Session is quickly becoming my favorite skateboarding game, and even moreso now that I've discovered all the creators hard at work making mods and custom maps to play around in. Only a few weeks into life on Steam Early Access, Session already has slick custom map switching and texture tools, and a suite of cool maps, some original spots and a few lovely recreations from Skate 3 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
And while setting up custom maps is easy, it's such a budding scene that the tools and map files take a bit of digging to find. I've gathered it all here, including links to some Session modding Discords where you can learn how to make your own maps and mods, and keep up with new stuff as the community makes it.
Step one: Install the map switcher
This excellent tool, like the name says, makes switching maps fairly easy. The Github page contains detailed instructions and release notes, so be sure to give them a read to make sure everything's in order.
The gist: unpack the folder, run the .exe as an administrator, and point the launcher to your Session folder, located wherever you've planted your Steam library directory, typically [DRIVE]\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Session.
Next, click "Patch with EzPz" in the bottom right corner to download and install the files necessary to make the map switcher and custom maps work with Session.
Step two: download some maps
- Skate 3 - Black Box Distro by GHFear
- THPS School II by GHFear
- Community Park by Roober
- LowLife Parking Garage by Khelldon
- SLS 2013 Super Crown by MaTSix
To play a custom map, just click the "Import Map" button in the map switcher and point to the .zip or .rar file. It'll do all the unpacking for you.
Next, make sure the map switcher is running, load the map of your choosing, then start Session. You should load into the custom map immediately.
To switch maps without restarting Session, head to your apartment in the start menu, alt-tab to the map switcher, select the custom map you want to play, and click "Load Map". From the apartment menu, start a new skating session and the selected custom map will load. Have at it.
Just remember, Session is in Early Access, which means these tools are bound to break at some point. But given how vibrant the Session modding scene already is—stop by the Illusory and Session Modding Discords where I found the bulk of these resources to see what I mean—the mod tools will likely keep pace.
