wouldn’t normally happen. Let’s briefly review three different examples to better understand this concept.
- First, imagine your character is running low on health and it’s surrounded by enemies.
You could run a mod that replenishes your health and gives you weapons to defend yourself.
- Another example could be that you want to build a house, or any structure instantly. You could run a mod to build that structure anywhere in your world with a click of a button, instead of spending hours building it by hand.
- Finally, we could go up several levels of complexity and run a mod that creates a mini-game inside of Minecraft. This mini-game could be a multiplayer game where you and your friends have to go through several levels, collecting items, or fighting enemies.
All of these examples are possible thanks to the power of code, and with all the different resources available on the internet it’s becoming easier than ever for anybody to code mods. Now, before you can run all of these cool mods in Minecraft we first have to learn how to create them!
To get live expert guidance join our free virtual Minecraft coding class:
Common questions about how to create Minecraft mods
Let’s first answer the most common questions people often ask themselves when trying to get mods.
One important thing to note is that you have to be extremely careful when visiting pages on the internet, and even more so when you’re downloading files and installing them in your computer.
1. How do I get Minecraft mods?
There are probably thousands of websites that host Minecraft mods. One of the most popular sites is minecraftmods.com. It is important to note that the great majority of mods need forge. Forge is a program that allows users to install and run mods in Minecraft.
As a side note, before you start downloading and installing things on your computer, make sure that you have an antivirus installed and that it is up to date. Also, when browsing for mods always choose the ones that have good reviews.
2. Are mods in Minecraft free?
Yes. Most of the mods out there are made by other players that want to share their creations. There’s a lot of free content out there, so you shouldn’t need to pay anything to download mods or install them.
What if I want to create my own Minecraft mods?
With today’s technology coding your own mods is pretty simple.
One option is to use Java and Forge. You’ll need to install several things. First you’ll need to install Java — to be able to run and test your code, Forge — to run the mods in Minecraft, a text editor — to create the code, and obviously Minecraft. For more information about that you can visit this Tutorials/Creating Forge mods Gamepedia page.
The other option is to use a website that does most of the work. LearnToMod is a website that sends the mods directly to your own server without the need to install anything extra. These mods run in a multiplayer server that you can start from within the website. This is the website we use to run our Minecraft modding class.
How does LearnToMod work?
Even though this website does require a subscription it will balance out once you get to experience how easy it is to use. After creating an account you can immediately start creating mods. If you’re a first-time user, they have hundreds of coding assignments and tutorials that will help you get up to speed.
Here’s how to make a Minecraft mod in a few simple steps
Let’s first start our server, join it, and then create a very simple mod! Follow our video tutorial here or enjoy step-by-step instructions below.
1. Start and Join Your Server
Click on the green box in the home page, or go to Play > My Server. Then, click on Start Server.
This will start one of LearnToMod’s servers, build a world, and then return the I.P. address of that server. It will take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. While this is loading open Minecraft — specifically the 1.9.2 Java version for PC or MacOS.
In Minecraft go to Multiplayer > Direct Connect, and enter the I.P. address in that text field. Then, click Join Server.
Once inside your server, pause your game and go code your mod!
2. Create a Mod
Next, we’ll create a mod. From the top navigation menu click Play > Mods. To create a mod, we simply need to give it a name, choose Blockly (Multiplayer), and then click Code on the tile that appears on the right side.
LearnToMod uses Blockly code. The same type of drag and drop blocks that Scratch coding uses. There are different menus and all of them have different types of blocks. These blocks connect to each other like puzzle pieces
3. Start Coding
In this example we’ll code a simple mod that sends a message, spawns a mob, and gives the player a weapon. We first need a main function. This function is the starting point of our code.
First open the Functions menu. Then, drag the first block to your white canvas. Finally, rename the function main.
4. Code the rest of the mod
We’ll speed up a little bit and show you what the final code looks like. Don’t worry, the blocks are color coded it should be very easy for you to find the menus where they’re located.
The first line of blocks in the main function will simply send a message to the player. The second line will spawn a zombie in front of the player. And, the third line will give the player a diamond sword.
5. Run your mod!
After you finish coding your mod, you simply have to click the green Mod button at the top of the page.
This will send a mod book and place it inside your mod’s chest. Open the chest and grab the book. Once in your hand simply left or right-click to run your mod. This mod sends a message, spawns a Zombie, and gives the player a Diamond Sword.
It’s that easy!
A more advanced way to mod is to use Java programming, instead of block-coding methods. But you can only do this on Minecraft for PC and Mac (also known as Minecraft Java Edition).
- For this method, which is much more challenging, you’ll need the Java Development Kit, which you can find it on Oracle’s website.
- Then, you need to get the Eclipse IDE for writing Java (Eclipse IDE for Java Developers): download the Eclipse installer here.
- After that, get Minecraft Forge 1.18.
To get started learning Minecraft the most beginner-friendly way, join our free Minecraft Modding introduction class.
In this live online small group class, you’ll learn all about the LearnToMod platform. You’ll also build your very first mod and can get all your questions answered by an expert as you go! This class is intended for students in grades 5 through 9, and we have a similar class for students in grades 2 through 5 here that uses Minecraft Education Edition.
In the free intro class, students will use a simulator that is built into the website, and not actual Minecraft. However, once students enroll in the Part 1 class, they’ll get access to a Minecraft account for the duration of the class. As a reminder, students in Parts 1 — 3 will be using the Minecraft 1.9.2 Java version for PC or MacOS. Chromebooks, tablets, and smart phones will not work in this class. Sign up today to start learning Minecraft coding for kids!
Popular Minecraft mods you can make
Minecraft 1.18 is an update to Minecraft which was released on November 30, 2021. Here are some of the most popular mods.
Because there are so many options, be sure to keep your mod folder organized as you download new mods, and create them!
Resource and utility tools: These unique tools can be used to automate menial tasks in the game. With these resourceful tools, players can attain even the most rigid materials out there without crafting expensive tools like the Diamond Pickaxe.
RpgZ mod: This mod implements a new system for looting, which was inspired by many RPG games. Upon defeating a hostile entity, you’ll be rewarded with the items on the them.
Greater eye of Ender: This mod adds the greater eye of ender that works in a similar fashion to the vanilla eye. But this one will help you locate even more types of structures in the world.
Iron chests mod: This adds a variety of new chests to the game in addition to iron chests. All are better than vanilla chests because they have more capacity and can be placed next to each other.
This rocks mod: This cool mod makes the environment more interesting by adding small branches, tiny rocks, and random pine cones, creating a more lifelike enthralling environment.
Need more inspiration? Explore the best Minecraft mods.
Now you know how to code Minecraft mods
Up next, find out how to make a Minecraft skin. Join a live online class led by an expert, and designed by professionals from Google, Stanford, and MIT, to get all your Minecraft questions answered, and help every step of the way as you learn how to build in Minecraft with the rare element: Redstone!
Written by Sonny Najar, a Create & Learn instructor. After earning a BS in Computer Science, he began creating software and curriculum in 2015 that made learning Computer Science fun and engaging for K -12 students.
Games Modding – Why you should do it
For over 20 years, modders have made some of the worlds most popular games such as Battle Royle, DotA and Counter-Strike.
They’ve helped countless games like Minecraft, Skyrim, and The Sims expand and live on with new and exciting content for players. Mod.io is a platform that makes modding smoother for the players, the modders, and the game developers – making it easier to support UGC (user-generated content) on all platforms. Scott Reismanis from Mod.io was kind enough to write this article on what exactly modding is and how you can get started on your own…
What is modding?
Modding is an insanely popular activity that is essentially the art of modifying someone’s game to create new content within that gaming world. Anyone can do it whether you consider yourself a coder, artist or musician, and it’s a great way to improve your design and development skills. Many of the biggest names in PC gaming started out as mods. For example, Counter-Strike, Defense of the Ancients / League of Legends and PUBG are some of the most famous. Modding has been around for 20+ years now, and it’s becoming more popular as services like Steam Workshop and the cross-platform modding SDK called mod.
io that we created, aim to make it more accessible to game developers, modders, and their players.
A mod can be as simple or as complex as you like. For example, creating a skin for a Minecraft character can be done in a 2D editor with no coding knowledge, whilst creating a total conversion can take years of work and require many creators to collaborate (see the Mod Hall of Fame for some of the most famous mods). There are many modding communities – if you want to see some examples you can check out ModDB and mod.io which are communities we have created.
So why mod?
Modding unlocks creativity, builds skills, and brings happiness to gaming communities. For many people modding is a hobby where they can create, test ideas, or tweak a game to be smarter, easier or do amazing new things. For people looking to get into the industry, modding can be a great first step.
Discover your passion. Modding is a way of trying out some of the work that game studios actually do.
You can try whatever interests you most and see if you’d really like it – mods do everything from graphics to level design, UI enhancements, sound, AI behaviour and more.
Build your skills. If you are working on something you like then you will do more of it and get better at it. Mods build skills because they are using similar (or sometimes exactly the same) development tools that the game developers use. The great thing about mods is that you can post them online for others to use and get immediate feedback from the players on what they think. This feedback can be invaluable in both improving your skills and learning what gamers like.
Pathway into a gaming job. Modding isn’t a job guarantee, but it certainly doesn’t hurt! Modders build up a portfolio of their work over time, which they can show to gaming studios when applying for a job. This helps to both demonstrate their development skills and prove how interested they are in getting into game development.
Modding is also starting to become a career for some, as forward-thinking games like ROBLOX have demonstrated, and we expect it is a path other games will explore in the future as they aim to reward and empower their creators. Finally, some very skilled and fortunate modders have gone on to create their own game from the concept they made whilst modding. The Irish modder Brendan ‘PlayerUnknown’ Greene created the Battle Royale genre, that includes games like Fortnite and got to make the breakout hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
How to get started
Start easy, pick your game, build your skills, and get feedback. Try to start with something simple and build your skills from there. Coding is a key modding skill, but there are modders who specialize in graphics, sound and map design as well. To build a mod you need to own the relevant game and have the appropriate software. This video gives a simple example of how to modify the sounds on a car rally game, using free opensource software.
No matter which game you pick, if it’s moddable you will likely be able to find and join a community of creators and start learning from them. There are loads of tutorials and forums on specific aspects of modding for popular games. You can find these on websites or Discord. The exact skills that modders use vary by their speciality interest. Common skills are Programming, 2D or 3D Art, Sound Design, Level or Game Design, Production and Testing.
- For programming, you need to know the language used by the game. For example, C# is used in games built in Unity, a common game software engine.
- For art, the industry standards are Adobe Photoshop for 2D art and 3D Studio Max for 3D art. These can be expensive, but there are many more affordable alternatives and they offer discounts to students.
- Level design uses a 2D or 3D level editor that varies by the game you are interested in.
Getting feedback on your creation is often the most useful (and rewarding) part of modding. So, once you’ve created something you’re proud of, be sure to share it with others! Moddable games usually have tools provided by the developer to help create mods and post them online in places like Steam Workshop and Mod.io. With some trial and error, passion, and a little persistence there’s nothing to stop you from making mods like these!
Good luck, have fun, get creative and we look forward to playing your mods! And please don’t hesitate to reach out anytime to our friendly team at ModDB and mod.io. We’ve been involved in modding for 20+ years, and love helping creators get started.
Minecraft Mod Creation — Minecraft Mod Creation
Want to create a mod for Minecraft? Add something of your own to the game: a block, an entity, or an entire dimension?
On this site you will find an interesting, understandable and detailed tutorial on how to create your own mods for Minecraft.
Do you think it’s difficult? Actually no (using this tutorial)
Let’s start!
Where to start?
The first and absolutely necessary skill for creating mods — basic knowledge of programming and Java .
Variable, object, class, method — all these words should be quite familiar to you. If you do not know what it is, then you need to go through the very basics of the Java language.
Now let’s talk about the API.
API is a set of tools to simplify the work with the program (in our case, with Minecraft).
Unfortunately, Minecraft does not have any built-in modding API.
Minecraft does not support mods!
However, the source code of the game can be obtained, and many developers began to develop their unofficial APIs: Forge, Sponge, and so on. You have probably heard about Forge more than once. This is the most popular modding API today.
So you have a choice.
Write mods with API
It will be easier. But your mods will only be able to run on a client with a pre-installed API. Mods written with Forge will only work on Minecraft that has Forge pre-installed.
Most all Minecraft mods are written using the Forge API.
Pros
- Easy modding
- Easy transfer to other Minecraft versions
- Compatibility (and even interoperability) with other mods
Cons
- The need to have the API installed on the client
Write mods without API help
This is a bit more complicated as it will require you to have a deep understanding of how Minecraft works internally. When writing mods without using an API, you are directly editing the game’s source code. It turns out that you seem to be writing your own Minecraft (or a new version of it), and no other mods will most likely work with yours.
Pros
- No pre-installation required
- Full control over what happens in the game
- Ability to change game source files
Cons
- Almost completely incompatible with other mods
- Relative difficulty of writing
- Difficult translation of the mod for other Minecraft versions
What to choose?
In most cases it is recommended to write mods using the Forge API. It is now the most popular and is practically the standard.
Most mods and mod tutorials are written using this API. Forge is so widespread that the creation of mods for Minecraft is often understood as their creation using the Forge API.
I have a question/problem!
If something doesn’t work but it should, or (worse still) something works but shouldn’t, feel free to contact the forum for help.
By the way, there you can not only ask for help, but also communicate with other mod creators, exchange experiences and advertise your mods!
How to share with a friend?
You can just throw off the link to the article. However, the articles on this site sometimes reach an impressive size. In this case, you can share a link to a specific section of the article.
Article sections are separated by headings. Hover your mouse cursor over the title. A link icon will appear to the right of it. Right-click on it and select «Copy link address».
Contribution to textbook
You can make edits to existing articles, add your own and suggest ideas for new articles. It is very easy to do this. The whole process is fully automated. You can find detailed instructions on the wiki for working with the site.
About site
On the Internet, there are a lot of piece tutorials for some specific Minecraft versions. It turns out that there is no single source of information that is supported by the community and not by the sole author.
Here we implement a different approach.
The site runs on the MkDocs static generator with the Material theme. This approach allows you not to mess around with the source code of the site, but to write articles in convenient markdown markup, which is automatically assembled into a ready-made and beautiful site.
Programs for creating mods for games
09/21/2017
The desire to bring new mechanics to the game, the environment, or, to put it simply, to change something in your own way, has been going on since time immemorial. Modding a game is much easier than creating it from scratch. There are already preset mechanics, environments and animations. It remains only to add new or cut off existing content, thus changing the original build. It often happens that the community creates special software that simplifies a number of tasks, including importing sources and exporting new or modified files to the game. For example, at 19In 94, thanks to Brandon Wiber and the availability of open source code in DOOM, modding became popular on such a scale. Using the DEU (DOOM Editor Utility) written by Wiber, players were able to make their own levels and modifications to the game. In the Game Project Management program at the Higher School of Business Informatics at the Higher School of Economics, many of our students also have experience using programs for creating mods for games or are interested in this topic.
The motivations of players and modders can be very different. Starting from the desire to figure out what is “under the hood” of your favorite game or set a goal to master the basics of game development in this way. Mod development can come in handy when applying for a job in game development, if the modder decides to follow the path of game development and become a developer. In addition, it helps to see what the game is like from the inside. This is how the understanding of the principle of the mechanics, the work of scripts, the work of textures, 2D / 3D environments and objects, sprites, effects, etc. comes. Skills that will certainly come in handy in future plans to develop your own project. In the same way, you can prototype your own mechanics — a mod for any game may well help to visualize what was conceived and show the feature in action.
In terms of complexity and time, everything is very ambiguous. Starting from the reskin of the hero, as was often the case in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and took no more than 10-15 minutes, ending with very ambitious projects. Sometimes modifications can take on monstrous proportions and change the game beyond recognition. Such examples are not so few. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds became a hit in just three days. Brendan Green, under the pseudonym Playerunknown, started out modding ArmA 3 and went on to create his own game mode, now called «Battle Royale». h2Z1 pro mode: King of the Kill. After seeing the commercial success of the genre, Brendan Greene decided to make his own battle royale game. The game was released as part of the Steam Early Access program in March 2017. The developers plan to complete the development and release the finished product before the end of the 4th quarter of 2017. In just three days after the release, the project topped the list of the most popular games on Steam and earned $11 million in three days. And at the time of writing, over 10 million copies of the game have already been sold at a price of $29.99.
The same Dota — was originally a modification for Warcraft III. The map was created using the World Editor for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and has been improved with the release of the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne expansion. Now, Abdul Ishmael (IceFrog), one of its creators, continues to work on Dota 2 at Valve. It was the same with Counter-Strike. The first Counter-Strike beta was released in 1999 and was originally a modification of Half-Life. Having changed five versions, the game remains relevant to this day, having long since separated from Half-Life and switched to the new Source engine, and later to Source 2. A lot of work has been done on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. , which was cut by the developers from GSC Game World earlier in order to recreate the early look of the game from announcements from the 2003-2004 period. As with Dota or CS, being a mod for Half-Life 2, Stanley Parable was able to eventually become a full-fledged standalone game and win many awards.
For each game, as in the case of DEU, their own toolkit is usually written, which is specially tailored for it and makes it easier to work with the distribution. But for some games, it is still possible to single out the most popular modding programs.
OpenIV
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Universal editor and file manager for PC versions of Grand Theft Auto V, Grand Theft Auto IV / EFLC and Max Payne 3. OpenIV allows you to edit the hidden archives of the game, add and change the necessary files in them, integrate a new texture into the game in two clicks . In edit mode, the program automatically saves all the changes made, but when creating mods, it’s better to always remember to make backups.
Valve Hammer Editor
The level editor developed by Valve Software to work with the GoldSrc and Source game engines is included in the Source SDK, a set of programs for creating modifications to games built on Source technology.
The editor was developed by Ben Morris for creating levels in Quake 1 and is freely available. Starting from version 4.0, the program began to work with Source, on which Half-Life 2 was written, initially Dota 2 and a number of other games from Valve. The editor is supplied with the Source SDK and is available for free download through the Steam service for the owner of any game created on the Source engine. All program updates are downloaded using Steam. In Hammer, you can create levels for all modern games from Valve.
S.T.A.L.K E.R.
According to S.T.A.L.K E.R.: Call of Pripyat and S.T.A.L.K E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, so many programs have already been released that they are combined into entire packs.
Assembly for modding PM and SP v1.2 combines over 25 programs and so much content that the game can be changed almost beyond recognition. The pack includes 165 modding tutorials, a converter for X-ray sdk, a texture pack, 4.XRspawner, a similar quest generator, DDSPacker v0.1, CharEd v0.2b, modding articles and so much more that is easier to see.
In addition to understanding the structure of the game, modifications can provide unprecedented scope for experimentation and innovation. Garry’s mod, developed by Garry Newman, is a physical sandbox where the player can create environments and manipulate objects from games created on the Source engine (CS:S, CS:GO, TF2, HL2 and other Valve games). Two years after the release of the first version, on November 29, 2006, Garry’s Mod became a paid game and is still distributed through Steam.
In 2012, Valve took a huge step towards modding and launched the Steam Workshop. The service allowed everyone to create their own modifications to existing games that supported it. This gave users the opportunity not only to make modifications, but also to earn money, as well as receive feedback from the community right on Steam.
The presence of modifications in the portfolio may well be an advantage when applying for a job in a game development studio. The ability to create a mod can show how well the applicant for the position understands level design, 3D modeling, game design, or any other direction in development.