One of the best stepping stones to learning how to code is to try game modding. A lot of game designers started out by taking their favourite games and tweaking them to suit their needs.

One reason why a Minecraft modding course is particularly helpful is that the game is exceptionally mod-friendly, with many elements of the game easily customisable using basic programming principles and graphic design tools.

On the other hand, other mods seek to transform and expand games in a way that is gigantic in scope, and some of these end up becoming standalone games in their own right.

These are some of the biggest mods ever made.

The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic is considered to be one of the greatest games ever made, and its sequel had the potential to reach that level, were it not rushed to completion in less than a year.

This led to so much content being cut from Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords that dedicated players created many mods to bring that content back.

Their crowning achievement was The Sith Lords Restored, a mod that brings back all of the quests, characters and alternate endings that were missing from the original, as well as fixing several very nasty bugs.

Black Mesa

Half-Life was an amazing game that was ahead of its time in showing what games could be. However, Valve’s remake of the game, Half-Life: Source was pretty empty and lifeless.

A group known as the Crowbar Collective made a radical remake of the game using its sequel’s Source engine that was supported by Valve themselves.

Skywind

The Elder Scrolls are a series of greatly influential and highly popular RPG games, but due to their age and a lot of programming issues are not quite as playable on modern systems.

Enter the Elder Scrolls Renewal Project, a series of hugely ambitious mods that recreate these older games using the engine from Skyrim.

The most recent game, Skywind, was a huge undertaking, with 70,000 rerecorded lines of dialogue and 70 volunteers working on new features, graphics and quests to make it the best it can be.