Getting Started

Welcome to the ADOFAI Mod development tutorial. This series will guide you step by step through building a Mod for A Dance of Fire and Ice (ADOFAI).

The series has 26 chapters organized into five stages:

Stage	Chapters	What you get
☕ Prerequisites	0	C# basics crash course (for complete beginners)
🚀 Getting Started	1–5	Environment, how UMM works, your first Mod, debugging
🧩 Harmony	6–16	The full patch series (incl. Transpiler, Reverse Patch)
🛠️ Practice	17–19	Settings UI, locating target methods
🚢 Advanced & Publishing	20–25	Multi-loader, Mod API, CI/CD, guidelines

Before you begin, you should have the following background:

1. Never learned C#? Read C# Basics Crash Course first — go through chapter 0
2. Some experience with Git and GitHub

Environment Setup

1. Prepare the game

• Purchase and install A Dance of Fire and Ice on Steam
• Make sure the game launches correctly

2. Install UnityModManager

1. Download UnityModManager (0.27.0 or newer)
2. Run UMM and select ADOFAI in the game list
3. Click Install to inject UMM into the game

3. Install development tools

• Visual Studio 2019+ or JetBrains Rider
• .NET Framework 4.8.1 Developer Pack
• Harmony 2.3.3

4. Get the official template

The organization provides two Mod templates; this series uses the first one:

Template	Description
ADOFAIModTemplate	Base template, the star of this series
ADOFAIMod.MultiLoader	Advanced multi-loader template, see the advanced chapter

Clone and install the base template:

git clone https://github.com/adofaiex/ADOFAIModTemplate.git
cd ADOFAIModTemplate

# Install as a local template (from the repo directory)
dotnet new install path\to\ADOFAIModTemplate
# Or install from the NuGet package
dotnet new install path\to\StArray.ADOFAIModTemplate.1.0.0.nupkg

5. Verify the environment

Create a test project from the template:

dotnet new ADOFAIModTemplate --name MyFirstMod

If the generated project contains src/Main.cs, src/Settings.cs, and src/Patches.cs, your environment is ready.

Debugging Your Mod

• UMM uses runtime injection; debugging requires launching the game itself
• Enable / disable Mods in the UMM overlay (default Ctrl+F10)
• Check the game log to confirm the Mod loaded successfully

Development Principles

Thank you for contributing to the ADOFAI ecosystem. Please follow these principles when developing Mods:

• Test your features
• Include good comments
• Store persistent data in the Mod's local config directory so updates don't overwrite it
• Handle errors gracefully — never let a single failure crash the whole Mod
• If you're extending an existing Mod, prefer submitting a PR to the original project

Chapters

The full chapter list is below; reading in order is recommended:

#	Chapter	Content
0	C# Basics Crash Course	Catch-up for beginners (optional)
1	Getting Started	Environment setup, chapter map
2	What is a Mod	What Mods can do, red lines
3	Understanding UMM	How UMM works, Mod directory, ModEntry
4	Minimal Example	Info.json + Main.cs, your first Mod
5	Build, Deploy & Debug	Compiling, hot reload, reading logs
6	Harmony Introduction	Overview of the four patch types
7	Prefix Patches	Intercepting methods, modifying parameters
8	Postfix Patches	Modifying return values, __state
9	Finalizer Patches	Exception handling
10	Magic Parameters	__instance / __result / __state
11	HarmonyPatch In Depth	Target syntax, priorities
12	Patch Lifecycle	PatchAll / priorities
13	Transpiler Introduction	What IL is
14	Transpiler in Practice	CodeMatcher
15	Manual Patching	Dynamic patching
16	Reverse Patch	Calling game methods in reverse
17	Settings System	Defining and persisting settings
18	Drawing the Settings UI	IMGUI interface
19	Locating Target Methods	dnSpy / ILSpy
20	Advanced: Multi-Loader Template	UMM / Melon / BepInEx / Doorstop
21	Advanced: Mod API	The Sarcary public API
22	Packaging & Publishing	Releases and publishing
23	GitHub Actions CI	CI/CD, private lib repositories
24	Mod Development Guidelines	Red lines and quality requirements
25	FAQ & Troubleshooting	FAQ