Welcome to another article in our series of "10 Question With", where we speak to top creators on CurseForge and discuss their modding backgrounds and mods!

A while back, we sat down with the incredible Vazkii (from iconic mods such as Botania, Quark, Neat, and many others!) to discuss their nearly 15 years of modding experience, offer tips for new authors, and chat about the modding community.

A huge thank you to Vazkii for taking the time to chat with us!

For the very few people who won’t be familiar with you or your projects, how did you first get into Minecraft modding, and what pushed you to start creating mods of your own?

I started playing Minecraft back in 2010, when I was 12, and back then the mod space was far, far more restricted than it is now. As much as I’d love to weave some sort of intricate narrative here, in truth I just liked playing with the few available. Being an enthusiastic creative kid, I figured I could probably cobble together one by following the youtube tutorials available by 2011.

I specifically remember using AbrarSyed’s modding tutorials, followed by TheNewBoston’s Java tutorials (yes, in that order [no, I don’t recommend doing it like that]).

The game existed in an embryonic state in 2011, and the modding tools were also relatively primitive. Since everything was simpler then, it was also easy enough for a 13 year old to somehow fail upwards into creating something halfway functional.

The act of releasing a mod at all in 2011 was already on the extraordinary side. Minecraft Forums was a much smaller environment than modern CurseForge, which served to facilitate building traction. Traction leads to enthusiasm, which leads to drive, which results in more and better work being done. I’d say it was a case of “right place, right time”.

Botania is often praised for its unique mix of magic and technology. Where did the original inspiration for the mod come from? (and, is it a tech mod or a magic mod?!)

Before starting Botania, my previous flagship project was a Thaumcraft 3 addon called Thaumic Tinkerer. This was, at the time, I believe the second ever TC addon (and the first that wasn’t designed as a crossover with another mod). TT’s popularity and interest in it from Azanor, the Thaumcraft creator, led to many doors to the inner modding community being opened for me.

Any oldheads reading this might remember the ForgeCraft (former PahiCraft) server from back in the day. You know, the place where Direwolf20, Pahimar, Soaryn, etc all played. I was invited to this community by Azanor’s induction and the community’s vote. If you were around back in the day, chances are you also recall how influential this group of people was at trendsetting in the modded community—even to the point of its influence being polemical among some users.

Over time I started growing dissatisfied with being annexed to someone else’s work, never creating something that was truly my own. If anyone remembers me from back then, they likely remember how absolutely abysmal I was at handling the tiny bit of perceived “fame” I was bestowed. If they have good memory, they may also recall the internal strife and constant impostor syndrome I exhibited from the perception my work was only deemed valuable thanks to being the only addon available and "endorsed" by ForgeCraft’s proto-influencer circle.

The point is, it’s hard to detach Botania’s genesis from what came before and led to it. It was always something created from strife and a longing to find my own corner.

I knew I wanted something roughly in the vein of Thaumcraft, as that was what I enjoyed most back then, so the general design space region of the mod was predetermined. As for the theme, I frankly can’t remember the exact locus of it, but I’ll tell you the story I tell everyone, which was that I was bored in 9th grade Biology and started scribbling on my notebook. Frankly, I don't even know if that’s quite true, but it’s been too long to fully recall.

Regarding genre definitions, I’m afraid I don’t have a conclusive answer. I could regurgitate what’s said on the mod’s website (“a natural magic themed tech mod”), or explain my interpretations of tech and magic, but ultimately I don’t think that’s going to persuade or dissuade anyone.

The reality of a genre (or any word for that matter) is that its meaning is a social construct, and it only has any merit if we can all collectively agree on what it means. Unfortunately it’s been over ten years now, and yet no one can agree on what “magic mod” or “tech mod” means, despite my continued best efforts. Since the meaning of these words is so contested, their value is also diminutive, and there’s no reason for me to give an answer that would just disrupt decorum over hair splitting for an umpteenth time.

If you could choose one Quark feature to be added to vanilla Minecraft, which would it be and why?

It’s very hard to choose, honestly. 

By virtue of touching so many aspects of the game, Quark’s value is greater than the sum of its parts. The mod has always been designed from the ground up as a collection of tiny things, and this makes it easy to look through the list and gloss over most features as just tiny incremental improvements.

Having gone through that exact exercise myself to answer this question, I think if I had to pick one feature, I would nominate Reacharound Placing. If there is one thing that significantly improves the QoL of the base game disproportionately more than other features in the mod, it’s that. Anyone who’s played with it knows how much of a gamechanger it is for build speed in survival.

I will also like to cheat on this question and give you a second feature, as Reacharound Placing already exists in Bedrock Edition, and thus might just be considered a parity patch. If we are to nominate a unique feature, it would be the Trowel. The reasoning for this isn’t that deep, it’s simply a feature I personally enjoy a lot, and doing this type of stuff in vanilla is an abject pain.

I think one of the most interesting things about Quark is how increasingly more of it gets adapted into the game over time. This isn’t Mojang “stealing” features or anything untowards like that, it’s just that many of them are good ideas, so Mojang naturally ends up designing similar things. I think most of the slam-dunks have already been added already, and perhaps if I were to answer this question again a different day I’d give a different answer.

My motto for the entire time I’ve created mods and modpacks has simply been to do what I think would be cool

How do you decide which features/ideas make the cut, and are something that you should add to your mods?

This might be a disappointing answer, but it’s entirely vibe-based. My motto for the entire time I’ve created mods and modpacks has simply been to do what I think would be cool. Sometimes this results in absolutely horrendous features slipping through and needing to be rectified later, but you take the good with the bad, right?

I recognize that “just vibes” is an unsatisfactory answer, so I’ll take the time instead to write about the differences in creative pipelines between working on a mod and directly on the game. Hopefully, that serves as a more interesting substitute.

The primary benefit of being a modder is the sheer level of flexibility and agility you have when it comes to scheduling and implementation. As a modder you have no one to answer to—no bosses, middle management, not even players, really. You’re a free actor.

If you make a mistake and add a garbage feature to your mod, you just take it out the next Minecraft update. Some players will miss the feature, of course, but you have the ability to do so without huge consequences. Obviously adding garbage features isn’t ideal, but it’s also not devastating.

Can you imagine if Mojang realized elytra rockets damaged their vision for the game and removed them now? People would riot. I’d have to cancel my upcoming trip to Stockholm because it would be on fire.

Mojang has to design everything they add to the game with an excess of caution for how it might cause gameplay to shift in the long run. This leads to lots of work being done on testing grounds and never seen by the public to ensure everything is above ground. The excessive red tape mandatory to keeping this balance is the reason progress is glacial. Furthermore, so as to not dissuade the skills present at Mojang, you can clearly see what they can put out when given carte blanche to go all out on the April Fools updates.

Anyone who’s played with Botania or Quark over a long time knows that features tend to get altered regularly or cut between Minecraft versions. This is me taking full advantage of the privilege I’m given by not being an official developer. Ultimately, I believe my willingness to cut, adapt, and overall exercise my vision is a strong contributor to the high lasting power of my work.

Your mods and modpacks have become classics, and influenced countless players and even inspired other authors. What does it feel like to have that kind of legacy in the community?

It’s not really something I think about much, honestly. I’ve never dealt well with having high expectations placed on me, even if only perceived.

Thinking about legacy, popularity, and people looking up to you is just generally something I try to avoid. I’ve been generally outspoken about wanting to “just be a guy”, in my own words. I don’t like it when people look to me as superior in any way. I like to just be a person who’s doing his own thing, much like everyone else is. My work is no more important or noteworthy than anyone else’s just because it’s popular, and I think going on about how inspirational it is runs counter to that notion.

It’s a hard dichotomy to wrangle, really. Fact is, to your average reader, my word is worth more than an average person’s—that’s why I’ve been invited to write this blog post and not an average person off the street. I do want my word to matter so that I can inspire others and lead change, but I don’t want to be treated in a way that has others place themselves below me in some sort of imaginary hierarchy.

I’m not quite sure what the ideal way to manage this paradoxical expectation is. Usually what I do when I see someone indirectly denigrating themselves is to mostly play it off and try not to bring any undue attention towards myself. This runs the risk of coming off as falsely nonchalant, but I think I prefer that over trying to hold onto a spotlight cast on me.

As one of the most established and experienced modders, what advice would you give to new authors on CurseForge looking to create their own projects?

This is extremely generic advice given to creators on all fields, but it decidedly rings true: you should just make the thing you like. Any attempt at making a thing to be popular or gain income from is a waste.

It’s not that you can’t become popular or make money from creating something people love—it’s that the chances of that happening are miniscule. Think about how many new mods are released each day. How many of those “make it”? Realistically, on any average day, probably zero.

You should be aware of the type of environment you are getting yourself into in the current year. There are far too many mods released for an average person to try, and the quality standard for something to stand out is raised to a bar that I believe is inaccessible to a newcomer without some degree of prior experience. 

The only way to win here is to make something you like, to make it your way, and maybe you’ll get lucky enough to fail upwards into momentum like I did. Most likely than not you won’t, that’s just probability, but at least you’ll have fun along the way. If you’re looking for some tips on actually creating the thing, I gave a talk about this with CurseForge a few months back.

You’ve been involved in Minecraft modding for over a decade now - what do you think is the biggest difference you’ve seen in that time?

Before answering this, I should make it clear that I’m mostly non-involved with the community as a whole as of the last few years. I mainly stick to my own corner of the internet and see things from there. Because of this, I’m mostly insulated from any general shifts in the “meta” or dramas that don’t penetrate my bubble. My answer is likely to be colored by my limited outlook and is likely to even be seen as out-of-touch, alas.

There’s obvious notable changes, such as the increased popularity of “vanilla+” content, the rise of more complicated genre-blending modpacks, or the massive improvement in the tech available for pack creators. I’d like to address something else I’ve noticed, though.

From my eyes, I think there’s two main points that define the current “era” of modding, if you could even call it that—these being abundance and entrenchment. Let me explain.

In the last week, over 500 new mods were released on CurseForge alone. The sheer amount of content being released is unprecedented in the history of the game, and is of a quantity no individual person can reasonably wade through (trust me, I’ve tried). 

More than ever, we are increasingly spoiled for choice. Obviously most of the mod(pack)s uploaded aren’t of great quality, but by sheer scale of the abundance on display, there’s absolutely a significant amount of untapped potential to be dug up. Unfortunately, I think this creates a strong dichotomy with my next point.

The longer a mod exists, the longer its devs have to improve, polish, and add content. By virtue of time being limited, older mods have a massive advantage on the playfield simply by having had more time to iterate.

I recently watched a video on YouTube making the claim that old mods were better, and new ones don’t stack up. One of the main arguments was that old mods are simply more complex, polished, fleshed out, the like. And how could they not be? They usually have a 8-10 year head start on anything coming out these days. Unless somehow you have a stasis chamber to develop your mod in, anything you make that shares design space with entrenched titans is fighting an uphill battle in the snow.

Most players want novelty, but instead choose to reward familiarity. Frankly, given the amount of effort filtering through the sheer amount of mods released for a diamond in the rough is, I don’t think anyone can blame them for sticking to the good ol’ reliable. In order to stick out and make yourself known, you have to be beyond remarkable. This even applies to modpack developers who tend to stick with the tried-and-true mods each time (I’m personally guilty of this too, for what it’s worth.)

You can point at Create as the exception that proves the rule here, of course, and there're several other recent-ish mods that have “made it”. Nonetheless, I think it’s undeniable that the frequency of a new mod penetrating the zeitgeist these days is much less than in times past.

These two points create a weirdly paradoxical scenario. We have the most mods ever, but we give them less attention than ever. It’s just the nature of any late-stage market per se. We’ve seen the same thing with indie games, youtubers, twitch streamers, you name it. As more household names get settled, the odds you have to beat to not fizzle out immediately rise ever so higher.

More than ever, success is determined by the internet’s attention economy. Did your mod get picked up by a huge modpack creator? Did a massive youtuber start a let’s play on your modpack? Were you there at the right place and the right time? Obviously your own skills and the quality of your work matter, but in the endless deluge of “new content” being shoveled onto our screens on a day-to-day basis, they’re not what matters most.

And yes, obviously I’m aware this has always been the case. I just think these days, it’s exacerbated further. It’s increasingly difficult for something new to reach its audience. It’s a hard problem to solve, overall.

I’m repeating myself here, but I think if anything this reinforces how newcomers should be developing something for themselves. If you’re creating, it should be something you can derive fulfillment from without needing to reach any great level of success. And maybe, if you got extra time, try giving some new mod(pack)s a shot. You may find a hidden gem you’d have overlooked otherwise.

How has community feedback shaped the direction of your mods?

I have an interesting relationship with community feedback. It’s probably been made clear by now that when it comes to development, I’m the type of person to march to the beat of my own drum. Reconciling that with the tunes others want to bring in is complicated and messy at best.

I have a significant track record of making highly controversial changes to my mod(pack)s. Changes such as removing Dayblooms, nerfing the Flügel Tiara, or adding anti-cheese features to the Gaia Guardian come up, but I’m sure it’s not hard to think of others.

Despite this, and my possible reputation for ignoring feedback, I think Botania would’ve died out a long time ago if I hadn’t had a constant pulse on the community. Botania as it is played now, with its intuitive documentation and myriad UX features is a whole other beast from how it was before. The slick and polished Botania you play today is a result of, among many other things, several rounds of reddit threads asking “what’s wrong with it now?”, and many sleepless nights mulling over the results.

It’s a difficult balancing act to stand your ground and ensure your vision is untainted, all while still trying to understand its downfalls and improve it with feedback. Even though the feedback I took in was immensely valuable, I firmly believe my reluctance to drift from my vision was paramount. Had simply bent the knee and designed Botania by committee, simply changing things to fit the most popular sentiment at the time, it would’ve never resonated with people strongly enough to be alive today. 

If you make something everyone likes, you make something no one loves.

How do you manage the workload of keeping large, complex mods up to date across different Minecraft versions?

The reality is that I don’t, but the way our pipeline is structured gives the illusion that I do. All the maintenance work is handled by the rest of the Violet Moon team. This structure does lead to me indirectly stealing a lot of valor, but I don’t think anyone checks who’s uploading each file anyway. I highly recommend checking each individual project for who’s currently working on it.

Violet Moon mods use an automated system to release to GitHub, CurseForge, and Modrinth at the same time, alongside a trusted signing key to validate the jars were built by us. You can learn more about that system here. This system is tied to my account, so regardless of who initiated the build or did the work for it, it’ll land on mod hosting sites under my name.

As it stands, I’m not actively maintaining any of the Violet Moon mods, so if anything it might be more accurate to call Violet Moon as a whole the modder of the month. My position in the organization is more of a creative lead, at least in this current stage of porting to 1.21. I’m sure I’ll be back in the future on the ground floor once things stabilize (both in the game and IRL) and I get a chance to design features freely.

And finally, what’s next for you and your projects?

For personal reasons right now, my ability to work is highly stunted, so in the immediate future, probably nothing. I do have a new project in the hopper that I would like to at least get out by the end of the year, but development is moving at a snail's pace, so I can’t exactly make any promises yet.

I wish I had more to say here, or at least an exciting announcement to stoke hype again, but unfortunately, there are things right now that take precedence. I appreciate everyone’s patience in the meanwhile.