Modding Project Zomboid is an education in how real-world game engines evolve over time.
Very quickly, you realize that “the API” is only half the story.
The other half lives in places such as:
- update loops
- lifecycle hooks
- shared mutable state
- undocumented invariants
Many modders hit limitations and assume they are arbitrary.
In practice, they are often architectural signals:
- this system was never designed to be re-entered
- this data is assumed immutable after initialization
- this logic only works because something else already ran
Once you stop treating the engine as a black box and start treating it as a system, your mods change fundamentally:
- less brute-force logic
- fewer timing hacks
- fewer hidden dependencies
Modding stops being about “making features work” and starts being about aligning with the engine’s internal model.
That shift is the same one required when working on large, long-lived production codebases.
Top comments (6)
Great insights! This really highlights how modding forces you to _understand _a system rather than just use an API. Dealing with execution order, lifecycle hooks, and implicit engine assumptions is exactly the kind of architectural thinking that pays off in large, real-world codebases. It’s a great reminder that working within constraints can be one of the best ways to level up as a developer.
Absolutely agree. Modding strips away the illusion of control — you’re forced to reason about execution order, state ownership, and hidden invariants instead of relying on clean abstractions.
That kind of constraint-driven work builds real architectural instincts: defensive design, explicit assumptions, and systems that fail gracefully. Those skills transfer directly to large production codebases 🚀
APIs teach syntax. Constraints teach systems thinking.
Indeed, Dominik — I really appreciate your posts making this clear for someone like me, who is just dipping their toes into the game development waters.
Oh, I wishlisted Project Zomboid, by the way.
That means a lot — glad the posts help 👍
Game dev has a steep but rewarding learning curve, and modding is a great way to ease into it without getting lost in engine internals too early. Project Zomboid in particular is excellent for understanding systems over spectacle.
Also: great choice on the wishlist 😄 It’s one of those games where you learn just as much from how it breaks as from how it works.
Actually dipping my toes into factorio modding. wanna expand my knowledge
If u wanna see content for that, let me know. I will post my journey then.
They really do help, and I appreciate the time you take on them.
More Zomboid related posts will always be welcome - more so now it's on my wishlist - but I'd certainly like to read about your modding journey with Factorio too!
Thanks, that genuinely means a lot — I’m glad they’re useful 🙂
Project Zomboid definitely lends itself well to writing about systems, constraints, and emergent behavior, so there’s more coming there for sure.
Factorio modding is a different beast, but for exactly that reason it’s tempting to document as well — it’s pure systems design from the first minute. I’ll see where the journey leads 🚀