How to create a World of Warcraft addon (with vibe coding)

Why make a World of Warcraft addon?

 It is a fun way to customize your game. If you are anything like me, you may have had a custom discord bot at one point where you can add custom messages and commands to your server that is full of inside jokes with your friends. This is a way to bring that same spirit into your favorite MMO that isn't RuneScape!

Why vibe code a World of Warcraft addon?

 Because I have never touched lua and probably won't outside of the WoW context. It is a very cool language that can be used for multiple games for customization but this is about all I really wanted to do with it. 

Tools Used

• Visual Studio Code

• Cursor

Step 1

Create an empty folder with the name of your addon as the folder name.

 

Step 2

Create two files inside that folder with the same name as your addon. The first will be a '.toc' extension and the second is a '.lua. file.

 

Step 3

Make this folder a Github repo. I use Github Desktop to do this but you can upload it on the website if you wish. This is just so we can select the repo is cursor. I'm sure there is an easier way and this is avoidable but I don't mind this being on my github. 

 

Step 4

Make a Cursor project with the source being the repo you just made.

 

 

Step 5

You have probably used AI before so just prompt it to do a few things. You will have to fill in gaps with other files. One I did was swap the unitframe character picture of yourself to be Sal from Impractical Jokers. At first it was just a box over my frame and looked ugly but you can keep going back to the prompt to refine it.

 

Step 6

Test your addon. It probably will have some issues but go ahead and pop your project folder over into 'World of Warcraft\_retail_\Interface\AddOns' folder. It is likely on your C:\ Drive somewhere if you are on Windows but the sure way to find it is to open the Battle.net client and find the settings for WoW and open it in explorer. That will take you right to the WoW folder and from there you can find your addons folder.

 

 

Step 7

Once your addon is in that folder, launch the game and log in. You may have to enable the addon by hitting escape and clicking 'addons'. You can check your custom one. If it isn't there, try loading out of date addons. Your config file may have the wrong game version. Have AI correct any errors you see and update the addons folder after any changes.

 

It really is that simple in the days of AI. It sounds lazy, and it is... but it works. There may be easier ways to go about this but this is what worked for me. I had fun and got the result I wanted. Have fun making a basic addon that your friends will love.

 

 

 

Hello World

 This blog is not meant to be a way to monetize off people with ads. There is one simple goal, to share knowledge learned in the tech world. I'll write up some fun stuff I've been learning as well as some tutorials that may help those going down the same path I am. I had fun setting up this website today. 

I've never used Blogger before but the amount of customization you can do for free is impressive. I bought my domain, moved it to a namespace I am comfortable with (cloudflare every time), and got this blog setup. It is cool how you can upload your own templates. I found a nice one called Eighties off btemplates. I then plugged that bad boy into ChatGPT to make it more on theme for what we are going for here. I know it can seem lazy to use AI but I have recently accepted it into my life. Now, I don't use it for everything. It isn't my new Google. 

I have known that the world is moving away from manual coding with a few stackoverflow tabs open to something much different. I hated this change at first and refused to get on board. That didn't get me anywhere except for being stuck in the past. There are enough grumpy old admins out there and I guess I was on my way to becoming one myself. I needed to get with the times. I downloaded Cursor and got a World of Warcraft addon created for my friend group. It just does a few little inside jokes and whatnot. It felt cool to see it walk through the whole software design and implementation process. What it made in a minute was more than I could have made in a couple days. Granted, I am not a professional developer, but I do have a computer science degree. I know a thing or two, just not three. 

It got me out of my comfort zone and I think that was the coolest part of it all. I don't plan to leave my job in IT and go be a dev but I really didn't want to be left behind. Isn't that what tech is all about? Keeping up with all the new toys until you burn out and become a chicken farmer. That's the dream.