Ho ho ho!

It's the most wonderful time of the year and I come bearing gifts: The Skald Data Editor tool (SkaDE for short) enters open beta today and YOU'RE invited!


In short, the SkaDE toolset is a bundle of tools that I made to make Skald. In other words, they are the actual tools I used to make the game.

What I'm releasing into BETA today is the first step towards bringing these tools to the community. This means that, for now, only a reduced tile-set is available (should be enough to get you started on that Ultima clone you're dreaming about).

You can read more about the tools in the tutorials linked below. Modding also has its own subchannels on the Skald Discord[discord.gg].

Finally, it is worth reiterating that the current version of the tools and the modding implementation in the game itself is in a very early Beta stage. There are a lot of rough edges so be patient.


Skald modding lives on https://mod.io/g/skald-against-the-bl! This is where you'll find all the content created, sample projects and all the tutorials for the SkaDE toolset.

If you want to start using the modding tools, head on over to the first tutorial[mod.io]!

If you would rather just download and play mods, check out the guide for installing mods[mod.io].

A WORD OF WARNING: You need to swap branches to play the version of the game that supports mods (see guide above). The reason we keep it on the experimental/Beta branches is that the build is less stable that we hoped. This will improve but for now these builds should ONLY be used for testing mods – not general play of the vanilla game.

At the time of writing, there is not really any user-created content up so you may need to check in over the coming weeks. Which leads me to...



Using the SkaDE tool you are to create a small, playable adventure.

• The theme of the adventure shall be “Low Level Adventures” – How does a hero take their first steps to become an adventurer?
  
• The adventure must be based on the SkaDE sample project[mod.io]. Note that this is a nearly empty project and you can change any aspect of it – it’s just a way of ensuring that the scope remains manageable
  
• The adventure must contain both a surface level and a dungeon level (as in the sample project)
  
• There must be both dialogue and combat
  
• There must be 15-30 minutes of gameplay for a “fresh” player (the jury will spend around 20 min with each contribution)
  
• You are free to collaborate!

We'll pick three winners of a Steam gift card to the value of 100 USD. Your submission will also be featured on the devlog.

Our assessment will be based on:

• Creativity
  
• Fun of play
  
• Overall impression

Upload the module to the Skald mod.io and use the tag "XMAS CONTEST".
Uploading mods is super easy - just remember the tag so that we can find your submissions.


The final date for submission is January 15th.

That should be enough to get you started so head on over to https://mod.io/g/skald-against-the-bl and start hacking or go to the Discord[discord.gg] to find people to collaborate with!

I'm really excited to see what the community does with this. I'll be putting out more tutorials over Christmas as well (they may be handy for the contest) so keep an eye out for those.

Best of luck and seasons greetings,

AL