Paige Moden Modding Codelabs for the community.
BEGINNER ~1-2 HOURS NO SETUP REQUIRED

Coding Foundations for Modders

Learn core programming fundamentals by building a turn-based RPG battle system in your browser. Covers variables, conditionals, loops, and functions with no prior coding experience or local environment setup required.

Course Goals
  • Understand how code stores, reads, and updates state in memory.
  • Read error messages and debug broken code methodically instead of guessing.
  • Control program flow using conditional logic and iteration.
  • Break complex gameplay systems into clean, reusable functions.
  • Build the core programming intuition needed to read and write real game scripts.
Prerequisites
  • No setup required: Runs 100% in your browser (no IDE, compiler, or game install needed).
  • Zero coding experience needed: Starts at the absolute foundation.
A PEROSNAL NOTE

Welcome to the Lab Bench

If you have never written a single line of code in your life, you are in the right spot.

Throughout this course, you are going to build a complete, playable, turn-based RPG from scratch (just like Pokémon or Final Fantasy). You'll start with the complete battle arena, provided by me. Then we'll peel it back layer by layer, until you've written all the game mechanics yourself!

Thank you for diving into this journey with me. As someone with a computer science degree, who was a grader and a TA, I truly believe anyone can learn to code, and that you do not need to be a professional programmer to mod your favorite games.

01
CODELAB 01 ~30 MIN

Variables & Memory

Declare variables, inspect how values are stored and updated in memory, and wire up basic combat stats.

Start Codelab
02
CODELAB 02 // UPCOMING Conditionals & Branching

Use if/else statements and comparison operators to handle shields, critical hits, and knockout checks.

03
CODELAB 03 // UPCOMING Loops & Iteration

Process enemy squads, party inventories, and iterative turn resolution using loops and arrays.

04
CODELAB 04 // UPCOMING Functions & Clean Architecture

Package combat mechanics into modular, pure functions that won't brick save game state.