Minecraft Modding Wiki

Welcome to the Minecraft Modding Wiki
Welcome! If you've ever wanted to make a mod for Minecraft, this is a good place to start!

Skills for Modding
Minecraft and its mods are written in the Java programming language, therefore many people will say you need to know Java. No, you don't, however, a basic understanding of how an object-oriented programming language operates is a welcome start. In order to write really complex mods at least some knowledge of java helps a great deal. If you are not familiar with the syntax of Java, the Tutorials will explain most of the concepts behind the code, however this is not a dedicated Java tutorial site, so we recommend that you brush up on a few concepts before starting.

Software for Modding
To start making mods, you only need four things. You can even do with the first three if you don't intend to mod graphics. Now if you only want to create simple mods which are not intended for distribution, that's enough. If you want your mods to work in collaboration with other mods, more things are needed.
 * 1) Some development environment. Even a simple text editor like Notepad++ can be used, but the recommended solution is the Eclipse IDE, since that is what the game was written in. See Setting Up Eclipse for more details on how to set it up.
 * 2) An MCP installation. This is optional if you're just making a small mod, but if you are planning a more complex mod, this will assist you greatly. MCP is the Minecraft Coder Pack. Without it it is really, really difficult to create any mods and that requires complex knowledge on how to disassemble an obfuscated .jar package and even more. See setting up MCP for more details on how to set yourself a Minecraft Coder Pack.
 * 3) Some image editor, that can output 24-bit PNG files with alpha transparency. MS Paint won't do. Photoshop would be fine, but it costs a lot of money. We recommend using Paint.net (it's free and easy to use), but any editor that meets the above requirements will do fine. Anyway, setting up image editor and actually using it is not currently covered here.

Optional
These are topics that are not completely necessary, but do add some flexibility to modding. There are currently no pages on this wiki for how to set these things up, but they will hopefully be available in the future.
 * ModLoader by Risugami. See setting up modloader with MCP for detailed information on how to set up and decompile ModLoader for modding.
 * ModLoaderMP by SDK. Currently It is unmaintained and there is an unofficial update for compatibility with minecraft 1.8.1

Required
Hypothetically speaking, you do not need Forge to make a mod, but the tutorials on this wiki use it, and it allows access to many more of the items in the game's files, so for these reasons we make Forge a must. Now with this set up you are ready to start modding.
 * Minecraft Forge. This is an extension to the game for inter-mod compatibility, and currently is an upcoming standard for mod development. Many major mod developers are switching to using it instead of their own implementations! See adding Forge to MCP for more details.
 * Java SE Development Kit 8. Version 7 will not fit. See How to Setup JDK 8 for more details on how to set it up.

Getting Started
Making a mod can seem like a challenging task at first, but with a bit of guidance and experience, you'll be coding mods in no time!

1.8 Modding

 * For tutorials on modding step-by-step, check out the Tutorials page.


 * For a tutorial on setting up Eclipse to make a 1.8 mod, visit the Setting Up Eclipse page.

1.7 Modding

 * We will most likely not be posting tutorials for the 1.7 modding environment due to the recent release of 1.8.

Class Reference
A comprehensive list of every class in Minecraft including methods, variables, and their functions can be found on the Class Reference page.