Modding Riverworld | Rivermod
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My history with Riverworld
Years ago, I picked-up a copy of Cryo Interactive’s 1998 RTS, Riverworld, from a bargain bin at Big Lots. It was my first exposure to the genre and one of the first 3D PC games I had ever played. I had no knowledge of the books it was based on but found myself immediately entranced by the game’s atmosphere.
Riverworld creates one of the most unique atmosphere's I've seen in a game.
Unfortunately, I could never quite beat the game as a kid but I did find other ways to enjoy it. Being curious about how games worked, I tried poking around the game’s files and quickly realized I could edit textures and give myself unfair advantages in the levels. Eventually, I moved on to newer fancier games but I never forgot about Riverworld.
Fine, I’ll do it myself
Last year, I finally decided to pick up Riverworld and beat it. As I played the game again, I remembered the fun I had modding it as a kid but was surprised to find almost no resources about the game online. Having some reverse-engineering know-how, I decided then to start building my own modding tools.
Now, almost exactly one year later, the first release of the tool is ready. Rivermod v0.1.0 is freely available to download from my GitHub along with a wealth of research I’ve done into the game’s proprietary file types. It’s by no means done (the tool really only allows managing saves and viewing maps/models at this time) but there’s enough research available to customize levels, change enemy behaviors, and more.
Rivermod's save manager, map viewer, and model viewer
Game preservation
Along with the modding tools, I’ve documented how to run the game on modern hardware and even tips for playing if you’re bad at RTS games (like me).
I’ve also contributed several high resolution scans of the game’s box, CD case inserts, and manual to archive.org to help preserve the game’s legacy.
What’s next
Rivermod is a project I’m very passionate about; however, I recognize that not many people will use it (if any) and because of that I can’t justify spending too much more time on it. Part of the reason it took so long to release was me wrestling with that fact.
Regardless, I do have designs to cleanup some of the project’s jank (don’t look at the map viewer or model viewer code unless you want to take psychic damage) and to enhance it with editing and export capabilities for the levels and maps respectively; however, this is a low priority for me since it is already possible to mod the game manually using the information I published to its wiki.
That’s where YOU come in.
Rivermod is completely open source and permissively licensed. If you’d like to dabble in the preservation of a game through modding, I’ll welcome any contributions to the code, file research, or UI/UX design.
Closing thoughts
Even if you don’t have an interest in modding, I’d still recommend everyone at least give this game a try. It’s not hard to find copies for cheap on Ebay and the game is genuinely unique for reasons I could yap about for hours. If nothing else, the box art will make one hell of a cool decoration.