New to modding - any pointers/advice for first project

Hi everyone,

I'm Kieran. I have just started getting back into SHAR this year probably for the first time since I was kid and playing it on the old PS2 and it's so amazing to see a community and development team dedicated to creating mods for this amazing game. So far, I have played the SHAR Plus mod, Donut Mod 4 and Cops in Springfield and I loved every one of them.

So I was thinking of creating my own mod or two. I have no experience at all of creating mods for anything but have seen there are tutorials out there for this game which is great to see. As I used to play with my cousin I thought I could create one as a bit of a surprise for him. We used to watch Brooklyn Nine Nine a lot - proud to be fans since season 1. This might sound a bit stupid but I thought maybe I could create a Simpsons version of Jake Peralta and add him to the game - with quotes that I could trim and add in from the episodes.

Ideally, I think it would be cool to add him and replace him over Wiggum in the Cops in Springfield Mod so that Jake Peralta could free roam and do the missions within this mod. Initially, I would love just to create him and add his quotes in. I know cutscenes before missions would be strange with Wiggum's voice and the same for some missions where Wiggum says unique quotes for that particular mission but maybe that can be changed later down the line.

So in general, I'm not sure how do-able this is for someone very new to modding. Also whether it would be possible to create this mod over Colou's existing Cops in Springfield mod - is this possible? or forbidden here? If it isn't possible, I could create him for Level 2 of the original game and change the starting vehicle to the police car.

As far as creating the actual character goes, I'm also a bit stumped. I'm not the most creative type. I haven't used Blender before (if that's the program to actually create Simpsons characters on?) But I'd be willing to give something a go if there are any tutorials for creating your own Simpsons characters and adding them to the game? Also, If there are any tutorials about adding and applying character quotes in the game (i.e. the short phrase Homer would say when he crashes his car) that would be fantastic!

Again, if someone could also advise whether creating a mod over Cops in Springfield is possible at all and whether it would be fair to the original creator that would be great.

I have lots of patience and a bit of free time at the moment so I'd be very happy to accept any advice that would come my way (even if it's to say it's not possible or that my idea sucks)

Thanks very much,

Kieran

Hey there!
Creating a mod over another mod is possible, as an addon, but you should talk to the author first before making any decisions
As for modding in general - I'd advice you to start off by creating separate independent mods just for fun and/or learning purposes.
I suggest you to either watch the tutorials you found, find some more here, or simply lurk inside the game files, trying to make out how they work on your own. Additionally, joining the DT Discord would prove itself very useful
Creating mods isn't really a hard process, mostly depends on the complexity and your personal time constraints. I'd advice you to start off with a simple retexture mod, then move onto custom missions, and finally, 3D Modelling
As for 3D modelling - I...can't really explain how to learn it, just try to model stuff out in general. Personally, I just jumped into Blender without any learning, and every 2 minutes or so went googling on how to make a certain thing in it. Naturally, I was able to remember stuff and move on

That's kinda it, hope this helps!

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for the reply and the info. Really appreciated!

That's all really useful too. I will definitely take it all into account. I did come across your tutorials on YouTube the other day and they looked great so I'll definitely go through them as well as some of the topics on this forum too as you suggested. I'll set aside some time to go through everything and see how far I can go.

Thanks again

Kieran