Table of Contents:

• Basic Setup
  • Installing an IDE
  • New Project/Solution
  • Add & Use References
  • Overriding the WildfrostMod
  • Debug with Line Numbers
• Advanced Setup - Assembly Stripping

If you already have an IDE for C#, skip this section. Otherwise, here are the steps to install Visual Studios:

1. Find and download some version of Visual Studio (the purple logo). Here is the Microsoft website: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/

2. Run the installer. It will ask you which workloads you want to install. You must install "ASP.NET and web development" or something similar. Optionally, you would also want to install "Game Development with Unity" though this is not necessary.

3. Wait for the installation to finish.

In your prefered IDE(Visual Studio/Jetbrains Rider) create a solution with such settings

or a project from this template

Your IDE should look something like this

Firstly we have to add references to game dlls, press the "add reference..." button and locate them in [GameRoot]/Modded/Wildfrost_Data/Managed folder. ([GameRoot] is usually C:/Program Files (X86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Wildfrost. If not, you can figure out where [GameRoot] is by right-clicking Wildfrost on Steam and going to Properties > Installed Files > Browse.).

The essential references are Assembly-CSharp.dll, 0Harmony.dll, DeadExtensions.dll, and the dlls starting with "Unity". You are recommended to add all of them EXCEPT mscorlib.dll and the dlls starting with "System". Trying to add those references will typically throw an error.

Now, we have to tell the code that we are using parts of the dlls we just referenced, usually their type or namespace. Add these lines at the top of your code:

using Deadpan.Enums.Engine.Components.Modding; // this allows us to make WildfrostMod's
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using UnityEngine;

Next we have to derive (or extend) our main class from the WildfrostMod class, by adding : WildfrostMod after the name of the class. This allows us our class to override (or inherit) properties that are needed for a WildfrostMod. For now, you'll immediately be hit with 4 errors:

The way we implement these is by overriding those properties (by literally writing override <name> to override the <name> property). While it doesn't error, you'll also need to implement a special constructor. No need to worry what this means, other than that any code put here will always run when the game starts.

// ... usings

namespace ProjectName
{
   public class OurMod : WildfrostMod
   {
      // Our mod's constructor
      public OurMod(string modDirectory) : base(modDirectory)
      {
      }
      
      public override string GUID => "yourName.wildfrost.projectName"; //[creator name].[game name].[mod name] is standard convention. LOWERCASE!
      public override string[] Depends => new string[] { }; //The GUIDs of other mods that must load before yours. Usually empty
      public override string Title => "Mod title";
      public override string Description => "Mod description";
   }
}

The Title and Description variables are the title and description of your mod respectively. As titles are not unique, the GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) serves as the unique identifier for your mod. All builders will automatically prefix names with the GUID. The typical convention is [name].[game name].[mod name], so a card that you add in the game via CardDataBuilder is named [name].[game name].[mod name].[card name] internally. The Depends variable is used to list the other mods (by GUID) that your mod depends on. The game will ensure all mods listed in depends are loaded before yours.

Now we have a basic mod project all set up! Look at other pages for more tutorials.

By default, errors thrown during Wildfrost will indicate what class/method the error occurs in but not the line number. To fix this for your mod code, head to the settings of your project. In Visual Studios, this can be done by double-clicking Properties in the solution explorer (see the first picture in the Add & Use References section). In the settings, go to Build > Output > Advanced > Debugging Information and change "Full" to "Embedded" as shown below. Now your code will be easier to debug!

This part of the project set up is not necessary to do immediately. Come back later once you have read/done other things. Assembly stripping is meant to give you access to originally inaccessible (private) variables and methods.

See Advanced Project Setup - Assembly Stripping for more