Dead Cells Core Modding (WIP)

A Dead Cells Modding API/loader.

Warning

This project is under active development. Breaking changes may be made to APIs with zero notice.

Download the latest build here

Roadmap

• Simple Hook
• Basic interoperability
• Game object proxy objects in .NET
  • Enum support
  • Object support
  • Virtual support
  • Closure support
  • Override Virtual Method
• Edit game bytecode dynamically
• More convenient BuildSystem
• Linux platform support

Requirement

• .NET 9 runtime or higher
• Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package (2015-2022)

Installation

1. Get the core file from nightly link or releases
2. Unzip it to the game root directory

The folder structure should be similar to the following

<DeadCellsGameRoot>
|
+- coremod
|  |
|  +- core
|  |  |
|  |  +- native
|  |  |  |
|  |  |  +- ...
|  |  |
|  |  +- mdk
|  |  |	 |
|  |  |  +- install.ps1
|  |  |  |
|  |  |  +- uninstall.ps1
|  |  |  |
|  |  |  +- ...
|  |  |
|  |  +- host
|  |  |  |
|  |  |  +- startup
|  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  +- DeadCellsModding.exe
|  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  +- ...
|  |  |  +- ...
|  |  +- ...
|  +- ...
|
+- deadcells.exe
|
+- deadcells_gl.exe
|
+- ...

Mods Development

Here are some examples.

Preparation

1. Install .NET SDK 9
2. Install Dead Cells Core Modding as above
3. Run <DeadCellsGameRoot>/coremod/core/mdk/install.ps1 to configure the environment

Create a mod project

1. Create a library project based on .NET 9
2. Add package reference DeadCellsCoreModding.MDK
3. Add the following to your csproj file

<PropertyGroup>
	<!--Enter the mod name here-->
	<ModName>$(AssemblyName)</ModName>

	<!--
	Enter mod type here

	Available values:
		mod: Normal mod
		library: Library
	-->
	<ModType>mod</ModType>

	<!--Enter the full name of the mod's main type here-->
	<ModMain>ModNamespace.MainModClass</ModMain>
</PropertyGroup>

Build

Build the mod using dotnet build. The default output directory is $(OutputPath)/output/

Usage

Startup

Start the game from <DeadCellsGameRoot>/coremod/core/host/startup/DeadCellsModding.exe

Mods Installation

1. Create <DeadCellsGameRoot>/coremod/mods folder if it does not exist.
2. Move the mods files into the mods folder. The folder structure should look like this:

mods
|
+- <ModName>
|  |
|  +- modinfo.json
|  |
|  +- ...
|
+- ...

Warning

<ModName> must be exactly the same as the name property in modinfo.json, otherwise the mods loader will refuse to load the mods

Development

Requirement

• .NET SDK 9
• CMake
• nasm

Build

Windows

1. Clone the repository
2. Run buildWin.ps1

Credit

• MonoMod
• HashlinkNET from DreamBoxSpy
• DeadCellsDecomp and alivecells from N3rdL0rd
• Hashlink from HaxeFoundation

License

Distributed under the MIT license.

Disclaimer

Dead Cells Core Modding is in no way associated with Motion Twin.