In an interview with VentureBeat, Paradox Interactive’s engine team lead John Wordsworth describes how the strategy game developer’s new engine will make it easier for modders to tinker with and create mods for upcoming Paradox Development Studio games.
This new engine, named the Jormini engine, will debut with Paradox’s upcoming Imperator: Rome grand strategy title, and for the first time will include proper tools that will allow modders to have greater access to the game’s internal code. Wordsworth elaborates:
“Modders always ask us why we don’t give them the tools we use to make the games, but we don’t have any. People are the tools. That’s the biggest thing we’re changing. So we’ve got two tools engineers in our team, and we’re recruiting two more. Half of our team is going to be building tools, going forward.”
Previous Paradox engines have required modders to open text files to make changes to the games – and while that option will still be available to those modders who wish to dive deeper, these new tools will allow others who have less experience with game code to create and modify content.
“Our games are often compared to Excel, so we’ve completely reworked the GUI system,” says Wordsworth. “Not only is it flashier, we’ve changed the way you can make new ones. Modders should be able to make super-fancy UIs without editing any code in the game. I think it comes down to that: We want to put as much power as we can into the hands of the people who are making content. They shouldn’t have to ask a coder for help.”
"...We're really hoping to give [these tools] to all the modders. Instead of appreciating us from afar, you can get your hands dirty."
Wordsworth goes on to describe how these changes have actually been inspired by Paradox’s own modding community, many of whom have gone on to be employed at Paradox itself. It’s another step the developer is taking toward bridging the gap between Paradox’s designers and the work that modders do with Paradox games, with hopefully many of the exact same tools ending up in modders’ hands.
“One thing I really want to push is that we’re working on all these tools, and unless someone from legal comes in with a big hammer and says I can’t, we’re really hoping to give these to all the modders. Instead of appreciating us from afar, you can get your hands dirty. See what we do, how we work, and have a go yourself.”
Imperator: Rome, the first Paradox game to use the new Jormini engine, is due out sometime next year. We’ll keep you updated with the release of new and exciting mod tools once the game is closer to launch.
