UNDER THE HOOD

Same idea. Different engines.

The right modding route starts with the engine, the game version, and its community tools. These guides help you choose a useful first step.

PLAYBOOK 01

.NET / XNA / FNA

Terraria, Stardew Valley, and Celeste have established loaders. Start with the one built for your game.

Terraria · Stardew Valley · Celeste

Read the guide

PLAYBOOK 02

Unity

Find out whether your game uses Mono or IL2CPP before choosing a loader. The backend changes the route.

Hollow Knight · RimWorld · Valheim

Read the guide

PLAYBOOK 03

Creation Engine / Gamebryo

For Bethesda single-player games, begin with records and a separate mod profile. Native plugins come later.

Skyrim Special Edition · Fallout 4 · Starfield

Read the guide

BEFORE YOU CHOOSE

An engine is a starting point.

Check your specific game

Two games on the same engine can have different loaders, backends, and online restrictions. Start with the game lookup for a more useful recommendation.

Browse games

Go deeper at the source

The original project includes twelve engine playbooks. We have expanded three here; the upstream repository covers the other families.

All upstream playbooks

Unofficial summaries of universal-modder by rehan-remade, MIT · Reviewed October 4, 2026.