11Bit cracks open This War Of Mine with new modding tools

Polish developer 11Bit Studios is cracking open the heart of its IGF award-winning survival game This War Of Mine this week by rolling out a suite of modding tools to the public.

The studio has long promised to open the game up to modders as a way to extend its lifespan, and the new tools in the latest This War Of Mine update will make it easier for creative types to design new scenarios, events and items for the game.

It's common to see developers open their games up for public tinkering -- Dennaton j ust addeda (beta) level editor to Hotline Miami 2 earlier this week -- but 11Bit's decision to do so is especially intriguing becaues This War Of Mine was so specifically tuned for emotional impact.

"In This War of Mine , there is often no good or obvious choice," creative director Michal Drozdowski told The New Yorkerearlier this year. "It’s always simply about trying to survive the night, in the hope that, in the morning, the guns will have stopped."

Now that players can create their own guns and muck around with the game's systems to their hearts' content, it will be interesting to see what sort of scenarios they create.