The Modding Tree is a JavaScript-based Game Engine intended for Idle Games by Acamaeda. It is based on Prestige Tree by Jacorb90, and has since been used for an official remake of that game.
The original version came out on September 27th, 2020. Since then, the engine has evolved and added support for things like buyables, subtabs, sidelayers, achievements, and many other features that didn't exist in the original. There are still some limitations, like the lack of possible dynamic layer generation (it is possible to make layers determined by a seed, though). The most up-to-date version is 2.6.6.2 as of September 9th, 2021, with a 3.0 update currently stuck in Development Hell. Considering that the original was released on August 19th, 2020, the fact that it received a modding engine so quickly is quite an accomplishment.
The engine comes with break_eternity.js, letting it reach numbers as large as F1.8e308 (that's 10^^1.8e308, or 10 raised to the power of 10 1.8e308 times) or as small as -F1.8e308 (the opposite number). Any developers who need bigger notations can use number libraries like omeganum.js, but this is discouraged by engine developers as doing so can significantly lower performance and lead to inflation being used as a substitute for proper game design.
As it's free and relatively easy to use, hundreds of users have tried their hand at creating their own trees. Unfortunately, about 50% of them don't work or are just one placeholder layer, while another 20% are hardly developed at all, with some even forgetting to change the mod ID which leads to collisions with other save files. That said, quite a few games have a decent amount of work put into them, and some are long enough to last more than a week with plenty of things to get through and discover. Remember that many of them are still under development and the so-called "current endgame" can change drastically, but others may also be abandoned.
Another potential issue with the engine is its capability to lag. While it's nowhere near as bad as something like Adobe Flash, playing a game with a lot of processes running on at the same time (often due to many currencies produced and autobuyers) while having many other windows open and lacking a decent CPU/RAM can lengthen the rate at which the game performs them (referred to as ticks per second). Since it's an idle-game based engine and many things run on a "per second" basis, it may not affect the game in the grand scheme of things, but it can result in the UI and player actions feeling unresponsive, especially if they need to click or hold a button to buy something a lot. Some developers disable certain upgrades, autobuyers, and even layers if they become practically useless to improve performance.
It's also possible to make non-idle games in this engine: The Communitree has a text-adventure section, while Tree Quest is a full-on adventure with clickable elements and no incremental mechanics. Other genres like Puzzle Games, Role-Playing Games, and Visual Novels certainly aren't out of the question, though you'd probably need to rely on ASCII Art or emojis than images for any graphical representations. Users have also made crossovers with other media and Fan Remakes of other idle games. Even games in the genre they originate from can greatly alter the way you play them, like The PVP Tree that has Player Versus Player gameplay so you can compete for whatever goal you like, and The Speedrun Tree that has you make a strategy on which upgrades to pick and when to reset for the fastest time, just like any average Speedrun would. Heck, as the GitHub description says, you don't even need a tree, though it's possible to invert that idea and make multiple trees in one game instead.
It has been confirmed that the engine is going to receive a major restructuring and rebranding. One of its lead developers, The Paper Pilot, has released an open-source prototype called The Side Project to showcase an engine tentatively called The Modding Tree X, with a final name having already been determined that will be given upon the next substantial update. Its features include dynamic layer generation, NaNnote detection, a saves manager, Vue 3-based components, and many other changes. On March 6th, 2022, the engine's name has been revealed to be Profectus, with the idea of it being an easy-to-use engine that grows with its creator. The latest version of Profectus is 0.6.1, released on May 17th, 2023. That said, it is not meant to be a successor or replacement for TMT, which is still probably the better option for those who want to create more simplistic games in plain JavaScript, due to its reliance on tools like typescript and JSX that may be too complex for newcomers.
If you want to create your own game of this sort, fork the engine from here
. The official forum for discussion and tutorials can be found here. A modfinder that fetches all forks from GitHub (but the statement about most mods lacking content very much applies) can be found here.
Games made in The Modding Tree that have their own pages:
Idle games with trees
- The 64 Layers Tree
- Antreematter Dimensions
- The Art Tree
- The Atomic Tree
- The Burning Tree
- The Christmas Tree
- Collection of Everything
- The Communitree
- The Compact Tree
- Despacit Tree Δ
- The Dynas Tree
- The Factoree
- Falling Mountain's AlterPrestige
- The Game Dev Tree
- The Gaokao Tree
- The GFRIEND Tree
- Gods of Incremental
- The h0nde Tree
- The Incremental Dev Tree
- The Incremental God Tree
- The Incrementali Tree
- The Incrementreeverse
- The Leveling Tree
- The Milestone Tree
- The Millennium Tree
- The Multitree
- The Null Tree
- The Pg Tree
- Plague Tree
- The Prestige Chain
- The Prestige Forest
- The Prestige Rectangle
- Prestige Tree Condensed
- Prestige Tree Dimensions
- A Prestige Tree Mod About Merging
- Prestige Tree Rewritten (an official remake of the original that uses the engine meant for other games similar to it)
- Prestige Universe
- The Prestreestuck
- The Primordial Tree
- The RNG Tree
- The Space Tree
- The Stardust Tree
- Too Many Softcaps
- Tree Inc.
- The Tree of Death
- The Tree of Life
- The Tree of Nerfs
- Tuba's Tree
- The Upgrading Tree
- The User Tree
- The Word: TREE
Idle games without trees
Games made in The Modding Tree typically provide examples of:
- Artifact Title: Due to the extent the engine has developed and how different games made in it are from the original Prestige Tree, it's very hard to consider it to be about "modding" and call games made in it "mods" anymore. The community generally tries to approach them as development and original games, but the original terminology still persists in many places. As such, the newer prototype engine has been called Profectus instead to separate it from the original perception of the initial engine.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each layer can be assigned a specific color to make the node and its buttons more distinguishable.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Before v2.5, the engine wouldn't let you just hold the mouse button on a buyable to buy it every tick, leading to a lot of clicks if you don't have a bulk/autobuyer in games released before it.
- End-Game Results Screen: The end screen shows how long it took to beat the game.
- Export Save: You can export the save file into the clipboard and import it into a window that pops up.
- New Game Plus: There's usually a layer that resets all the ones that came before for a resource that lets you get back where you were and eventually progress further.
- Notice This: Nodes where you can purchase an upgrade are usually given a dark red outline. In more modern versions, nodes where you can reset are often given a white outline.
- Tech Tree: Most games are structured like a tree, with a node for each layer and branches that lead to the next ones.
- A Winner Is You: Almost every game has only one screen with a congratulatory message, the completion time, and some links shown upon reaching the endgame. The message can be customized, but anything beyond it is the exception rather than the rule.
