This repo is a solid starting point for new Starbound mods, intended for folks developing on Linux or macOS (wherein their native Starbound versions don't have the graphical mod tools present in the Windows version). This might work on Windows via Windows Subsystem for Linux, but I can make no guarantees and any support on my end will be minimal, at best.
- Starbound (obviously)
- GNU Make
- On Linux: install it with your package manager (usually the
package is just called
make) - On macOS: install it via Homebrew (
brew install make), and any time you seemakein the below instructions replace it withgmake(so:make upload→gmake upload)
- On Linux: install it with your package manager (usually the
package is just called
- direnv
- SteamCMD, if
you want to upload to the Steam Workshop with
make uploadper below
Once you've created a new repo with this as a basis (e.g. by using
this as a template for a new GitHub repo, via the relevant UI option)
and have cloned it to Starbound's mods folder, there will be some
starting files with which you'll want to familiarize yourself:
You should update this README to describe your mod in more detail.
This is the heart of this template; if you have GNU Make installed, you'll be able to run any of the following in the mod directory:
make: generateout/pkg/$(MODNAME).pakmake upload: generatemetadata.vdfandout/workshop/contents.pak, then use those to create/upload the mod to the Steam Workshopmake clean: cleanup the generatedout/andmetadata.vdf(necessary to make Starbound happy if you're developing within yourmodsfolder, as this repo assumes)
You'll want to change the MODNAME variable at the top from
StarboundMod to the name of your mod.
This is Starbound's usual mod metadata; you'll want to update all of these fields to match the mod you're actually creating. See the Starbound wiki for more information on what this should look like.
This is used with direnv to automatically set
environment variables. Run cp .envrc.sample .envrc, change
STEAMCMD_USER's value to your Steam login name (i.e. the same one
you use to log into Steam itself), and run direnv allow to activate
it. This way, any time you cd into your mod folder, you'll be all
set to run make upload for Steam Workshop uploads.
The Steam Workshop uses this for the preview thumbnail; replace it with your own. 500×500 should do the trick.
This is used to generate metadata.vdf, which sets the info for the
Steam Workshop. You'll want to change the "title" field to whatever
title you want to show up in the Steam Workshop. After your first
successful upload via make upload, the "publishedfileid" field
should automatically be set to whatever ID the Steam Workshop assigned
your mod, but it's worth double-checking lest you accidentally create
duplicate mod pages the next time you run make upload.
This just tells git to leave some files out of the repository; for
example, it's probably not a good idea to tell the whole world your
Steam login name, and it's a good practice to keep package files and
such separate from the published source code.
This sets the legal license for your mod. This template is itself
released under a variant of the ISC
License with the
attribution requirements removed - making it functionally equivalent
to a public domain dedication. If that suits you fine, then go for
it, but most folks tend to want a stricter licenses - in which case
the text of your chosen license would go in the COPYING file.