Webfishing Modding Guide

This guide will walk you through the entire process of decompiling the game Webfishing, setting up a modding environment exporting your mod, and using it in-game!

Prerequisites

• GDRE Tools: For decompiling the game files (Download GDRE Tools)
• GodotSteam v3.21: For running the decompiled game in Godot (Download GodotSteam v3.21)

Development Resources

• GodotPCKExplorer: Allows you to view pck files without having to decompile them.This is useful because it allows you to double click on .pck files and open them easily (I recommend not to do this with webfishing.pck, but mainly to check your own mods) Get it here
• My Comfy APIs: Makes writing mods a whole lot easier. Allows you to get the current or remote players and variables, and register keybinds which work with the in-game settings. USE THE APIS!!
• Lure API: If you want to mod ANY fish, props, bobbers, colors, player customization, accessories, voices, patterns, items, or even maps. USE LURE!!.

Steps

1. Decompile Webfishing

1. Download the latest version of GDRE Tools for Windows.
2. Locate webfishing.exe inside the WEBFISHING folder where Webfishing is installed via Steam.

3. Use GDRE Tools to load the webfishing.exe file (do not attempt to decompile the .exe).
4. Do a Full Recovery with GDRE Tools
   • Note: All game code and assets are stored within webfishing.exe
   • Note: This was previously in a file titled webfishing.pck which does not exist anymore, but may possibly be where to find it at some other point?
5. Open the folder where you exported the webfishing exe and keep it open for later! This is important later!

This process will create a fully functional Godot project from the game files.

2. In GodotSteam, make a new project specifically for your mod,

1. Download GodotSteam v3.21.
2. EXTRACT GodotSteam win64-g352-s158-gs321.zip and open that folder
3. Create a new text file titled steam_appid.txt
4. Open the newly created steam_appid.txt in notepad or your favourite text editor, and set the contents to only 3146520, then save it.

5. Open windows-352-editor-64bit.exe to open the GodotSteam editor

6. Create a new project specifically for your mod

7. Once you've created your new mod, right click on res:// and click Open in File Manager

4. Keep this folder open for Section 3, you will thank me later!

3. Set Up the Mod Directory Structure

1. In the root of your Mod Project, create a new folder structure: mods/authorname.modname.
   • Replace authorname with your username.
   • Replace modname with the name of your mod.
2. Inside mods/authorname.modname, create a file called main.gd.
   • Note: This is the script file for your mod, which you will be editing later
   • Note: GDWeave, the WEBFISHING modloader, run your mods/authorname.modname/main.gd file automatically, and mounts your mod in /root/authorname.modname (authorname.modname is specified in manifest.json of your mod).

3. Ensure that both the decompiled webfishing PCK folder from earlier, and the new project folder are open!
4. Open a Command Prompt as Admin by pressing the Windows key and typing "Command Prompt" then right clicking it and running it as admin
5. Copy the following command into Command Prompt
   • Replace webfishing with the full path to your decompiled webfishing folder, then replace mymod with the full path to your new mod folder

   mklink /J "webfishing/mods" "mymod/mods"

   Example:

   mklink /J "C:\Users\Blue\Desktop\webfishing\mods" "C:\Users\Blue\Documents\My Mods\mods"

Now, whenever you edit your mod's files inside of the Decompiled Godot project, the changes will sync to your empty project, this will save you a LOT of trouble later.

You can now close your mod's GodotSteam project by simply exiting GodotSteam.

4. Load the Game in GodotSteam

1. Open the decompiled Webfishing project that you've just exported in GodotSteam.
2. Ensure that there is a "mods" folder in the File Manager. If not, ensure that you've followed Step 2 properly.

3. You can now test the game in the editor by pressing F5!

5. Make your mod!

Follow this guide to make your mod!

Guide: Make your Mod!

6. Testing Your Mod in GodotSteam

Godot itself does not support mod loading like GDWeave does by default. To test your mod within GodotSteam:

1. Go to Project > Project Settings in the top menu.

2. Select the AutoLoad tab.
3. Under "Path," click the folder icon, and select your main.gd file within mods/authorname.modname/main.gd.
4. Under "Name," name it with your mod name AuthorName.ModName, but remove the dot here!
   • This setup allows GodotSteam to load your mod within the decompiled project. This works by creating a new node in "/root/AuthorName.ModName" with your main.gd script attached to it, simulating how GDWeave loads your mod in game.
5. Once you've done all of this, click Add,

The next instructions are entirely optional, but make development and finding errors in your mods MUCH EASIER by removing the game's built in print spam!!

6. Make sure you're in the "Script" tab at the top middle of the screen

7. Press Ctrl+Shift+R (CMD+Shift+R on Mac) to open find and replace

8. Set Find: to print( and set Replace: to pass #print#(

9. Click Replace..., then click Replace All (NO UNDO)

Now, if you print("anything to the console") or get any errors, you can find them in the output section at the very bottom of your screen

You can click Clear on the output to clear the output at any point

You can now press F5 to launch Webfishing in the engine and test/debug your mod.

If you did everything correctly, the game should launch and start normally!

7. Exporting Your Mod

1. Close your Decompiled Webfishing project, and open GodotSteam Editor again to open your mod's own GodotSteam project you created in Section 2 Step 6

2. Create a brand new folder inside of WEBFISHING/GDWeave/Mods (your steam installation folder of WEBFISHING) called authorname.modname

3. Go to Project > Export.

4. If you see this at the bottom of your screen

• Click Manage Export Templates->Download & Install

5. Create a new Windows Export Template

6. Under Options, disable Runnable.

7. If you are using any dependencies (BlueberryWolfiAPI, Lure, etc) make sure not to export those with your mod!!

   • Do this by going to the Resources tab, and changing the export mode to `Export Selected Resources (and dependencies)
   • After which, only select your mod in mods/ and not any dependencies/APIs!
   • 

8. Choose Export PCK/zip and ensure Export with Debug is disabled, then save it into the folder you created in step 1.

8. Adding the Mod to Webfishing

1. Open the mod export folder you created for your mod earlier in WEBFISHING/GDWeave/Mods in Section 6, step 2.

2. Inside your mod's folder, create a manifest.json file with the following content:

   {
     "Id": "authorname.modname",
     "PackPath": "modname.pck",
     "Dependencies": [
       "authorname.dependencyname"
     ]
   }

   • Replace authorname with your username.
   • Replace modname with the name of your mod. Note: The Dependencies field can be removed if your mod does not have any dependencies.

If you're using my Comfy API, like the example project does, make sure to add my API to your manifest.json!

"Dependencies": [
	"BlueberryWolfi.APIs"
]

Example:

You've just created your very own mod! You can now launch WEBFISHING and it will load, and you can share it with other people by sending them the folder to your mod in WEBFISHING\GDWeave\Mods. Isn't that amazing??

Best Practices

The next section is for Developers to learn the best practices to implement while developing mods for GDWeave using GDScript before releasing them to the world

Make sure to follow the Best Practices for WEBFISHING mods using GDWeave