Minecraft wiki entry for Creating_Forge_mods, associated text: One more tool you should set up before starting a mod is the Forge MDK (Mod Development Kit). Forge is a collection of useful resources and mod loader, designed specifically to simplify compatibility between Minecraft Java Edition and multiple community-created mods. This tutorial will focus on the MDK for version 1.12.2 of Minecraft Java Edition, although Forge for 1.14.4 has been around for some time. An alternative to Forge is Fabric, but Java is still used to code mods either way.