Space Engineers dev offers $100k and full source code to modders

Czech indie studio Keen Software House is making a show of supporting game modders by making the complete source code of its Early Access game Space Engineers publicly available and putting $100K toward funding the creation of total conversion mods based on the game or its engine.

It's a clear show of support for the modding community, which has had a tumultuous few weeks after Valve's paid mod initiative crumpled last month. However, an accompanying blog post from studio founder Marek Rosa suggests it hasn't been fully thought out.

"To support our modding community even more, we reserved $100,000 of our own money as a fund for modders who want to build total conversion mods based on Space Engineers or VRAGE engine," writes Rosa. "We’re considering several ways how this fund could work: grants with no strings attached (see how Epic does it with UDK), zero interest loans and Kickstarter support. We can provide PR, marketing and promotion on our social media."

Rosa goes on to promise that Keen will help modders release approved Space Engineers total conversions as standalone games on Steam, drawing parallels to the development of games like DayZ and Counter-Strike.

More details on the initiative can be found in Rosa's aforementioned blog post, while the Space Engineers source code itself is now available on GitHub.