• Our software update is now concluded. You will need to reset your password to log in. In order to do this, you will have to click "Log in" in the top right corner and then "Forgot your password?".
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
    Register

Is making ROM hacks worth it anymore?

Anti-HyperLink

    • 37
    Posts
    8
    Years
    • Seen Oct 24, 2024
    I've wanted to create my own hacks for years, and I've tried on and off. Even though I suck at it and can never find any information to help me, I've kept trying. When Nintendo shut down two Pokemon fan games, I gave up. Is it really worth it to waste my time making a Pokemon game when it's going to be banned?

    If this is in the wrong section, just move it. You don't have to yell at me and call me names. Ive been on this site a lot, i know what the mods are like.
     
    It's a hobby at best. If you don't enjoy it, don't make a hack and give up. The context may sound negative, but it's perfectly alright to stop doing something you don't enjoy.

    As for hacking in general without knowledge, it comes down to how much you're willing to spend time learning on. In my opinion, hacking without C and programming tools is very boring and tedious.
     
    If you want your hack to get famous or make profit with it you shouldn't try that hard, but making small games for fun and share them in forums like people here does it's good as long as you like it. It's just a hobby and you choose in what you spend your free time.
     
    Nintendo don't shut down any old game. There are a variety of factors that come into play. Here are a few:
    • Are you making money off of your game? Are you taking donations? Offering exclusive content by paying? (This includes ad revenue from a website)
    • Is the game popular during a main or other major release? (Pokémon Prism so close to Sun Moon. It draws attention from those games and that is the last thing they want.)
    • How many official assets and resources does the game use of the official games?
    • Does the game have online connectivity?
    These are some reasons for Nintendo to potentially take down a game. You want to avoid these as much as possible.

    PS: These especially apply to fangames, but I'm sure a good chunk (if not everything) applies to hacks as well.
     
    M3rein said:
    Nintendo don't shut down any old game. There are a variety of factors that come into play. Here are a few:
    • Are you making money off of your game? Are you taking donations? Offering exclusive content by paying? (This includes ad revenue from a website)
    • Is the game popular during a main or other major release? (Pokémon Prism so close to Sun Moon. It draws attention from those games and that is the last thing they want.)
    • How many official assets and resources does the game use of the official games?
    • Does the game have online connectivity?
    These are some reasons for Nintendo to potentially take down a game. You want to avoid these as much as possible.

    PS: These especially apply to fangames, but I'm sure a good chunk (if not everything) applies to hacks as well.
    Click to expand...

    do you think Uranium was knocked out possibly due to online MP? that's terribly discomforting that a game can get cut down for online content...
     
    TheGamingPaladin said:
    do you think Uranium was knocked out possibly due to online MP? that's terribly discomforting that a game can get cut down for online content...
    Click to expand...

    They won't take down a game just because it has online functionality, but Nintendo are known not to like fangames that do offer that.
     
    Think about: Why spent so great ideias in rom hacking without earn money, receive critics, getting deadlines and criticism from members. I think, imagine that potential of creativity in game developing community? I don't think rom hacking these days are worth of
     
    If your primary mindset going into game development is just "I want to make money", you probably aren't interested in making games so much as you are cashing in on a trend that people enjoy. That is not to say you shouldn't make money off of making games if you enjoy it, but if it's your primary motivation, your only reason to make them is so you can bring in the $revenue, then you could easily find something else that takes a lot less to learn and make the same amount of cash, if not more.

    Regardless of whether or not money is involved, making games should be a labor of love and passion, regardless of if it's a rom hack, a fan game, an original creation, anything. Sure, there are certain risks involved with making a fangame of a privately owned IP, and you could be shut down for any reason, but that doesn't stop people. The reason for that? Because they love making games, they want to make something they enjoy. A story they want to tell, an experience they want to create, an adventure they want to share, these reasons, among others, are why people make games. I think, given those reasons, it's still worth it to make a ROM hack if that's what you want to do, or even use these skills and knowledge to move on to greener pastures, and become a full fledged independent game developer.
     
    Anti-HyperLink said:
    I've wanted to create my own hacks for years, and I've tried on and off. Even though I suck at it and can never find any information to help me, I've kept trying. When Nintendo shut down two Pokemon fan games, I gave up. Is it really worth it to waste my time making a Pokemon game when it's going to be banned?
    Click to expand...
    We have thousands of rom hacks projects and only two are banned. I'm guessing that there is a bigger chance of creator dies while making the hack than shutting down by Nintendo.
     
    Last edited:
    Gegalix said:
    They shut one of my hacks down a few weeks ago.
    https://www.mediafire.com/file/f2a2x3x1l016nyq/Pokemon+LeafGreen+Balanced+Alolan+Version.ips
    Check the link for yourself. It was popular, but I didn't think it warranted their attention. Apparently I was wrong.
    Click to expand...
    Man, this is a bot for hunting original roms and similar stuff, or do you reallt thinks than "[email protected]" works for Nintendo? This happened with me some times, I explained the situation to mediafire an got my link back.

    The only fangames/hacks than Nintendo legitimate shut down that I know are: Uranium (fangame), Prism (hack) and Brown/Rijon (hack, more because of Prism). Evoas (fangame) and Fusion Generation (fangame), also got shutdown, but I can't verify if was legit.

    The bot that cause me trouble was searching for these words on file names:

    Spoiler:
     
    Last edited:
    FL said:
    The only fangames/hacks than Nintendo legitimate shut down that I know are: Uranium (fangame), Prism (hack) and Brown/Rijon (hack, more because of Prism).
    Click to expand...
    Fun fact is that they failed in every case. Uranium and Prism are still alive, they're being developed by anonymous team so they can't be shut down again. Brown is still floating around the Internet because it was finished and released before Nintendo C&D'd it.

    FL said:
    Evoas (fangame) and Fusion Generation, also got shutdown, but I can't verify I was legit.
    Click to expand...
    Evoas source files are still available but it's made with Flash so nobody will continue developing it. Fusion Generation is still available.
     
    Last edited:
    So long as we as a community are discreet, then ROM hacking will be alive and well worth it. We have to live in the shadows.
     
    Gegalix said:
    So long as we as a community are discreet, then ROM hacking will be alive and well worth it. We have to live in the shadows.
    Click to expand...

    We don't have to "live in the shadows" or any such thing, we just have to not be foolish about what we do.

    Uranium took patreon donations. That was making money off of an IP that the Uranium team did not own, and was using against the copyright holder's wishes.
    Prism made a professional-looking trailer. It was also slated to release on Christmas of 2016, which just happened to be right after Sun and Moon's release; holidays such as Christmas are always the best time to buy games, and it's possible that these two factors combined are what cemented Prism's fate.

    Both of these things did things that drew additional attention to them. The Prism trailer especially considering it got well over a million views in 24 hours. Once more, it's not about staying in the shadows, it's about not walking into an open field outside the Game Freak headquarters with a target painted all over you that says "I AM MAKING STUFF USING YOUR IP. COME AND STOP ME.". It's about exercising restraint and understanding what you should and shouldn't do. Uranium and Prism were a hard reminder of what we shouldn't do, and it's our job to learn and remember in the future.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: FL
    1. What's bad about a professional hack trailer? We need more.
    2. Is alright to be released on Christmas, just make a Pokemon game isn't released then

    Anyways, it was mainly because of ad revenue on the prism ad and the fact it is all ip anyways. We know what we're doing isn't legal.
     
    Mariow2 said:
    1. What's bad about a professional hack trailer? We need more.
    2. Is alright to be released on Christmas, just make a Pokemon game isn't released then

    Anyways, it was mainly because of ad revenue on the prism ad and the fact it is all ip anyways. We know what we're doing isn't legal.
    Click to expand...
    A professional-style trailer could give the impression that it's actually a trailer for an official game; while most fans of the series will know the difference the average adult who only tangentially pays attention to the franchise or the young child who has no idea what ROM hacks are won't be able to tell. It does so especially if the trailer gets 1.4 Million views over the course of a few days. And while it's "okay" to release a game on Christmas, Christmas 2016 was a very special case because it was just after Sun and Moon got released. That was what I was getting at. These two factors combined created a very unfortunate situation that caused Prism to get shutdown before release.

    Otherwise, yeah don't make money off it and you're relatively kosher.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: FL
    As someone who basically spent their life in the ROM hacking section of these forums a few years back and attempted multiple hacks, I'm going to say yes it is worth it, so long as you have the passion for it.

    Whether you complete a hack, or even reach any sort of release at all, it can be a lot of fun. For me personally, I moved on to other hobbies and therefore had less time to devote to ROM hacking. I've tried to get back into it more than a few times since and just haven't had the time to relearn a bunch of old skills - I can barely write a simple message script anymore.

    Despite not hacking actively for years and never releasing something with more than two minutes of gameplay, I definitely do not regret the time I spent ROM hacking at all. It was a lot of fun, I made a lot of friends through it, and it allowed me to explore a creative side of me I never knew I had.

    So yes, I'd say whether you release a hack or not, so long as you have fun with what you're doing, it is more than worth it.
     
    I personally find a joy in making my own... anything. I LOVE creating things. ROM Hacking to me is a way to create your own personal story with one of the most popular franchises in the world. Whether you share it with the community, or keep it to yourself, there's no better joy than having your own ROM Hack. That's just my opinion though.
     
    Is it worth making fanfics anymore? Fanmusic? AMVs? Custom sprites?

    Therein lies your answer.

    Now, whether do you want to make a ROMhack or not that's just a personal matter.

    If your problem is that your game might get C&D'd and disappear once it's done, the solution is simple: just like with any worthwhile software project (as that is what it boils down in the end), release the original (as in fancreated) development files to the public, or at least with some sort of license that allows for its distribution and reutilization. (Oh, and avoid giving it too much publicity when you do, like the thing with the professional trailer; a stick figures trailer will probably do, at least in the beginning) In the rare (rare) case that your game gets C&D'd, someone in the community might pick the pieces up. If you want your work to persist past you, be it a fan work or an "established IP" it is your responsibility as a creator to distribute it and liberate it accordingly.

    If your problem is that you don't make money off it, unfortunately that's systemic issue with western (at least) cultures treatment of inspiration and remixing of culture having regressed to barbaric levels, so the best thing to do if you really insist on earning money from it is to... well, not earning money from it. Like, I presume the ROMhack would not be the only thing you'd do with your life? So if you have a "personal" / "life" patreon set up, just receive donations for the things you do in general (or just receive donations for anything period) instead of "pay my ROMhack". But remember you are still taking up a fight.

    But no matter what, down the line it comes down to if you want to commit to it or not. Making a work, fan or not, comes with a cost and a responsibility.
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top