A mod for WazHack consists of a folder or simple text and image files. That folder is inside a "mods" folder which you will need to create in a special location:

On Windows:
On MacOSX:
On Linux:
On Android:
On iOS, mods cannot be editted on-device. Create them on a PC then upload them to mod.io as described below.

Inside this "mods" folder you create your own folder (eg. "MyMod"), which must have these files:

• metadata.txt
  
• preview.jpg

The metadata.txt is in a simple "text tree" format that WazHack uses for most files. It is a tree structure of key-value pairs where depth is defined by single spaces. For example:


Note the single space at the start of the "name" and "description" lines. Once uploaded, an additional "id" property will be added to the file automatically; it should not be changed.

The "tags" is a list of tags from the permitted list. If the tags include "Allow on Mobile", then you are giving permission for the mod to be published to users of the mobile version. Note that this does not guarantee that it will be made available.

The preview.jpg is the image you choose to represent your mod. Perhaps a group shot of your character classes. It should be a 16:9 image. Extensions of png, jpg, and jpeg are accepted.

Your mod's folder will also contain one .txt file for each new character class you wish to define, which use a similar file format.

See the "Waz Examples" mod for some examples: http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=845557618

After creating your empty mod, you need to add some content. Currently, WazHack supports adding new character classes based on species of creatures in the game. You can play the game as a Kobold if you want, and you can give him any starting equipment you like. Obviously this can easily be abused to make overpowered classes that may spoil the game for you or for anyone else who tries your classes, so be sure to warn players if your mod includes overpowered classes both in the description and by adding the tag "Unbalanced" to the tags in the metadata.txt.

A new class is defined by a simple .txt file in your mod's folder, alongside the "metadata.txt" file described in the previous section.

Here is a sample, which if put in a orc.txt file defines a weak Orc:


Note again the use of single spaces to define the structure of the tree of information.

If you wish to make human characters, the "man" and "woman" types can also be used.

The supported properties under the "content" structure are:


Each of the "visuals" chooses an element of the creature's body and applies a style and a color to it. Most types only support the "skin" element and no special styles. For "man" and "woman", special elements and styles are supported:


For each element, you can specify a style, texture, color, specular color, and shininess:

All parts are optional.

Colors are web-style hex colors. Google "color picker".

The texture is mapped differently to each model, so you'll need to experiment, or ask for a template. The humanoid one is in Waz Examples. Alpha in the texture indicates mixing in the Color.

Note that for many creatures the color will be mixed with the textures of the creature and so may look completely terrible.

If you add the "debug" property (no value, just add it indented the same as name), you will get a little extra information, but also all textures will be output to your mod's directory. These are half-scale reduction from the built-in textures, but any scale textures can be used (though more than 512x512 is probably excessive).

Be sure to test your new class thoroughly before publishing it. Your in-development classes appear on pages just like the standard 16 character classes.

If your class does not appear, you have almost certainly made an error in the text file. You can see some verbose logging output in the WazHack_Data/output_log.txt file located where the WazHack executable is found on your system (use Steam's "browse local files" under Properties to find this).

To publish your mod on the Steam Workshop, run WazHack, select the "Mods" option, and click the "Upload to Workshop" button that appears. You can make further changes and Update from here too, but beware of making major changes as players who are playing as your class wouldn't like to have their set of available Talents suddenly change mid-game!

When players play as a class from a mod, the savegame references the mod ID on Steam (which doesn't change) and the filename (minus the ".txt") of the class, so you should especially avoid changing these needlessly.

Note that if this is the first time you have published content, you may need to read and agree to Steam's Workshop Legal Agreement before your content will be visible to others.


Mods published on mod.io are available to both Steam and mobile players.

To publish your mod on mod.io, pack the files in a ZIP file and submit it at https://wazhack.mod.io/ (login then press the "+" button). You can reuse your mod's preview image and description.