Massively Moddable Picks - 10 Cheap Games That May Never Stop Growing

A Hat in Time PC

50% Discount - When A Hat In Time first launched nearly a decade ago, there was a severe shortage of good 3D platformers available on PC. In fact, so many were hungry for more that the community immediately started cranking out new levels, worlds and power-sets to expand this whimsical Mario 64-inspired romp. Between official DLC (used by some mods, we do recommend the Ultimate Edition for that reason) and regular community mod showcases, this one has grown into a monster, with nearly 6000 items on the Steam Workshop alone. Whether it's off-brand Devil May Cry shenanigans or gigantic worlds that could easily pass for official expansions, you'll be wall-jumping around space and time for years.

Rivals of Aether PC

50% Discount - Smash Bros-inspired platform fighters are ten a penny these days, but Rivals of Aether endures, with a dedicated online player-base and one secret weapon: Infinite characters. The sequel (still in early access) is shaping up just as strong, although it'll be a while until it has nearly this kind of unhinged roster. Kris from Deltarune? Check. The Untitled Goose from Game? Absolutely. Master Chief, Who Doesn't Afraid Of Anything? All that and ten thousand more. Get together with your friends, pick a bundle of custom characters and you will have a great time for sure. It's like playing in an infinite toybox

Tabletop Simulator PC

50% Discount - Over a decade old and still a go-to for game night with friends, and even playable in VR. Tabletop simulator is less of a game and more of an endless toolbox. Almost every board game known to man (and a bunch of new stuff created entirely wholesale) has been adapted to this. While some require you to read and follow the full rules-as-written, others streamline the experience by automating the experience. Ever wanted to dabble in the official Dark Souls board game but don't have the hundreds to splash out on it? Go give it a spin. And while many of the mods are skirting legality, a surprising number are made with the board game creator's blessing, such as the Deep Rock Galactic board game.

Rusted Warfare - RTS PC

50% Discount - This might be the most RTS you can get for £2. Out of the box, it's a decent little sci-fi strategy game, but Rusted Warfare's main strength is that it's built as an endlessly flexible sandbox. Ever wanted to play an Aliens vs Predator RTS? They've got you sorted. Mega-scale Mechwarrior battles? No problem. Post-apocalyptic My Little Pony? Erm, yeah, sure, why not. And while those borrowed settings are popular picks, the community really does love to create whole new RTS settings, full of elaborate giant superweapons and multi-segmented mechs, or the occasional fantasy planet populated entirely by bugs.

Teardown PC

50% Discount - Teardown is a fantastic game out of the box. An ultra-destructible heist adventure, where you case the joint, identify your targets, and then blitz through the place in a frenzy of explosives and sledgehammers, tunneling through walls to grab all that you're after before the cops arrive. It has grown through some impressive expansions and even added full online multiplayer, but that's still just the tip of the iceberg. The community have created some amazing mods, including an infinite Mad Max-like sandbox, a dungeon crawl roguelike and even space survival horror adventures using the game's powerful toolkit. Community stuff is still rolling in daily, and the devs aren't done yet either, with a free rally/demolition derby race mode coming soon.

Escape Simulator PC

50% Discount - Who doesn't love a good escape room? From flash-based puzzle games to real-life hit trend to videogames once more. The spirit of old-school point-and-click adventures lives on! While the prettier Escape Simulator 2 might be the new hotness, it lacks the strongest part of its co-op, VR-supported predecessor: More escape rooms than you could ever play in your life. Almost 5000 and still growing, even. Puzzle your way out of Darth Vader's Castle? Go for it. A whole puzzle museum made as a community collaboration? Gravy. Or even a whole world tour with hours of puzzling through historical environments. It would seem that people like making escape rooms as much as playing them.

BATTLETECH PC

75% Discount - Things might have ended badly between developers Harebrained Schemes and publisher Paradox, but we still got a fantastic mech mercenary strategy game out of it, and one that has served as the foundation for some truly absurd community projects, assuming you pick up the complete edition of the game, as those DLCs are needed for a lot. While you can find the majority of mods over on Nexus Mods (no Workshop support here, sorry), probably the biggest is Battetech Advanced 3062. A colossal community collaboration project that lets you run a whole army, with multiple mech squads, tanks, planes and infantry across the entire galaxy. But don't sleep on the more chaotic Roguetech, or the more vanilla Battletech Extended either.

SnowRunner PC

60% Discount - The dadliest of all Dad Games, but who amongst us can resist the siren song of Big Trucks? Even out of the box, Snowrunner is a dauntingly massive, very demanding driving sim, asking you to deliver heavy loads through incredibly hostile environments, requiring precise driving and disaster management skills. There have also been EIGHTEEN SEASONS of official expansions. And yes, that could cost you a lot... but the community have built a whole world for free, and the mods are cross-platform, too! With over 1600 new vehicles, 500 new maps (many of them with full sets of missions to complete) and plenty more smaller releases, there's basically no limits.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister PC

90% Discount - That 90% discount is a bit misleading, we'll admit. What you really want here is the 58% discounted complete edition of the game, because that's what you'll need to open every mod-related door here. That, and the Unfinished Business unofficial patch, which polishes the game to a mirror sheen. Solasta, by itself, is a solid tactics-focused RPG based on the SRD 5.1 ruleset. What that means in english is 'Dungeons & Dragons with the trademarked names filed off'. It is also a full construction kit, letting people make massive full-game-length adventures. Hundreds of them. Literally years upon years of bonus RPG'ing, free. Curiously, the upcoming/early access Solasta 2 is skipping mod support in favor of Baldur's Gate 3-esque adventuring. We'll see how that pans out.

Rain World PC

55% Discount - And lastly, an enduring hit game that owes its incredible longevity almost entirely to its mod scene. Rain World is a demanding, intimidating game. You are a tiny, squishy, physics-driven creature in a world patrolled by hostile predators and pummeled by deadly rainstorms. Just survival is hard enough. Unraveling the shockingly epic story is only for the dedicated. And that was it, after the developers moved on and publisher Adult Swim imploded.

But Rain World rose again, thanks to a small mod simply called 'More Slugcats', that grew, and grew, and eventually became Downpour, a colossal expansion that triples the size of an already large game. It is a prequel, side-story and sequel all in one, adopted by the original developers and released under a new publisher. It's part of the complete version of the game, which you'll want for maximum moddability. And on that foundation, the community continue to build, including the recent release of full-length expansion Rain World: Drought, among thousands of others.