Mod Folder Anatomy

A New Era mod has two forms: an editable source folder, or an exported playable mod.

Goal

Understand where files belong so the game and editors can find them.

Source mod folder

Source mods live in Editor:

Editor/
  My Mod/
    config.json
    thumbnail.png
    Entities/
    Entity Replacements/
    Levels/
      Art/
    Level Replacements/
      Classic/
    Palettes/
    Sounds/
    Musics/
    Audio Replacements/
    Music Replacements/
    Scripts/

Only the folders your mod uses need to exist. The editors create and manage these folders as needed.

Common files and folders

  • config.json: mod settings, dependencies, gameplay options, character availability, and other pack-level data.
  • thumbnail.png: image shown in mod lists.
  • Entities: playable characters, enemies, items, and containers owned by this mod.
  • Entity Replacements: replacements for entities from another pack, commonly Classic.
  • Level Replacements: replacement level art and presentation data for another pack, commonly Classic.
  • Levels: level data, cutscene data, presentation screens, ending data, and level art references.
  • Levels/Art: background, foreground, and cutscene images used by level data.
  • Palettes: palettes that target entities from another pack, such as Classic characters.
  • Entities/<Entity Name>/Palettes: palettes for an entity owned by this mod.
  • Sounds: sounds and voices owned by this mod.
  • Musics: music tracks owned by this mod.
  • Audio Replacements: mappings that replace sounds, voices, or music from another pack.
  • Scripts: Lua files referenced by animation logic or pack-level update hooks.

Entity folders

An entity folder usually contains:

Entities/
  My Fighter/
    0.png
    1.png
    animations.json
    logic.json
    spriteSettings.json
    dependencies.json
    preview.png
    portrait.png
    Palettes/
      palette 0.png

The Character Editor manages the JSON files. You normally edit sprites and animation data through the editor alone. Hand-editing is possible, for particular cases.

Level files

Levels commonly use paired files:

  • level 1.json: gameplay layout, waves, spawns, walls, and scroll limits.
  • level 1 - art.json: visual scene data and background layers.
  • level 1 - cutscenes.json: optional cutscene data for that level.
  • presentation.json, ending.json, and similar files: non-gameplay presentation sequences.

Use the Level Editor for these files. It keeps the level data, visual data, and referenced art aligned.

Exported mod package

Exported mods live in Mods:

Mods/
  My Mod.cne

The exported .cne is what players copy, upload, and share. The game auto-detects the mods present in Mods folder when it starts.