Any time there would be a combinatorial expansion of the number of layers, INDIE developers created modgits. Evaluating their utility requires us to see if authors found them straightforward in their use and whether they needed unique extensions for each project.
Generally, authors reported that modgits were very easy to use, although the featureless colored boxes (Figure 4.2) on the palette didn't encourage experimentation. Authors usually needed a quick primer on each class of modgit as they got to the point in development where they needed it, with the exception of question and answer viewers, which mapped easily to parts of ASK systems authors had seen before.
It took many months for modgits that were used in more than one application (question viewers, answer viewers, and evidence-list viewers) to have a complete list of features. Every aspect of question buttons, for example, needed to be editable to satisfy artists in terms of spacing, word location, word wrap, margins, pictures, how they act when they are questions--one artist even requested that I let her adjust the kerning (the space between letters in the same word). With solid defaults and stand-ins (such as the default buttons that require no art on question viewers), however, authors could use each feature only as they found it necessary.
INDIE developers early in INDIE's lifecycle grew the adjustable feature set as authors ran into things they needed to change. In more recent times, INDIE developers have not needed to add many extensions; each modgit has remained fairly stable and author requests have been few.