What makes a ROM hack 'good'?

ipatix said:

I personally find it's super sad is that almost no makers of hacks do have custom music in their hacks. And I mean music that actually sounds balanced, harmonic and matches the game. Too sad I'm one of the very little amount of people that do this and really care about music. If makers make their own Assembler Routines (which is pretty advanced stuff) why don't they do other advanced stuff (like music)? It's true there is very little information out there but people should realize that music modding is not as simple as graphics. You mostly need to learn all the stuff by yourself to even understand how everything works to get something decent going and this is where most people give up.
Other people (although not many) just say 'who cares bout music, you'll mute the sound anyway'. Ugh, I really hate hearing this. Am the only one that think that music/sound just completes something visible? Imagine other commercial movies (TLoR) or games (Skyrim) without the music. Wouldn't they be super cold without emotions?
That's my reasons why I think custom music is important and this is the thing many hacks that'd be really awesome lack off.

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not to discredit your reasoning... but you contridict yourself. You say people should all do this. Then say its really hard... the fact is most people are nor musically creative. They can come up with a good story and learn to script and rearrange tiles easily but music is very hard and if you cant make music, you cant insert music. If you wish to help hackers put music in hacks, create some tutorials explaining all the things youve learned. music hacking takes an artistic ear and mind. Its a whole different way of thinking to write music. Thats y most CANT do it... i wish i could wrote good tunes for my hacks. But i cannot. I can write lyrics all day but the tune and music... nope...

Yeah you're right that my reasoning isn't that clear. The thing I ment was something else: If you put a lot of hard work into a good hack, music is a neat feature to have although it's hard. Don't be afraid of something being hard. The thing about music is that there is not a very straight forward way to do it and therefor tutorials aren't ideal. Best thing is not find out your own way (like doing ASM researching).

But anyway I'm really expecting too much from people since I don't even remeber myself which nasty stuff I've done to find stuff out and make this or that work.

For advanced hackers all the things I can refer for learning music hacking is reading this document up and down until you get crazy:
http://www.romhacking.net/documents/462/

This thread is really good for me since I'm developing a hack, I love to see what people want ^_^ Here's what I think makes a rom hack good:
-Unique Story
-Interesting Characters + Plot
-Pokemon from all 3 generations, maybe even some from 4 or 5
-A little bit of a challenge (Not super easy)
-Immerses you in the game (You feel like you connect to your character)
-New tiles are okay but they don't make a game, I prefer the original tiles for the hacks most of the time.

MegaIndianCharizardX said:

I am not worried for it not being famous, i am making it for personal enjoyment, but i personally have a feeling that my hack is going to be an average one in front of other hacks here.

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You're making an anime of Johto. I'm sure you'll attract some anime fans. Just chill.

To me, it's gotta have easy-ish advancement, like I should know where to go when I need to go there, no hand holding, just like a solid directive at all times, if not just a name of a town or route. The worst times I've had playing Hacks, and even the actual games is when the game is super cryptic, or just doesn't tell you anything at all. If there are Fakemon, they have to look somewhat decent. Like better then I would make in half-an-hour. Tiles-wise, I don't really care about the tiles, as long as they aren't lazily done. Actually, here's what makes one good for me: A solid clear story line (Not like B/W/B2/W2, where you just go in a straight line the whole time), sprites that had time put into them, and a decent success rate, what I mean is that the game doesn't pull cheap gimmicks over your head. Just for an example, in Pokemon Fire Red: Generations, Misty's first Pokemon is a Luvdisc that knows Sweet Kiss, Lovely Kiss, Attract, and Water Pulse. That is the most annoying move set ever! You HAVE to one hit the thing or else you have to deal with luck through sleep, confusion, and infatuation! Anyways, rant over, Those things make a good game IMO!

Well I haven't played a lot of hacks and all, as I have only officially played three of them. Thunder Yellow, a Fire Red hack that is a remake of Yellow version. Ash Gray and Red chapters.

I guess what I would think a hack will be good is:

1. A decent or captivating story plot.
2. Very well diverse characters, [main characters, gym leaders, NPC you name it. That brings in the feeling of liking them or what makes them good.]
3. A decent but not too complicated puzzles.
4. Hacks that don't always have to use cuss, or being extremely darker tone or having death. [Unless it is done right, or when it is called for.]
5: No super hard difficulty. Now I ain't one to complain about difficulty, but I hate it when and I have seen videos on this. Where they make Trainers have like 10+ higher lvls than you. Especially when you only have like...say lvl 8-15. Just having the difficulty high, does not make it a good hack. Unless there is a balance of difficulty.

Although I AM in favor iof hacks, that actually have you thinking somewhat competitive style of battling with some of the gym leaders and elite four members. This I actually wouldn't mind being in a hack. Cause it will be a really good test, of seeing how well the player or hard core Pokemon fans. Are with their competitive battling skills X D

As well...something I am planning to do with my future hack. Is that and might be hard to explain ^ _ ^ ; Is that if you are planning to have two main characters, both one hack version being a male and the second hack. Just focusing on the female trainer...and this I would really love to see done and hoping I pull it off myself XD Is that make and create Hack version "Exclusive events" that the other main character never sees or does, except that the other one has gone through and done.

Example would be like...Say the Male character goes through the Rocket Hide out in the game corner and stops team rocket plans/Giovanni from using the silph scope in Lavender town and that the rocket members evacuate the premises.

But with the Female main character, who enters the game corner and such. DOESN'T go through that same event and that the entrance is sealed off for good. With the npc telling her, that a trainer came in here and stop Team rocket from whatever they were doing. I think that will be cool to see in a hack XD If...that made any sense lol.

I think what makes a good hack is:

1. A good and ORGINIAL storyline, not just beat 8 gyms, beat some team, capture some legendary, and become the champion. Something interesting.
2. CREATIVITY! Whatever this entails (ei Fakemon, plot twists, tilesets, etc.)
3. Harder wild Pokemon and or trainers (I mean come on, you can beat any game up to the E4 without blinking an eye (In black and white you don't have to blink to beat the even the E4))
4. New game mechanics

Those are the most important things I think in a hack.

For me, especially the story is important. I mean, I choose the hacks that I play, after reading the story... Your hack can have the best graphic and the newest tiles, sprites etc., but when the story is ♥♥♥♥ and just a copy of the normal story's I won't play It at all... I mean Pokemon is still a kind of a roleplay game and for those games the story is the most important part.
And the hack has to be an game, what is not finishable in 8 hours. It should be some kind of an competition..:D
In earlier Days, when I was a child, we used to play the first versions of Pokemon for about 80h, and that was just to search everything what you need :D
So sometimes a kind of a maze in the game shall be there, some parts, where you can get stuck for several time, if you don't get the clue, and there must be something enjoyable, like the dialogs, they have to be replaced and overworked... I know that's quite a hard work, but if you want to say you created a good hack, for me your hack have to deal with all the points I just mentioned.

Kind regards,
.Rax