# Your mods go here

A mod **replaces a file by shadowing its path**. There is no manifest, no
registration and no load order: if a file exists here at the same relative path
it has in the export tree, the game reads yours instead.

```
export/sprites/title/main_menu/ptbtn01.png     <- what the exporter wrote
data/mods/sprites/title/main_menu/ptbtn01.png  <- what the game will use
```

That works for **every** asset kind the port reads — a screen's JSON, a sprite
PNG, a sound cue, the music bed, a movie — because every read goes through one
resolver (`port/scripts/export_tree.gd`, `ExportTree.resolve`).

Nothing under `export/` is ever touched, so **re-exporting from your disc is
always safe**, and *"did I break it?"* is answered by moving your file out of
this directory.

Point the game somewhere else with `SYLPHEED_MODS=/path/to/tree`.

## The game tells you what you changed

Every file a mod replaces is printed the first time it is read:

```
mod: sprites/title/main_menu/ptbtn01.png  <-  /work/data/mods/sprites/title/main_menu/ptbtn01.png
```

A modded run that looked identical to an unmodded one in the log would leave you
with exactly one debugging tool — delete the mod and try again.

## Try it in ten seconds

Replace the `NEW GAME` label with a magenta block. The size is the original's,
`203x43`, and nothing here is derived from the disc:

```bash
mkdir -p data/mods/sprites/title/main_menu
ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "color=c=0xff00c8:s=203x43" -frames:v 1 -pix_fmt rgba \
       data/mods/sprites/title/main_menu/ptbtn01.png
godot --path port -- --menu
```

Delete the file to put it back.

## Nothing in here is committed

`.gitignore` excludes everything in this directory except this README. That is
deliberate: a mod is usually an *edited game asset*, and this repository never
holds game assets — not in `export/`, and not here either.

## One tree, not a stack

Several mods layering over each other would need a load order, and a load order
needs a rule nobody has asked for yet. Today there is one override tree. If you
want more, say so rather than assuming the port has an answer.