Valve Drops Full Team Fortress 2 SDK, Allowing Any Modder or Dev To Make (Free) Derivative Work

Team Fortress 2 has had its biggest update yet… by making anyone able to update it. Valve officially dropped the SDK (software development kit) for the long-beloved multiplayer shooter game for free in its latest Source SDK update. Basically, any player can do whatever they want with TF2 so long as it stays free. 

“We've just released a massive update to the Source SDK, adding all the Team Fortress 2 client and server game code,” the announcement post explains. “This update will allow content creators to build completely new games based on TF2.” 

They continued to expound on the purpose of this release: “Unlike the Steam Workshop or local content mods, this SDK gives mod makers the ability to change, extend or rewrite TF2, making anything from small tweaks to complete conversions possible.” 

However, any derivative content must be made for free—meaning players can’t just flip the assets to sell as another Steam game or a pay-to-play mod. Technically, this is the caveat that makes it not an “open source” project. 

Valve also asks players to respect the work done by Steam Workshop artists, who are often officially solicited by Valve to have their work in the game, and to not try to profit off of these mods as well. 

Team Fortress 2 has drawn a lot of disappointment from its community for neglecting the game as a whole while others such as Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 2 (and, well, the original CS:GO) see attention over the years. This seems like one solution Valve has to allow players to let the game’s already-lively community live on… in some manner. 

For those who enjoy modding in general, Valve also made a “big update to all our multiplayer back-catalogue Source engine titles (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM, CS:S, and HLDM:S), adding 64-bit binary support, a scalable HUD/UI, prediction fixes, and a lot of other improvements”. 

In short, Valve seems to have its eyes forward—and players are allowed to step back to toy with the games they loved. It may be sad for players to see Valve leave these games behind for good, in a way, but at least Valve’s commitment to making these games moddable in the modern era will help a lot of aspiring developers get started.