Dota 2 Workshop Tools seem to be running on the Source 2 engine

As most of you probably know already the original Defense of the Ancients started off as just a mod for Warcraft 3. Blizzard’s excellent real-time strategy game had a plethora of community-created mods, but Dota is definitely the most famous by far. It did spawn a brand new genre of games after all. Its successor, Dota 2 managed to become even more popular than the original and currently has one of the biggest communities out there. Thanks to its Steam integration, players are able to create all sort of cosmetic content via the Workshop. However, creating mods was a bit more difficult due to the lack of proper tools, but luckily Valve stepped out their game and released the Dota 2 Workshop Tools earlier.

These tools are currently in Alpha and have high system requirements so you’ll need a pretty beefy machine to use them. Also, Valve says that issues are bound to occur in this early release, but promises they will take player feedback into consideration and are working hard on improving them. Over time the tools will become less demanding so that all Dota 2 players can try their hand at modding. You can check out some of the features offered by the Workshop Tools below.

• Completely New Tools – The new suite of tools support creating and importing content for custom games. This set of tools requires a 64-bit version of Windows, Direct3D 11 compatible GPU, and opting into the Steam Client Beta.
• Steam Workshop Submissions – This early version includes the ability to upload and distribute custom game modes through the Workshop. This new automated process allows players to subscribe to an author’s custom game mode to automatically keep current as updates are released by the author.
• Testing Custom Game Modes – This alpha release is focused on getting the tools to developers first. Currently playing custom games requires a 64-bit version of Windows and a Direct3D 11 compatible GPU. In upcoming future releases we will extend support to more systems (including 32-bit and Direct3D 9) and make it easier for players to download, find matches for, and play user created game modes.

Interestingly enough, yesterday’s Dota 2 update which added the Workshop Tools seems to have included something else as well. As Rock, Paper, Shotgun points out, there appears to be some evidence that the game is being ported to the Source 2 engine. “Dota 2 Workshop Tools Alpha is Dota 2 running on the Source 2 engine,” a Reddit user says. “When you compile a map and run it, it launches the Source 2 port of Dota 2 to play. Because of that, Dota 2 is actively being ported to Source 2, and is pretty much working. You can play it, it functions.” We’ll keep you updated with any further developments so stay tuned.