jynew/jynew: a Unity wuxia RPG framework built around mods

What jynew/jynew actually gives you

The README is explicit about the goal: recreate the DOS game Heroes of Jin Yong in Unity, and provide a unified platform for mods and secondary development of that game. So the primary artifact is not a library you import. It is a game project, jyx2/, that already contains a playable main story, a combat system, companions, items and martial arts techniques, plus three sample mods under jyx2/Assets/Mods.

The audience splits in two. Modders get a working base with content to modify. Developers who want to study how a complete single-player RPG is assembled get the same thing from a different angle. The README lists that as an explicit project goal: a complete single-player game structure for people interested in learning game development.

The sample mod The Wandering Soul of Ducheng is the concrete part. The README describes roughly 3 to 4 hours of main story, multiple endings, recruitable companions, more than ten martial arts techniques and over a hundred items. A second sample, Infinite Roguelike Wuxia, is a demo where battles run fully automatically, rewards are chosen after each cleared stage, and save-scumming is disabled by auto-save. That roguelike sample is the more useful read if you want to see how the framework handles a mode that diverges from the main loop.

How the framework is put together

Everything lives under jyx2/, which is a Unity project. The repository root holds the licence directories, CONTRIBUTING.md and the README. Mods sit inside the Unity project at jyx2/Assets/Mods, with one directory per sample: SAMPLE for The Wandering Soul of Ducheng and xiastart_roguelike for the roguelike demo. That layout is the architecture in miniature. A mod is a content package dropped into the same asset tree the base game uses, not a plugin loaded at runtime through a separate API.

The practical consequence is that modding here means editing Unity assets and C# inside a shared project. You inherit the engine's asset pipeline, its serialization and its build settings. You also inherit the engine version: the README badge pins Unity 2020.3.32.f1c1. Opening the project in a different Unity release is not described as supported anywhere in the README, and Unity projects of this vintage generally do not upgrade silently.

The third sample, Heroes of Jin Yong 3D Remake, is the one that most directly matches the project's stated goal of recreating the DOS original, and its assets are in the same tree. The README does not document a mod manifest format, a versioning scheme for mods, or a compatibility contract between a mod and a framework release. That is a gap worth knowing about before you plan a large mod: nothing in the README tells you how a mod survives a framework update.

Getting the project open in Unity

The README does not give a step-by-step install. What it gives is the engine version, a link to the developer handbook on Feishu, and a wiki page for game downloads if you only want to play a build. For source work, the engine version is the operative instruction.

Clone the repository, then add jyx2/ as a project in Unity Hub. The version string from the README badge is what you are matching:

git clone https://github.com/jynew/jynew.git
cd jynew

Install Unity 2020.3.32.f1c1 through Unity Hub, then open the jyx2 folder. Unity will import assets on first open, which takes a while for a project this size.

# in Unity Hub: Add project from disk -> select the jyx2 folder
# editor version to install: 2020.3.32.f1c1

Once it opens, the sample mods are where the README points: jyx2/Assets/Mods/SAMPLE and jyx2/Assets/Mods/xiastart_roguelike. Opening the SAMPLE scene and pressing Play is the shortest path to seeing the framework do something. If you would rather not build anything, the README's link to the game downloads wiki page covers prebuilt packages for Steam, TapTap and the App Store, with the note that the iOS channel is not offered in mainland China because of publishing-licence policy.

The licence is the adoption decision

GitHub reports the licence as NOASSERTION, and the README explains why. The project uses a licence the badge identifies as the Jin Yong 3D Remake Community Agreement. The README states plainly that without permission, no material or asset from this project may be used in any context outside this project and its mods, commercial or non-commercial, and that violators will be listed on a Hall of Shame. There is a LICENSE file and a COMMUNITY_LICENSE_FOR_JYX2/ directory at the repository root, plus a wiki page listing asset authorizations.

The README also states that the code, assets and builds are for learning purposes only and must not be used for any commercial purpose, and that any further commercial use is neither permitted nor authorized. That is broader than a typical asset restriction. It covers the code as well.

Read this as an engineering constraint, not a legal opinion. If your plan involves shipping anything derived from this repository, the licence text is the thing to read before you write code, and if the answer matters commercially, it is a question for a lawyer rather than for the README. The community agreement structure also means the answer may differ per asset: the wiki's authorization list exists precisely because not everything in the tree has the same provenance.

Where the framework stops being the right tool

The project describes itself as officially completed. The newest release is 20230510, published on 2023-05-11, and before that v0.2-stable in April 2022. The last push to the repository was on 2026-03-25, so the repository is not archived and has seen activity since the last release, but the release cadence stopped three years ago. If you need a framework with a maintained upgrade path, security fixes on a schedule or a versioned API contract, this is not it.

Second limitation: the framework is built for one genre and one engine. It is a wuxia RPG structure in Unity. If you want to build a 2D platformer or a networked multiplayer game, most of what you would inherit is content and systems you would have to strip out. The roguelike sample shows the framework can host a different loop, but it is still turn-based combat with a party and items underneath.

Third: there is no documented mod API. The README says you can create mods and upload them to the Workshop, and the samples live in the asset tree, but nothing in the README describes how a mod declares its dependencies, what happens when the framework changes, or how conflicts between two mods are resolved. Community support runs through an email address and the developer handbook, not a documented interface.

How it differs from general Unity RPG kits

The related searches around this project point at AnyRPG, RPGJS, Egameplay, Noahgameframe and generic Gameframework demos, so it is worth being precise about the difference. Those projects are usually frameworks in the library sense: you start from an empty scene and build your game on top of their systems. jynew/jynew is the opposite direction. You start from a finished game and modify it.

That difference decides most of your early work. With a general RPG kit you spend the first weeks wiring up menus, save systems and combat because nothing exists yet. With jynew/jynew those systems exist and are already balanced against several hours of content, but they are not packaged for you to lift out. You are working inside someone else's game structure, in Unity 2020.3.32.f1c1, under a licence that keeps the result inside this project.

RPGJS is a JavaScript engine for browser RPGs, so the language and the deployment target both differ. The Unity-based kits share the engine but not the content. What jynew/jynew has that none of them offer is a playable reference implementation with a defined scope: a main story with multiple endings, a roguelike variant and a 3D remake, all in one repository. That is a study asset more than a starting kit.

Maintenance and upgrade cost

The upgrade surface is the Unity version. The README pins 2020.3.32.f1c1, and the repository does not document a path to a newer LTS. Upgrading a Unity project of this size is not a version bump you do casually: asset serialization, package dependencies and shader compatibility all move, and there is no maintainer-provided migration guide in the README. If you adopt this project, plan on staying near the pinned editor version unless you are prepared to own the upgrade yourself.

Release history gives you the other half of the cost picture. Three releases are listed: v0.1.1-inner in June 2021, v0.2-stable in April 2022 and 20230510 in May 2023. The project's own README calls it officially completed. Treat the framework as a fixed artifact you extend, not a dependency that will move under you. That is actually easier to reason about than a fast-moving framework, as long as you accept it.

On licence cost: the community agreement restricts reuse outside the project and its mods, and the README rules out commercial use of code, assets and builds. Any commercial plan needs the licence text read directly, and the asset authorization wiki page checked for the specific assets you intend to touch, because the agreement is not a single uniform grant.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt jynew/jynew if you want a working Unity RPG reference with real content to study or mod, and you accept that its licence keeps you inside the project. Do not adopt it if you need a permissively licensed codebase to build a commercial product on, or if you want an actively developed framework: the last push was on 2026-03-25 and the newest release, 20230510, dates from 2023-05-11. Before committing, read LICENSE and COMMUNITY_LICENSE_FOR_JYX2/ in full, check that Unity 2020.3.32.f1c1 opens the jyx2/ project on your machine, and confirm whether the assets you plan to touch are covered by the wiki's asset authorization list.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. jynew/jynew on GitHub
3. README
4. Releases