Basic Prerequisites
Before consulting any of the Basic-level guides, please read below so you are prepared for Basic-level concepts.
The Basic guides don't require too much programming knowledge, but they do require a basic understanding of C# syntax. Please read and internalize the following.
Another thing you will need is a text editor. Your operating system comes with one, but there are better ones available. Below is a list of more powerful text editors. (for Windows, Linux and Mac)
- Notepad++ - Windows only
- Sublime Text
- Vim
- Visual Studio Code
- GNU Emacs (and its iterations)
Why do we need a good text editor? A good text editor can open multiple files in tabs, highlight syntax and keywords, and provide line numbers. Furthermore most if not all of these editors come with extensible settings and keyboard shortcuts. (and sometimes even plug-ins/addons!) All of these features will make modding much easier. See below to see how much more capable Notepad++ is compared to Notepad:
You might have heard of Visual Studio. We will discuss IDEs later in Intermediate Prerequisites. If you are familiar with programming or feel confident, feel free to skip the Text Editor stage of skill to go straight to the IDE stage.
One last thing you will need is a picture editor. We will make all our sprites in this program. MS Paint will NOT work, as it can not save transparent pixels. See below for commonly used programs used by modders:
- Krita -- Krita is a free and Open-Source raster graphics editor capable of making pixelart sprites as refferenced on this video
- GNU Image Manipulator (GIMP) -- Free and Open-Source cross-platform image editor with support for pretty much everything, but it's initial configuration is complicated. Referencing video demonstraction
- Inkscape -- Free and Open-Source vector graphics editor as referenced on this video
- Adobe Photoshop -- Very capable, but expensive and not intended for sprite work
- Piskel -- Free and quite popular amongst spriters
- Aseprite -- Open-source, meaning it's free, but you have to compile it yourself since they don't distribute copies for free. You can also get Aseprite at a cost on Steam here. As a plus, Aseprite is built for spriting, and it's fairly easy and intuitive to use.
Now that you are prepared, please visit Basic tModLoader Modding Guide and follow the steps within before attempting any Basic-Level guides.