Modding

Modding in Shapez2 refers to user-created changes to the game that add, alter, or extend gameplay, UI and assets. Mods can range from simple quality-of-life (QOL) tools to entirely new items, machines, platforms, or game modes. Shapez2 is built on the Unity game framework (2022.3.62f2) and natively supports loading mods without requiring an external mod loader. The developers provide documentation and sample code to help modders understand the game's architecture and to develop new content, and a dedicated modding API named ShapezShifter is available to simplify common modding tasks.

Mods for Shapez2 are published and distributed through the Steam Workshop, where players can browse and subscribe to mods and allow the game to automatically download them. Official and community-maintained resources cover multiple aspects of mod creation, including development environment setup, mod loading behavior, debugging practices, publishing workflows, command line arguments relevant to modding, and how game files are organized for modders. There are both official documents from the developers and unofficial community resources that provide additional details and examples.

Available documentation includes the developer-provided modding documentation and art and asset guidelines, sample mod repositories, and community-maintained references. The Shapez2 modding ecosystem makes use of tooling and libraries commonly used in Unity modding, and community resources reference utilities such as MonoMod RuntimeDetour and HarmonyX for runtime patching and detouring. The sample mods and the ShapezShifter repository are useful starting points to see working examples and common patterns for registering new content, assets, and behaviors.

• Use the official modding documentation and art/asset guidelines as primary references for creating content that integrates cleanly with the game.
• Consult the sample mods and the ShapezShifter API to learn how to register new machines, items, platforms and custom game modes, and to follow established mod structure and naming conventions.
• Publish finished mods to the Steam Workshop to make them easily discoverable and automatically downloadable by players.
• Use community resources such as the unofficial modding docs and assembly/class references when you need deeper insight into game internals; these resources supplement the official docs and sample code.
• For runtime patching or detouring, community tooling like MonoMod RuntimeDetour and HarmonyX are commonly referenced; follow the documentation for those projects when applying runtime changes.
• Test mods thoroughly using the provided debugging workflows and command line options to ensure stability and compatibility with other mods.

Modding in Shapez2 is supported both by official developer guidance and an active community. Beginning modders should start with the official docs and sample mods to learn the standard project layout and API usage, then consult community references and the ShapezShifter examples to expand functionality.