Many indie designers understand the longevity that modding brings to their games, with the best adding hours of new content.
In the modern era of gaming, some truly amazing games have been developed both by massive studios as well as indie developers that have really pushed the bar in terms of creativity and gameplay. However, even with all this, many players still seek more out of the games they love.
That is where modders come in. These dedicated individuals and teams often spend dozens or hundreds of hours creating new content and features for players to enjoy, often without any compensation, and often add a huge amount of longevity to the games they work on, which include some of the most popular indie games of all time.
As a game that literally simulates orbital mechanics, one might imagine that Kerbal Space Program is one of the more complex games to mod, but that hasn’t stopped the modding community from adding plenty of content for the game.
The features covered in these mods are incredibly extensive as well, making changes to nearly everything in the game and expanding not only on the mechanics but also creating entirely new planets and celestial bodies to explore (or to crash into).
In many ways, Stardew Valley seems to be the perfect little indie game, made by a solo developer and having a rather niche premise, and yet this charming farming simulator exploded with popularity and remains so even six years after its release.
As a game with relatively simple mechanics and a pixel art style, Stardew Valley lends itself to modding incredibly well. Mods have been made to change nearly everything about the game, including the graphics, new crops, extra events, and even entirely new areas to explore.
Before Mount and Blade: Bannerlord, its predecessor Warband was one of the most modded games on steam. Teams of incredible modders have brought entire worlds to life, such as Game of Thrones and even an astonishing Lord of the Rings mod that is so well made it almost feels like an entirely new game.
Bannerlord seems to be following in those footsteps as well, with a strong basis for modding that can really change up the gameplay. However, as it is still in early access, mods may frequently go out of date, though this should be much less of an issue once the game gets a full release.
Factorio is an incredibly deep engineering simulator that puts players in the role of an engineer on an alien planet and lets them build truly complex automated facilities to extract resources and protect themselves from dangerous alien creatures.
Modders with a more mechanical mindset have also taken to the game, adding in plenty of new buildings and features for a game that already had plenty for players to wrap their heads around. For those few who have mastered it already, the new content added will be a welcome addition.
City-building games aren’t exactly a niche genre, but they don’t attract as much notice as some other types of games. Paradox’s Cities Skylines is certainly one of the best to come out in recent years, with excellent gameplay and plenty of room for player creativity.
Much of that creativity comes in the forms of mods, many of which add new buildings to the game that allow players to truly customize their city to their own desire. Many mods also feature some well-known real-life buildings for players to recreate as well.
Another excellent example of an indie game that makes it incredibly easy for modders to play with nearly every element of the game is Rimworld. This sci-fi colony building sim was already unique enough, but the huge amount of mods for the game really put it a few steps ahead of any other in the genre.
Some of the best mods expand upon the gameplay and mechanics already available in the game, but there are others that overhaul major parts as well, including one mod that turns the game into a Mars-colony survival experience.
Darkest Dungeon is a stylish D&D style dungeon crawler with an intriguing H.P. Lovecraft aesthetic. With some incredible art and challenging gameplay, it is little wonder this indie game managed to attain a large amount of popularity upon release.
Along with that popularity came a group of extraordinarily talented modders, including many of a more artistic mindset, who added in new characters and features to the game that feels perfectly at home in the game’s unique art style.
While this was a game that flew under the radar of many, Battle Brothers is an incredibly fun tactical squad-based RPG that puts players in control of a team of mercenaries that look for dangerous jobs in a detailed fantasy world in order to make money, if they live long enough to spend it.
It also features a small but talented modding community that has created plenty of new events, items, and areas to explore in the game, giving players even more reason to check out this fun and engaging indie game.
As a game that already allows players to interact with the mechanics in whatever ways they desire, Space Engineers takes it a step further by being incredibly moddable, which the game’s community has taken full advantage of.
Many of the mods offer a massive amount of additional gameplay, including scripted systems that players can use to truly obtain an immersive science fiction experience, making this game one of the best sandbox games available for creative-minded players.
With the popularity a game like Minecraft has attained over the years, it is no wonder that it has one of the largest collections of mods available of any game. Thousands of modders have put their skills to work, creating new content for the game that covers a massive variety of features.
While some of these mods contain relatively minor tweaks and addons, many more still overhaul huge aspects of the game, adding in new mechanics such as advanced robotics and more that will entirely upend the vanilla play experience.
Jared King is a writer and content creator with extensive experience in the fields of gaming and entertainment and now writes as a contributor to CBR. Having worked his way up from burger flipper to a manager in a successful restaurant, he decided to take the plunge and pursue his passion of writing and creating full time, which he continues to this day in many forms of media across the internet. His love of storytelling has given him wide expertise on all things entertainment, from video games and tabletop roleplaying to television and movies, which he uses to inform his work in many ways. You can find Jared on Twitter at jdkingwrites.
