Learning to code can seem quite intimidating at first, but as modding proves, understanding the basics and slowly building up skills can make it far easier.

This is why mod-friendly games such as Minecraft are so essential to teaching coding basics and why they are part of exciting and engaging coder camps for budding game designers, but outside of this, modding is also the backbone of gaming culture.

Many games only exist now because of their modding scene inspiring new players to give it a try, and recently, a game mod was recognised by the Gamer Edition of the Guinness World Records as the best-selling computer-exclusive game of all time.

Over 20 million copies of Garry’s Mod have been sold, with over 20,000 players actively playing at any one time according to SteamDB, which is astonishing for a game that was first launched in 2006, nearly 20 years ago.

Like a lot of mods, Garry’s Mod started off as the side project of a programmer named Garry Newman (not the new wave musician) whilst working on a side-scrolling action game called Facewound.

Garry’s Mod was a mod for the Source Engine, and required a game using the source engine to be installed in order to play it, which was usually either Half-Life 2 or Counter-Strike: Source. 

Eventually, Mr Newman had a lot more fun tinkering with his sandbox mod and all of the interesting opportunities for creativity that it presented, getting so popular that it got the attention of Valve, makers of the Source Engine.

This turned the free mod into a full standalone game, albeit one that still required at least one other Source game to function, but unlike other very popular games and game mods, no attempt was ever made to port it to another console.

Facepunch Studios, the makers of Garry’s Mod, used its enduring success to make the survival game Rust, a game that rather fittingly benefits from a lot of support from a thriving modding community.