Hi, I’m new here.

Does anyone know of any literature which addresses (or is it “common knowledge” regarding) the distribution of 3rd party software that technically is not a mod of the software itself, but allows the user to modify the software via that software?

For example, I’m writing a small desktop application that functions as a new “Settings” menu for an old PC game that I’m modifying (via HEX editing). This new “settings menu” is a simple user-interface where the user can make selections, clicks buttons, etc., to in effect make their own custom mod of the game. This desktop application/3rd party software, when executed (after the user specifies at least one change to the game via the user-interface), will make changes to the original game files. (And so that naturally requires that the users possess their own copy of the original game’s files.)

Even more specifically, the application knows the contents and directories of the files it modifies, but it doesn’t contain any game code itself. (It knows the location in the EXE where the code is, and so it can rearrange, change weights, toggle options, etc., without containing actual game code. Basically, my software is a way to automate HEX edits that I already know how to do by hand.)

By my understanding of articles like this, https://hackerbot.net/faq/54-are-game-hacks-legal , I may be in the clear. But articles like this https://mttlr.org/2012/11/gaming-mods-and-copyright/ make me feel like maybe I shouldn’t have started hacking games to begin with!

Thanks for your time, and have a nice day!