getting started with modding

Very rough list of what you need to get started with creating a mod.

Setup Aquaria for modding

This is not required but highly recommended.

Change your usersettings.xml file:

• Set <DebugLog on="1"/> (To diagnose problems better)
• Set <DeveloperMode on="1"/> (Report script errors and enable debug key bindings)

[OSE only] Optionally, you can also set <AllowDangerousScriptFunctions on="1"/> if you really need it. This enables the io and os functions. You can use those for debugging on your own machine but don't rely on them. They are disabled for a reason!

[OSE only] Note that in developer mode, the game skips all unnecessary start-up delays and animations. It's a lot less pretty but saves a lot of time when you need to quit & restart Aquaria a lot due to crashing or other problems that may arise during modding.

Editing text files

If you plan to write code or edit some of the game's data files (txt, xml, lua, ...) you should get a proper text editor. Some good choices are:

Windows

• Notepad++ (recommended)
• Notepad2

Linux

• Gedit
• Kate

Mac

• Whatever. Try not to pay too much money.

Multi-platform

• Visual Studio Code
• Qt Creator
• Sublime Text (commercial)
• SciTE

Editing graphics

• Paint.NET (Windows only)
• Krita
• GIMP
• Photoshop (commercial)

Learn Lua

Not required for creating basic mods but for anything fancy you'll need to write (or modify) some scripts.

• Lua 5.1 manual -- very terse and technical, but THE reference.
• Programming in Lua -- THE introduction to Lua.
  • The first edition is freely available but aimed at Lua 5.0 (Aquaria uses 5.1), but the same concepts apply.