Creativity and passion drive the heart of modding. From tweaking existing mechanics to building entirely new experiences, modders breathe fresh life into our beloved games. Today, we spotlight modder TattersTheBat (AKA Tatters) whose journey from coding novice to featured creator is sure to inspire those interested in game modification. Let's dive into the world of Crypt of the NecroDancer's Biodiversity Plus[mod.io] and meet the talent behind it!


Synchrony, back when it was a standalone fan project, was actually my first experience modding games; I didn’t even know lua when I started, or really any other code-related stuff. I started by following the helpful tutorials that were provided in Synchrony’s discord server[discord.gg], and from there I kept letting my ideas flow and asked for help as needed until I could, eventually, comfortably code and understand things for modding the game on my own.

The only other coding experience I had was some light block coding I had done for a while through school, and the beginnings of C in college. It was a totally blank slate for me when it comes to modding, though!


Ever since I picked up Crypt of the NecroDancer, I fell in love with the game. There’s something very satisfying about fighting and moving to the beat, and as I got better with it, I was completely hooked - even before I got the Amplified DLC. I also really enjoy the game’s world - a setting that blends fantasy and reality in a really smooth way. It opened up a lot of potential for new content, and when I eventually caught wind of the Synchrony fan project, I just knew I had to learn the modding API and put my own creative spin on my favorite game.


I feel like for one reason or another, I’m always drawn to games that have a wide cast of different enemies. Even if it’s the same things you’re fighting throughout hundreds of runs in a dungeon crawler like NecroDancer, it just adds so much to a game when those monsters have that little bit of extra variety and personality. I already really like NecroDancer’s enemy cast, from the skeletons, to the wild animals, to the fantasy creatures all over the place, and I wanted to expand upon it! 

At first it was just some extra tiers of existing enemies, but then I started getting ideas for entirely new ones, and from then on it blossomed into a large group of new monsters blended in with those of the base game’s roster.


I’m honestly a bit surprised that I went for a mod like this as one of my earliest projects. It was only shortly after Synchrony came out as DLC that I started working on it, so my knowledge of the lua API was still quite limited and I used a lot of rough solutions to problems that were, to put it simply, not ideal. I had to ask for help pretty often to get even the basics working, and I had to do a lot of fixes here and there, but thankfully, everyone was very nice and supportive, and over time I was able to smooth out the rough bits and shape it into something I’m happy with!


I’m quite proud of the Giant Rat enemies seen in zones 1 and 2. Although their mechanic is simple, just attaching an attack to the front of their movement, it’s something that I feel doesn’t really exist in the main game in any form, so it feels like something that’s truly my own that’s become a staple of BioDiversity Plus. And they’re pretty cute, too!


As of now, NecroDancer is the only game I actively mod, though I’ve been trying to learn other lua-based modding APIs such as for The Binding of Isaac and Noita. In general, I play a lot of roguelikes - Hades, Have A Nice Death, and the two mentioned are some of my other favorites - as well as metroidvanias and platformers such as Hollow Knight and Rain World.


I’m a storyteller at heart, and I’m passionate about weaving tales through my art, writing, and game design ideas. I usually have a lot of extant lore for the character mods I make for NecroDancer that doesn’t get out much, just because I love writing and worldbuilding! Outside of modding, I spend a lot of my time drawing, playing games, or working on my own game projects; really anything that keeps the creative juices flowing.


Even if you don’t have any experience with modding games, Crypt of the NecroDancer is a great place to start. The developers have done an amazing job making Synchrony’s modding API lightweight and easy to understand - plus, there’s a community of wonderfully helpful people that are always willing to answer questions and see new faces in the mod portal! If you’ve got an idea, even if you’re starting from zero, go for it!

Feeling inspired? The Crypt of the NecroDancer modding community welcomes you! With helpful resources, a supportive crowd, and the game's accessible modding tools, who knows what amazing creations you might bring to life? A big thank you to our featured modder for sharing their story and the awesome Biodiversity Plus mod. Your work enriches the Crypt of the NecroDancer experience for countless players!

You can find Tatters on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tatters-the-bat

We'd love to have you join in the conversation in the official Brace Yourself Games Discord[discord.gg] as well.

Crypt of the NecroDancer v4.0.0 is now available!

This update marks the full release of the SYNCHRONY DLC! We'd like to thank everyone who played the DLC during the Early Access period and shared their feedback with our team!

In this version, we've also made lots of changes under the hood to increase performance and enable compatibility across all platforms.

• Added Weekly Challenge mode to the SYNCHRONY DLC:
  
  • Huge shout-outs to our incredibly talented modding community for creating such a wide variety of content!
    
  • Each week features community-created playable characters, items, monsters, mechanics, bosses or zones
    
  • Speedrun times and high scores are tracked on a set of single-player and co-op leaderboards for each week
    
  • Previous weeks can be revisited and replayed at any time
• Added cross-platform online multiplayer for the SYNCHRONY DLC between all supported platforms:
  
  • If cross-play is enabled when creating a public lobby, players from any platform can join the lobby
    
    • To play privately with friends from other platforms, set the visibility to "Public" and specify a password
  • Cross-play can be enabled or disabled when creating a lobby, or as a filtering option in the public game browser
    
  • Mods that have been reviewed and approved for all platforms by our moderation team can be enabled in cross-play sessions
• Added cross-platform leaderboards for the SYNCHRONY DLC:
  
  • An icon next to each entry indicates which platform a leaderboard record was achieved on
    
  • Leaderboard replays are now supported across all platforms for cross-play leaderboards
• Added online cross-play support for the AMPLIFIED DLC:
  
  • Lobbies hosted with AMPLIFIED content enabled can now be joined by players who do not own the DLC
    
  • Joining an AMPLIFIED lobby temporarily makes Zone 5 and all new items, enemies, shrines, traps and bosses available
• Added leaderboard ranking indicator to Run Summary menu when achieving a new personal best score or time
  
  • For cross-platform leaderboards, both the old and new rank order are displayed
• Added a new replay menu and replay management features:
  
  • The replay menu now displays info such as character, mode, zone/floor number and speedrun time for each replay
    
  • Replays can be marked as "Favorite" to pin them to the top of the replay menu and store them permanently
    
  • The replay menu can now be accessed from the pause menu and the run summary menu while watching a replay
• Added options to control the visibility of other player's usernames in online sessions
  
• Added platform indicator icons to the player list
  
• Added status indicator to player list menu
  
• Added menu options to report players, lobbies and leaderboard entries
  
• Added an option to block disruptive players
  
  • Blocking a player prevents them from joining lobbies you've created
    
  • When joining another player's lobby, a warning message is shown when a blocked player joins the game
• Added new graphics system for greatly improved performance across all platforms
  
• Added an option to display the current framerate in-game
  
• Added password-protected multiplayer lobbies
  
• Added rich presence status for all platforms
  
• Added "Show modded lobbies" and "Show cross-play lobbies" filters to game browser menu
  
• Added an overhauled mod management system and menu:
  
  • Old mod versions are now automatically deleted after updating to the latest version
    
    • This behavior can be disabled via an option in the "Mod options" menu
      
    • This can also be invoked manually for all installed mods using option in the "Mod options" menu
  • Contextual mod actions are now displayed in a small pop-up overlay, instead of a section in the sidebar
    
  • Inappropriate mods can now be reported and (and their creators muted) directly from within the mod menu
    
  • Searching/filtering the mod menu now highlights all occurrences of the search term in mod titles and descriptions
• Added support for saving/loading mods in presets
  
• Added a progress bar when loading game content
  
• Added equipment sprites for spells added in the SYNCHRONY DLC
  
• Added an option to customize the color of gold outlines for Monk/Coda

• Changed character selection room statistics to dynamically adjust to the current extra mode and player count
  
• Changed 'Letterbox' view scaling mode to prefer pixel-perfect scale factors, instead of stretching pixels
  
• Changed 'Stretch' view scaling mode to preserve the original aspect ratio, while stretching pixels to non-integer factors
  
• Changed replay overlay to show "Restart" button prompt on the final level, instead of "Next level"
  
• Changed post-death replay to alternate between the player's and monster's perspective after each loop
  
• Changed version compatibility checks to tolerate differences in build numbers:
  
  • This allows hotfixes to be released at different times between platforms without preventing players from joining each other
• Changed replay system to compress all replays recorded throughout each day into one file:
  
  • This greatly reduces storage requirements and improves performance when navigating the replay menu
    
  • Replays marked as "Favorite" are saved separately, allowing individual runs to be shared with other players
• Changed leaderboard categories if the SYNCHRONY DLC is enabled:
  
  • Reduced number of combinations involving extra modes (Deathless, No Return, Hard, Phasing, Randomizer, Mystery)
    
    • Co-op boards for extra modes are unified across player counts (2/3/4/5+ co-op have been merged into 2+)
      
    • Extra modes no longer have Custom Music and Double Tempo leaderboard variants
  • Multi-character modes (All Characters, Story, Ensemble) still retain all leaderboard variants
    
  • Archived versions of all merged/removed leaderboards can still be viewed using the in-game menu on supported platforms
• Changed translations to include all new and updated text across all supported languages
  
• Changed resource loading system to improve startup time
  
• Changed skin selection menu to only show selected player character
  
• Changed spectator/replay mode to hide item slot key bindings
  
• Changed minimap to crop the view around the player camera on large levels
  
• Changed minimap to show Shrines of Configuration and selectable characters in the lobby
  
• Changed minimap to follow the player through side rooms in the lobby
  
• Changed online mod setup synchronization to be performed simultaneously for everyone, instead of waiting for the host
  
• Changed tile map, light map and collision map systems to improve performance and reduce memory usage
  
• Changed hitbox size of menu entries for mouse/touch input to eliminate gaps between entries
  
• Changed fullscreen mode to use a borderless window
  
• Changed mod dependencies to be downloaded automatically when loading a mod after a dependency was uninstalled
  
• Changed DLCs to be load-order-independent, eliminating unnecessary reloads when joining unmodded multiplayer sessions

• Added module VertexAnimation with functions for smoothing out animations during low FPS:
  
  • Obtain an animID from VertexAnimation.linear(vx, vy, maxTime), then pass it to buffer.draw{anim = animID, ...}
    
  • ObjectRenderer.getObjectVisual() automatically preserves animIDs of moving entities
• Added menu layout debugger to debug overlay
  
• Added optional function field ev.menu.closeCallback to event.menu
  
• Added support for color-type settings via Settings.user.color{...}
  
• Added support for drawing custom triangles/quads via Render.getBuffer(...).drawQuad{...}
  
• Added function leaderboardRunInfo.summarizeContext()
  
• Added function secretRoom.startFight()
  
• Added function secretRoom.deleteTransactionCollider()
  
• Added event.NecroEdit_categoryInit and event.NecroEdit_categoryFilter to modify editor categories via mods
  
• Added enum editorCategory.FilterGroup to control grouping of editor search results
  
• Added event.menuSettingsEntry to override how settings are presented in the menu
  
• Added launch parameter --no-mods to launch the game without loading mods
  
• Changed developer settings menu (Shift+F8, Shift+F9) to improve usability:
  
  • Added highlighting for modified vs. untouched settings
    
  • Added search term highlighting
    
  • Increased column width for settings value
    
  • Improved support for lower resolutions
    
  • Increased bounding box size on touchscreen devices
    
  • Enabled switching between options and custom rules without first closing the menu
    
  • Fixed performance issues when displaying extremely long settings values