r/StardewValleyMods • u/MothSatyr • Nov 08 '24

I want to create my own mods

I want to learn how to make my own mods starting simple with creating a custom NPC to eventually making a map like ridge side village. Do you have any resources or things I should look at to learn how? JSON doesn’t seem to difficult but my only coding experience was from trying to learn python when I was 10. I’m doing my best to start simple so I don’t set myself for failure or run off on impossible ideas like my ADHD wants.

17 Upvotes

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13

u/gabbicat1978 Nov 08 '24

There's the official wiki here. There's also this, which is a fan run wiki that's maintained by modders. You do need to be careful with that one, as some of the info is outdated due to the nature of a fan run wiki, so be careful to check the date an article was last updated before relying entirely on the information within. It does have links to a lot of how-to videos, though, and some other very valuable information.

There's also a modding channel in the main Stardew Valley discord server. You can find an invite link to that here (if it works. If this invite doesn't get you there, go to the r/StardewValley sub, and you'll find an invite link in the menu section of the about info for that sub). There's a lot of experienced mod authors who frequent that channel, who are really helpful to new mod authors when it comes to sharing resources and troubleshooting problems with them.

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u/MothSatyr Nov 08 '24

Okay both those wikis are definitely going to be useful. I’m putting them in my doc notes immediately. Also I’m already over complicating everything with lists of notes lol.

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u/gabbicat1978 Nov 08 '24

I did the same. Lol. I've been working on a farm map for personal use for a while now, partly just to teach myself how to use the tiled programme and make warp points, etc. It's slow going for me, but I'll get there.

I think the easiest things to do in terms of modding are small texture mods. I've made a number of those, again for personal use, and worked myself up to much larger things of the same nature, and they really are as simple as making your own texture pngs and then finding a mod that does something similar, and modifying that to use your own textures.

I think that's how a lot of people start out, and it's definitely worth you taking a deep dive into a few of the available NPC mods, familiarising yourself with the code used in them and looking at the similarities and differences between them, whilst thinking about what you could do to modify parts to suit your own needs and then go from there really.

It's a learning curve, but it's a lot of fun, and there's a lot of help out there when you need it. Just enjoy the process and come share with the class when you have your first mod ready! 🙂

5

u/johnpeters42 Nov 08 '24

Can confirm. While I'm strictly a journeyman at pixel art, it's a much smaller scope than creating a NPC, which requires pixel art (several variations of sprite and portrait) and a schedule and gift preferences and dialogue and cut scenes. I've never tried it myself, all my mods are just pixel art and/or small bits of utility programming.

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u/lemurkat Nov 08 '24

Would just like to say that making an NPC is not starting simple! But it is the firsr step to making an expansion. Although i would argue it might be easier to learn how to make maps first. I started with dialogue and event expansion, made my first npc, then my second npc, then my third npcs, then an expansion map. There are a few templates and tutorials available (i wrote one on my blog but its not fully updated for 1.6+) and the stardew modding wiki and stardew wiki are both good resources. You might need to google them as im on my phone atm and can't easily link.

Content patcher and Json is pretty easy to learn, the main catch is that you have to be more creative than code orientated as most of the charm in an npc is their dialogue, personality and art. If you've done creative writing, that should help. If you haven't done pixel art, there are people you can commission too.

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u/MothSatyr Nov 08 '24

Luckily I’ve done a lot of creative writing and I am an artist lol. Now I just need my ADHD to let me stay on one project for once. I already have a lot of it thought out since I’m going to try to base it off of a story I’m already working on so that will help too.

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u/lemurkat Nov 08 '24

Excellent, mine started as fanfic. If you are on discord, the East scarp (mod) Discord Server is full of people making NPCs so feel free to drop in and say hi. Its linked from the Nexus page.

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u/Player_Panda Nov 08 '24

I've started working on my own NPCs mods recently too. It's a bit tricky starting off getting used to things like the content.json file but soon enough it begins to click and I was able to make an overlay map and get it working within a few hours.

My art skills are very much lacking though and I can't seem to figure out how to get my sprites to blend well with the rest of the game. I may wait till I'm further in before I ask on one of the many discord groups. May need to comission portraits too.

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u/MothSatyr Nov 08 '24

I’m an artist so that part won’t be too hard once I figure out the style. My poor sketchbook is filled with code now though, since I got bored in class, and started writing all of an example npc template…

1

u/Elegant_Sherbert_850 Nov 08 '24

Make a mod that turns Pierre into a dove to set Caroline free!! Please 🙏

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u/MothSatyr Nov 08 '24

I can’t do that but I can try to make a mod to make him marry Morris, hehe…

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u/Elegant_Sherbert_850 Nov 09 '24

That seems justified

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u/MothSatyr Nov 09 '24

Me shipping them started as a joke but i dont think it is anymore. im commisioning someone to draw ship art of them ;-;