Besides being a fun expression of creativity and a fantastic way to learn coding, modding can often lead to a future in programming and computer game development.

Outside of the many times people who modded Minecraft transitioned into game development, one game company is offering a substantial cash prize as part of a modding contest.

The makers of Frostpunk 2, 11 Bit Studios, launched a contest to showcase the creativity and evolution of the game’s modding community, as well as the scope to develop the game and its unique survival mechanics further.

Frostpunk 2, the 2024 brutally difficult city survival game, is focused on trying to keep a colony of people alive in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a cataclysmic blizzard.

Modding contests are found in a lot of games as a way for a community to come together and show their skills, but what makes this particular contest unique is the scale of the prizes on offer.

Alongside the $10,000 prize for the best overall mod, four other makers have a chance of winning a custom graphics card for the best mod in specific categories.

These include mods which affect the game’s politics and factions systems, ones that add new locations and settlements, ones that alter the city mechanics, and ones that add new skins, graphics and art.

As well as this, three honourable mentions that impress the judges will each win a goodie bag from 11 Bit Studios.

The judges, which include the development team, representatives from a major mod repository and experienced creators from the game’s modding community, are primarily focused on mods that are creative, add playability and are fun above anything else.

What makes this particularly interesting is it showcases just how much developers are not just accepting but are embracing modding, with increasingly large prizes to reward the effort and creativity that go into them.