18 Jun 2026

I Launched Misophonia Mods

This is a project I’ve been considering for a while and finally managed to get it started. It’s a collection of video game mods that aim to help sufferers of misophonia by removing or altering certain sound effects in games that feature problematic levels of misophonia triggers.

The Games

Currently, the site has 2 games modded: The timeless western classic Outlaws (+ Handful of Missions) by LucasArts, and one of my favourite boomer shooters of late, Brutal John 2, developed by OldSchool Laws Team.

The mod for Outlaws works both for the original and the remaster, as both share the same asset file. Brutal John 2’s mod has been tested with the latest Steam version as of the date of this post, but it’s an early access game receiving frequent updates so I’ll need to keep up with the upcoming versions.

The Problem

Both games suffer from a very similar issue in the end.

In Brutal John 2, the health items are modelled after various foods, such as burgers. And so, when you pick them up, you understandably hear your character eat it on the spot.

In Outlaws, health items are canteens of what I presume to be water, which our cool protagonist Marshall drinks to replenish HP.

In both games, the problematic sound effects play when the player attempts to recover from damage, meaning a player with misophonia might play with all sounds muted or avoid harder difficulty levels entirely to not end up needing frequent health pickups as a result of getting battered harder by tougher enemies.

This subtly but surely harms the enjoyment one can get from such great titles. A simple adjustment to these sounds is all it takes to fix the problem for misophonia sufferers.

The Solution

To fix this, I first needed suitable tools to inspect game files so as to locate the relevant assets.

For Brutal John 2, this was rather easy, as it’s a Unity game and UABEA is a capable open source tool that works with most Unity games.

For Outlaws, however, I could not find anything reliable to modify the asset bundle. I therefore reviewed the specifications of the file format and wrote a Python script to parse and modify it accordingly.

In the end, I managed to create modded binary files that successfully omitted the sound effects mentioned earlier.

The Distribution

To distribute the modded files, I landed on Xdelta, which lets you create diffs of 2 binary files and apply the diff to an unmodified binary file elsewhere. This way, I could distribute the mod without bundling in any copyrighted assets of these games. All I had to do was create diff files and write simple scripts (.bat files) to apply the patches as well as restore the original files.

The Site

This brings us to the site I launched, which will serve as the main hub for all my misophonia mods. Although I’m planning to release some of the mods on certain modding sites, this is not always possible as some games like Brutal John 2 are not yet listed on these platforms.

The Future

There are more games I’d like to mod in the coming months. Requests are always appreciated as well, so feel free to reach out if you have some games in mind that could benefit from the same treatment.

I’ll now go and enjoy some of Outlaws’ historical missions without having to tiptoe around a minefield of canteens.