Techland promises Dying Light modding tools

Techland has announced that it has plans to bring official modding tools to its freshly-launched survive-'em-up zombie fest Dying Light, requesting suggestions from the community as to what they'd like to see.

A follow-on from the Dead Island series, the well-received Dying Light mixes things up by giving the lead character - who is given the task of surviving a zombie-infested island using scavenged and crafted weaponry ranging from the mundane to the bizarre, naturally - parkour skills which can be used to find alternate routes and avoid direct combat. It's a game crying out for love from the modding community, but until recently it appeared that developer Techland had other things on its mind: a series of third-party mods received Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take-down notices, while the most recent patch prevented a bunch of other mods from working at all.

The company has now set the record straight, indicating that it does indeed support the modding community - and will prove it with the release of official tools to make modifying the game even easier. The DMCA notices, publisher Warner Bros. has officially clarified, came from a third-party vendor and were not supported by the developer nor the publisher; the patch breaking mods, meanwhile, was an unfortunate accident and one which will hopefully be avoided by offering officially-supported tools to the community.

'We want to announce something really special - we are creating our own set of Modding Tools,' Techland community manager Michał Napora stated in a forum thread late last week. 'We're all in awe of some of the modds [sic] we've seen so far - the drop kick that send the zombies into the sky is nuts. It's amazing to see what you guys are able to come up with. Soon, you'll be able to create your own version of a zombie outbreak. We've been working on a set of Modding Tools for some time, but we would also love to hear your thoughts on the issue.'

The forum thread has been opened up for comments, with by far the most-requested feature being a map editor, closely followed by tools for creating new weapons and modifying the inventory along with Steamworks integration for users of Valve's digital distribution platform. Thus far, Napora has not indicated which of these - if any - will make the cut, nor when the tools will be made available for download.