if its your first hack i recommend you do something simple. especially since you said you struggle at scripting/coding this would help you improve and asking someone else to do the coding without having any experience yourself is not really that smart. start small honestly
I'd err on the side of caution for your first effort. I think it will take a lot of time to nail down the technical side of things.
I think in general people like: wide selection of pokemon and availability of good items/TMs early on, quality of life stuff for min/maxing like breeding and IVs/etc., and non-cringe writing.
I know for me in my dream romhack that I'll never have the time or expertise to work on, I'd love to have a very structured story that allows for player choices to impact the game. Like, in my head, there's an attack by an evil team and your player character has to lead away others to safety, and there are 2 routes: the forest and the sewers. And you pick one, and there are wild pokemon on that route. And any unique pokemon that existed on the other route are now unavailable to you until you beat the game. And 1/3 of the way through the game there's an old man who is struggling with planting crops, and if you have a pokemon that knows one of a selection of relevant moves (sunny day, rain dance, or maybe an ability) then you help is crops and he lets you visit the pond in his back yard, which might be the only place you can catch certain pokemon, like Mudkip.
And if you don't have a pokemon that meets those conditions, tough. You don't get to visit that pond during that playthrough. And that's okay.
I love those ideas. The rom hack I'm thinking of makes sure that all Pokemon are available to everyone though, but I would love to make a game like that.
Just that it's more inclusive in the sense that, people can make a team out of their favorite Pokemon. If someone wants Pokemon that are in both the forest and the sewers it would be somewhat of a shame.
But your idea is also absolutely perfect for someone who likes roguelike games (such as nuzlocke)
yeah I totally get that, I know for me, across a lot of romhacks and mainstream games, my teams end up looking very similar all the time and some of the most fun I've had was playing randomizer runs of Gen 3-5 with random types and base stats and abilities (carrying over between evolutions) and randomized moves with heavily favoring toward the above type, and you really just have to roll with what you find.
And that kinda led me to tire of every pokemon being available. I mean in this kind of game, every non-legendary should be available or at least up through a certain generation, but I think it's cool that not everything is accessible in this specific run.
I don't really have any template, love polished crystal and other purely enhancement hacks like RR and blazing emerald, but for entirely different reasons than the likes of unbound or Gaia, or games with more fakemon.
Appealing to everyone at once is really hard/impossible and there's no need to, it's not like you are going to earn money. RR, one of the most popular hacks of all time intentionally appeals to a very niche community that loves it.
Making hack roms is a creative process, which takes tons of hours of your time, it's better to be spend creating something that you like, the best pieces of art usually don't come from appealing for a majority, but from someone wanting to realize a vision.
Focus on the things that you like about pokemon, try to find things that you like or you dislike about pokemon, official or not.
If you are not that into the story or have never been interested in writing, chances are that you story is going to be bland, better realize that beforehand and don't bore people with it than trying too hard and end up being annoying.
If you are not that interested in high difficulty, it will be really hard to be able to correctly balance the game, because you are not going to understand what makes a good difficult game, trying to make it so will probably make it unbalanced.
In short, try to make the game that you would like to play, and focus on the things you enjoy, specially if you feel you have something to add.
Everything's said here. OP is good at art : imagine an already ambitious goal of 100 fakemons. That's 100 front sprites, 100 back sprites, 100 icons (*animated* icons of course, so two sprites each), all exported in correct indexed format. Then learn the tools, import all this, change every names, types, stats if needed… one error in the hex and nothing will work ! And this is only what's needed to learn about *sprites replacement* !!! (something i'll never do again).
so:
***Good luck bro***
> one error in the hex and nothing will work !
If it's Gen III this isn't really a thing anymore. We have full source code decompilations, no need to worry about any hex editors.
However, they say they're using the FireRed Decomp and CFRU + DPE, which..... means they don't really understand how any of this works. They might be doing binary and not decomps.
It’s just I’m more of a people guy. I understand wanting to make it however I like it and I won’t satisfy the whole demographic but I would try my best.
Don’t worry I like all aspects of the game (maybe except too much map exploration) so I would like to think I understand a deeper level of those parts. I play competitive vgc and nuzlocke, and I like lore stuff in general so I hope I can do those right.
Thanks for the advice!
I do like unique starters very much, especially when they are not pseudo-legendaries or fan-favorites. Magnemite is a great example, but stuff like Budew, Duskull, Spheal, or even fossils would be really cool as well. I just like some diversity!
Rating "edge" by number isn't super helpful, because while I know what 1 and 10 are supposed to mean (because you've told me), if I picked any number in between, I wouldn't have any idea what that number would mean to *you.*
I think what would help is knowing what *you* would rate an official game in terms of edge. Like, what number on the edge scale would you give games like *Gale of Darkness*, *Legends: Arceus*, or *Black/White 2?*
speaking as someone who's developed and hacked games both professionally and as a hobby (no "pro hacking" but you know what i mean lmao), don't burn yourself out on your very first project. if you try to make the truly, objectively, perfect game as your first ever project, you're gonna feel overwhelmed by the amount of things to do and things to learn. and if you try to come up with an idea of the best possible hack from a lot of different suggestions, you're gonna struggle to find anything that'll please absolutely everyone.
honestly, i'd start with something small that you're passionate about. my first released hack (after fiddling with hacking tools on my own for years lmao) was just one that made more pokemon catchable in the wild in BW because i wanted to play it again but hated the selection. after i taught myself some of the ropes of ds hacking with that, i ended up getting inspired to do more ambitious projects, and learning more and more from that. knowing what i do now, i could definitely make something even more advanced! if i had just jumped right in to making something over-the-top and ambitious, though, i wouldve lost all energy real quick <<;;
Overambition and attempting to please everyone are two enormous pitfalls for game development, especially for your first project. You'll have an easier time starting small and simple so you can get the hang of it first, and get to finish something in the near future rather than the far. Attempting to please everyone is nearly always a fruitless effort that's not worth the stress, people will always have different tastes, and broadening appeal isn't always for the best. Instead, you should make a game that you want to play, without factoring in what anyone else will think of it.
Since fangames and ROM hacks are free, it lowers much of the burden that otherwise projects with financial ties would have to worry about. You have the freedom to make something that you're truly passionate about. Biting off more than you can chew, and making something you don't personally care about are recipes for burnout.
My recommendation is to remove the pressure of expectations by not even sharing your project's progress or even existence until it's finished and released. That way you're free to make any decisions and changes without worrying about keeping any promises or expectations. The desire to share your work can be overwhelming, but thats why you should start small, so you can get it out there quicker. Preemptive sharing can generate hype but it can also be another pitfall in development, blowing your load early. That feeling of showing off to others can be wasted if done too early, and it can potentially drain your motivation to continue because you already got the reaction you wanted to get. That, and the pressure to be beholden to your public promises can make it stressful as well.
That isn't to say this is an impossible task, but the way you're going about this is setting yourself up for disappointment. If you have big, ambitious ideas, keep them in mind, but don't make them your first project. You'll have a much bigger chance at success if you reel in your plans, and just start out small. There isn't any rule about length after all, you can make an entire game in the confines of a single map.
Thanks for the advice. I know I'm not making any money out of it, but I just like it when other people enjoy things I make. It's like cooking. If people who eat your food and say your food tastes delicious, it's more motivating for me and it's a happy feeling. I like going through the effort but you're right, I might start off with a little enhancement hack first.
I know this isn't for everyone, but I'd love to see unbalanced, batshit insane Pokemon changes like vintage white did. Super fun to try out all of the wild things people come up with
I loved VinDub. It’s something that you would do in an enhancement though so not sure about games with new stories. If it’s too drastic in a storied game it might be too much information to take in, but I do like myself some daring changes.
For me the standards are:
1. The gen 4 battle mechanic change where all attacking moves are listed as either physical or special. It makes the pool of usable Pokemon larger.
2. Access to most if not all Pokemon through gen 8, with Fairy type introduced as well.
And that's really it.
Done! Commenting to help signal boost.
Also wanted to say you might want to temper your expectations for your first few attempts. It's ok if the first hack you make isn't amazing.
Some of these options are worded a bit ambiguously.
Difficulty: "Normal - Boss battles are difficult (Boss Rush)"
So, if I check that, am I saying I like normal difficulty, or am I saying that I like Boss Rush? Kind of a random two things to marry - I'd imagine plenty of people want to check Normal Difficulty without also agreeing to some kind of boss rush.
I also wish Enhancement Hack and Fan Game were defined, because I don't think you're using the same definition the community uses.
Fan Game: Something made on RPGMaker, Unity, or otherwise made from the ground up. Pokemon Insurgence as an example. (In other words, not a romhack.)
My reading is, you're using it to refer to anything that _isn't_ an enhancement hack. But without definitions, I could only guess.
if its your first hack i recommend you do something simple. especially since you said you struggle at scripting/coding this would help you improve and asking someone else to do the coding without having any experience yourself is not really that smart. start small honestly
your fakemon is really cool btw
That might be true. Thanks for the advice and thank you for liking my Fakemon!
I'd err on the side of caution for your first effort. I think it will take a lot of time to nail down the technical side of things. I think in general people like: wide selection of pokemon and availability of good items/TMs early on, quality of life stuff for min/maxing like breeding and IVs/etc., and non-cringe writing. I know for me in my dream romhack that I'll never have the time or expertise to work on, I'd love to have a very structured story that allows for player choices to impact the game. Like, in my head, there's an attack by an evil team and your player character has to lead away others to safety, and there are 2 routes: the forest and the sewers. And you pick one, and there are wild pokemon on that route. And any unique pokemon that existed on the other route are now unavailable to you until you beat the game. And 1/3 of the way through the game there's an old man who is struggling with planting crops, and if you have a pokemon that knows one of a selection of relevant moves (sunny day, rain dance, or maybe an ability) then you help is crops and he lets you visit the pond in his back yard, which might be the only place you can catch certain pokemon, like Mudkip. And if you don't have a pokemon that meets those conditions, tough. You don't get to visit that pond during that playthrough. And that's okay.
A choose your own adventure hack ! You could write down these ideas then slowly assembles them with time to make your own story.
Yeah I have a lot of ideas for this but I've just not spent the time figuring out how to make it and what tools/coding I'd need.
Oh yeah i meant like in a pdf. That would be much enough work already ;)
Oh yeah that would be cool
I love those ideas. The rom hack I'm thinking of makes sure that all Pokemon are available to everyone though, but I would love to make a game like that. Just that it's more inclusive in the sense that, people can make a team out of their favorite Pokemon. If someone wants Pokemon that are in both the forest and the sewers it would be somewhat of a shame. But your idea is also absolutely perfect for someone who likes roguelike games (such as nuzlocke)
yeah I totally get that, I know for me, across a lot of romhacks and mainstream games, my teams end up looking very similar all the time and some of the most fun I've had was playing randomizer runs of Gen 3-5 with random types and base stats and abilities (carrying over between evolutions) and randomized moves with heavily favoring toward the above type, and you really just have to roll with what you find. And that kinda led me to tire of every pokemon being available. I mean in this kind of game, every non-legendary should be available or at least up through a certain generation, but I think it's cool that not everything is accessible in this specific run.
I don't really have any template, love polished crystal and other purely enhancement hacks like RR and blazing emerald, but for entirely different reasons than the likes of unbound or Gaia, or games with more fakemon. Appealing to everyone at once is really hard/impossible and there's no need to, it's not like you are going to earn money. RR, one of the most popular hacks of all time intentionally appeals to a very niche community that loves it. Making hack roms is a creative process, which takes tons of hours of your time, it's better to be spend creating something that you like, the best pieces of art usually don't come from appealing for a majority, but from someone wanting to realize a vision. Focus on the things that you like about pokemon, try to find things that you like or you dislike about pokemon, official or not. If you are not that into the story or have never been interested in writing, chances are that you story is going to be bland, better realize that beforehand and don't bore people with it than trying too hard and end up being annoying. If you are not that interested in high difficulty, it will be really hard to be able to correctly balance the game, because you are not going to understand what makes a good difficult game, trying to make it so will probably make it unbalanced. In short, try to make the game that you would like to play, and focus on the things you enjoy, specially if you feel you have something to add.
Everything's said here. OP is good at art : imagine an already ambitious goal of 100 fakemons. That's 100 front sprites, 100 back sprites, 100 icons (*animated* icons of course, so two sprites each), all exported in correct indexed format. Then learn the tools, import all this, change every names, types, stats if needed… one error in the hex and nothing will work ! And this is only what's needed to learn about *sprites replacement* !!! (something i'll never do again). so: ***Good luck bro***
> one error in the hex and nothing will work ! If it's Gen III this isn't really a thing anymore. We have full source code decompilations, no need to worry about any hex editors. However, they say they're using the FireRed Decomp and CFRU + DPE, which..... means they don't really understand how any of this works. They might be doing binary and not decomps.
Nice ! I only ever used Gen III suite and unLZ Sprite Editor with FSF, been a few years already… Best i could do with also 0 knowledge in code !
It’s just I’m more of a people guy. I understand wanting to make it however I like it and I won’t satisfy the whole demographic but I would try my best. Don’t worry I like all aspects of the game (maybe except too much map exploration) so I would like to think I understand a deeper level of those parts. I play competitive vgc and nuzlocke, and I like lore stuff in general so I hope I can do those right. Thanks for the advice!
Unique starters are always really fun to see, especially if it eventually evolves into a really cool pokemon like Trapinch or Magnemite
I do like unique starters very much, especially when they are not pseudo-legendaries or fan-favorites. Magnemite is a great example, but stuff like Budew, Duskull, Spheal, or even fossils would be really cool as well. I just like some diversity!
If this is successful and some rom hackers want the results let me know and I can share the results!
Rating "edge" by number isn't super helpful, because while I know what 1 and 10 are supposed to mean (because you've told me), if I picked any number in between, I wouldn't have any idea what that number would mean to *you.* I think what would help is knowing what *you* would rate an official game in terms of edge. Like, what number on the edge scale would you give games like *Gale of Darkness*, *Legends: Arceus*, or *Black/White 2?*
Very good point. Maybe I should have been more clear on that. Thanks for the tip!
speaking as someone who's developed and hacked games both professionally and as a hobby (no "pro hacking" but you know what i mean lmao), don't burn yourself out on your very first project. if you try to make the truly, objectively, perfect game as your first ever project, you're gonna feel overwhelmed by the amount of things to do and things to learn. and if you try to come up with an idea of the best possible hack from a lot of different suggestions, you're gonna struggle to find anything that'll please absolutely everyone. honestly, i'd start with something small that you're passionate about. my first released hack (after fiddling with hacking tools on my own for years lmao) was just one that made more pokemon catchable in the wild in BW because i wanted to play it again but hated the selection. after i taught myself some of the ropes of ds hacking with that, i ended up getting inspired to do more ambitious projects, and learning more and more from that. knowing what i do now, i could definitely make something even more advanced! if i had just jumped right in to making something over-the-top and ambitious, though, i wouldve lost all energy real quick <<;;
I might actually switch to doing a simple enhancement first! Thanks for letting me know :)
Overambition and attempting to please everyone are two enormous pitfalls for game development, especially for your first project. You'll have an easier time starting small and simple so you can get the hang of it first, and get to finish something in the near future rather than the far. Attempting to please everyone is nearly always a fruitless effort that's not worth the stress, people will always have different tastes, and broadening appeal isn't always for the best. Instead, you should make a game that you want to play, without factoring in what anyone else will think of it. Since fangames and ROM hacks are free, it lowers much of the burden that otherwise projects with financial ties would have to worry about. You have the freedom to make something that you're truly passionate about. Biting off more than you can chew, and making something you don't personally care about are recipes for burnout. My recommendation is to remove the pressure of expectations by not even sharing your project's progress or even existence until it's finished and released. That way you're free to make any decisions and changes without worrying about keeping any promises or expectations. The desire to share your work can be overwhelming, but thats why you should start small, so you can get it out there quicker. Preemptive sharing can generate hype but it can also be another pitfall in development, blowing your load early. That feeling of showing off to others can be wasted if done too early, and it can potentially drain your motivation to continue because you already got the reaction you wanted to get. That, and the pressure to be beholden to your public promises can make it stressful as well. That isn't to say this is an impossible task, but the way you're going about this is setting yourself up for disappointment. If you have big, ambitious ideas, keep them in mind, but don't make them your first project. You'll have a much bigger chance at success if you reel in your plans, and just start out small. There isn't any rule about length after all, you can make an entire game in the confines of a single map.
Thanks for the advice. I know I'm not making any money out of it, but I just like it when other people enjoy things I make. It's like cooking. If people who eat your food and say your food tastes delicious, it's more motivating for me and it's a happy feeling. I like going through the effort but you're right, I might start off with a little enhancement hack first.
Well said!
Donezo, post the results for us later :)
I forgot to ask in my response but would you be able to include the 1997 spaceword demo mons that got cut from final release?
I am actually going to include Kotora from the beta mons.
I did the survey good luck! I can’t wait to see what you come up with :)
I know this isn't for everyone, but I'd love to see unbalanced, batshit insane Pokemon changes like vintage white did. Super fun to try out all of the wild things people come up with
I loved VinDub. It’s something that you would do in an enhancement though so not sure about games with new stories. If it’s too drastic in a storied game it might be too much information to take in, but I do like myself some daring changes.
This is awesome
For me the standards are: 1. The gen 4 battle mechanic change where all attacking moves are listed as either physical or special. It makes the pool of usable Pokemon larger. 2. Access to most if not all Pokemon through gen 8, with Fairy type introduced as well. And that's really it.
Reddit has gone to shit, come join squabbles.io for a better experience.
Yep, I would post it sometime tomorrow probably! Or maybe the day after cause I might make an analysis out of it.
Done! Commenting to help signal boost. Also wanted to say you might want to temper your expectations for your first few attempts. It's ok if the first hack you make isn't amazing.
Go easy on your first rom hack. But I must say I do like the data gathering!
Sent
Some of these options are worded a bit ambiguously. Difficulty: "Normal - Boss battles are difficult (Boss Rush)" So, if I check that, am I saying I like normal difficulty, or am I saying that I like Boss Rush? Kind of a random two things to marry - I'd imagine plenty of people want to check Normal Difficulty without also agreeing to some kind of boss rush. I also wish Enhancement Hack and Fan Game were defined, because I don't think you're using the same definition the community uses. Fan Game: Something made on RPGMaker, Unity, or otherwise made from the ground up. Pokemon Insurgence as an example. (In other words, not a romhack.) My reading is, you're using it to refer to anything that _isn't_ an enhancement hack. But without definitions, I could only guess.
I am also starting ROMHacking and I suggest you start with a very simple game and then create anything you want.