How to Modify Video Games: Modding Overview (Tools, Assets, Scripting, Legal)

1. Modding Frameworks & Tools

• Game-specific: Creation Kit (Skyrim/Fallout 4), GECK (Fallout 3/NV), Frosty Tool (Battlefront, NFS), OpenIV (GTA V).
• Engine-level: Unity (AssetBundles), Unreal (Pak mods, Blueprint), Godot (GDScript).
• Universal: Nexus Mod Manager / Vortex / MO2 – manage load order, conflicts.

2. Asset Replacement

• Textures (DDS/PNG) – GIMP, Photoshop, Substance Painter.
• Models (FBX/OBJ/GLTF) – Blender, Maya, 3ds Max.
• Audio (WAV/OGG) – Audacity, Reaper.

3. Scripting / Code

• Lua, Python, C#, Papyrus (Skyrim), AngelScript (SOMA).
• Hook libraries: SKSE (Skyrim), F4SE (Fallout 4), Script Hook V (GTA V).

4. Data Editing

• Config files (INI, JSON, XML) – Notepad++.
• Save editors – community tools for specific games.

5. Legal & Ethical Guidelines

• Respect EULA – some games forbid mods (e.g., GTA Online, Destiny 2).
• Don't distribute copyrighted assets (models, textures, audio from other games).
• Credit original authors; follow mod page licenses (MIT, CC-BY, custom).

Start small: texture swap → config tweak → script → full quest mod.