Valve has long embraced game mods. Most of their popular titles derive from the modding community after all – Counter-Strike, Dota, and Team Fortress were born from mods in the late 90s and early 2000s. Modding tools have been available for these games for a long time, and fan-made content has always been an important part of the Team Fortress community.

Custom content is integral to TF2, with a large portion of content (weapons, maps, and many hats) created by the community and later made official by Valve. And now, Valve has announced a dedicated Team Fortress 2 SDK to open up modding beyond what is currently possible in Source SDK, Valve’s multi-purpose development kit for a range of source engine games.

Team Fortress 2 source code now included in Source SDK 2013

The TF2 SDK is now official, as announced in a post on X (formerly Twitter) and this post on Teamfortress.com. According to the post, the update “will allow content creators to build completely new games based on TF2” and we’re excited about what kind of resurgence this could give to the game. It’s safe to say that TF2’s heyday is long gone, but modders being given more control over the engine opens up a seemingly endless amount of possibilities. The source code is now viewable on GitHub.

Full modding support represents a step up from what is currently possible with Steam Workshop or local content mods, now modders can “change, extend or rewrite TF2, making anything from small tweaks to complete conversions”. However, it’s worth pointing out that mods of this nature cannot be sold commercially.

“The SDK is licensed to users on a non-commercial basis, meaning that any mod created using the SDK must be free, and any content in those mods must be free. TF2 mods may be published on the Steam Store, and after publication will appear as new games in the Steam game list.”

TF2 Team

In addition to this update, Valve says it is “also doing a big update to all our multiplayer back-catalogue Source engine titles” – other than TF2, these include Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Counter-Strike: Source, and Half-Life Deathmatch: Source. These titles are getting 64-bit binary support, a scalable HUD/UI, prediction fixes, and “a lot of other improvements”.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.