The studio behind Valheim, Iron Gate, has released statement providing its thoughts on mods being created for the popular co-op survival game. In the statement, the studio talks about being happy to see so many mods being developed for Valheim despite the game not featuring any official support or tools for the creation or use of mods.
The studio makes it clear that, while it is happy to see mods being made, the lack of official support for modding Valheim means that players creating or using mods are doing so at their own risk. “We can’t guarantee that mods will be compatible with newer versions of the game,” said the studio.
The primary topic of the statement, however, is on the nature of mods that cost money. While the studio remains sympathetic to mod creators that spend a lot of their own time and resources on creating their mods, and understands that these creators might want some sort of compensation for their work, Iron Gate does not condone putting mods behind a paywall.
“We feel that charging money for a mod is against the creative and open spirit of modding itself, and therefore we urge all mod authors to make their mods freely available to all who want to play them,” said the studio in the statement. “This should include the whole mod, and not just have part of the mod available for free while another part of it costs money.”
The studio does, however, think it’s fine for a mod author to request support from the playerbase through voluntary donations, such as through a link where players can donate some money or seek funding through Patreon. Locking mods behind a paywall, however, is strictly disallowed.
Iron Gate has also requested that mod authors make it clear that their mods are unofficial at places where mods are available. This is largely to avoid player confusion when they join a server and mods are automatically being downloaded for the game.