Steam Workshop integration comes alongside the full release of the powerful REDkit modding tools.
As promised earlier this month—and commemorated for all time by news writer Joshua Wolens, who saw fit to mark the moment with a haunting image of Bathtub Zoltan Chivay—the REDkit modding tools for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and full Steam Workshop support, are now live.
The Witcher 3 mods are plentiful already thanks to the release of Modkit in 2015. But Modkit isn't REDkit: While it enables users to mess around with what's already in the game—turn Roach into a unicorn, for instance—it doesn't enable the creation of entirely new content. REDkit does, including quests, cutscenes, environments, and more, which is what makes the rollout such a big deal: Throw Doug Cockle a few bucks and you could basically make your own full-on expansion.
"You’re about to get your hands on the same set of tools that RED developers used to create The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt almost a decade ago—refurbished and adjusted to the needs of modders!" CD Projekt said in the release announcement. "It’s an end-to-end solution that gives you bigger freedom than ever before in customising all elements of the game."
To support both mod makers and users, the studio has also rolled out a dedicated Witcher 3 REDkit website and a detailed user guide, and a series of video tutorials is on the way. The first video, explaining how to install Witcher 3 mods, is already live:
The addition of Steam Workshop support in The Witcher 3 is separate from the REDkit launch but obviously very complementary because it dramatically simplifies the process of installing and using them. It's still possible to download and install mods manually from platforms like Nexus Mods, so they remain available and nothing changes for anyone who owns the game on GOG and Epic. But anything on Steam Workshop can be installed simply by clicking a button and waiting for the game to update.
A handful of mods are already available on Steam, although nothing too major at this point: One adds blood spatter to combat, while another gives Geralt glowing Witcher eyes; there's one that adds Triss' Witcher 2 outfit as her default look, and another that brings back the boat design that was apparently seen in pre-release Witcher 3 promo materials. Over on Nexus Mods, there's a REDkit-made mod that brings several Witcher 1 maps into The Witcher 3, although it's apparently a pretty rough effort at this point. More significant mods will naturally take more time, but I have no doubt we'll be seeing them soon enough.
CD Projekt also held a livestream yesterday talking about the release of REDkit for Witcher 3 and demonstrating some of its capabilities—if making mods is your thing, you can check that out below.
