Dying Light will get official modding tools, developing studio Techland said, resolving a misunderstanding with the community in which modding appeared to have been wiped out by a patch and mods that had been released were taken down on copyright infringement notices.
"Modders were a massive part of our gaming community since Call of Juarez 2 and Dead Island — and we wish to continue that with Dying Light," Techland said in a statement. "This invitation is only the first stage of our cooperation with the gaming community. After the modding tools are released, we plan to actively support the coolest mods created by players."
A specific release date for mod tools was not given. However, Techland has already set up a modding forum where users may share ideas.
Last week, Dying Light released a patch whose anti-cheating methods also stripped out the means for user-made mods to work. That was followed by several takedown notices, sent under the auspices of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, that removed Dying Light mods from where they were hosted. The Entertainment Software Association later said the takedown notices were a mistake, improperly sent by a third-party vendor on its behalf.
Though the two incidents were inadvertent and apparently unrelated they created the impression of a crackdown against modding. The rollout of official tools should put the matter fully to rest.
For more on Dying Light, which launched Jan. 27, see our review. Polygon scored the game a 6.5, praising it for "great ideas and a great setting that bring new life to overplayed subject matter," but saying that the disproportionate attention given to the undead "distracts from the things that Dying Light does well.