[Other] Can someone help me start out?

[gioo13]

Hello everyone, my name is gioo and I plan on becoming a rom hacker. I have heard about rom hacking long ago, and decided that I wanted to make my own rom hack. But the problem is that I have no knowledge of rom hacking as I used too, and would appreciate it if anyone could lead me into the right direction. :)

 

[Red John]

You see ROM hacking has many different parts and works. First you should come up with a story and features. Then you should toy around with hacking tools to find a tool you are most comfortable with. Then u should attract hackers and ask them to join the project. You should choose what you can do perfectly. Like i am most comfortable with scripting and spriting, but cant do mapping at all.

 

[Sniper]

Hello everyone, my name is gioo and I plan on becoming a rom hacker. I have heard about rom hacking long ago, and decided that I wanted to make my own rom hack. But the problem is that I have no knowledge of rom hacking as I used too, and would appreciate it if anyone could lead me into the right direction. :)

Hello gioo! As a hacker, I'm here to help you to have a good start and also gonna give you knowledge about Pokemon Hacking.

First of all, start your hack with an idea. (Storyline, events, etc..)
A hack can never be made without an idea. So basically, what is the story of your hack? What do you want it all about? Is all on you to think about it. From beginning, to the end of the game. Add extra quest and stories, simply add events. Hacking pokemon doesn't mean your story should and must be Pokemon story. You can also change the story and make it not all about Pokemon. As I said, idea is all on you, imagine how your game should be.

Second, its features! What's a game without an incredible features. This makes your hack more thrilling to play, knowing that the hero or player can do this and that's because of the features you implemented in game. But it's not only the player can do, but the game itself can do, some hacks are featured with Day/Night system. DS Pokemon game only has that, but now, Pokemon from Gba can get that too. That's because of hacking of course. I can give you some example of feature that originally Pokemon has: Surfing onto waters, Using flying type Pokemon to get into other towns and many more. Get how features work? That's good then.

Lastly, what's a hack if you can't make your idea work? Imagining how your hack want it to be is simply easy, but making it happen is not really easy, it takes time and patience, knowledge and skill for you to make it happen. But nothing is impossible, with time and effort, you can make it happen. How your maps should look, how your game will end, how your hack will look, that depends on you. PC has a lot of resources and tutorials you can work on and learn. Hacking is not that easy, but definitely possible to make it happen. Kudos to our imagination! Hope you could make a good hack!

 

[TheCompanionHoplite]

Hello! Since more experienced hackers have already talked about Rom hacking itself, I will focus more on resource organizing and utilizing tools in the right way.

First of all you have to set your priorities. Although inspiration cannot exactly be planned from the beginning (as you might come across new ideas while working on your hack), it's good to have a clear image about what changes you want happening in your hack. For instance, do you desire a hack that has completely revamped graphics? Or new music inserted? Or just new maps with the existing graphics? Or you want a remake of an existing generation, just with different events / difficulty etc.? By setting your goals, you will also be able to manage your time, so as to not strive between extremities: an very difficult to complete (based on current situation, or because the sheer amount of things you have to take care of by yourself) hack, or an obsession that takes too much of your time.

After this is done, you should organize your desired resources in folders and subfolders which are clear to work with. So you will know exactly where each of your resources is located. (for example: your "graphics" folder will contain these subfolders: Overworld Sprites, Pokemon Sprites, Trainer Sprites, Tiles etc.)

The same goes for your Tools, create a folder in which you will have placed your tools (remember to have a folder for each tool because many of them do not consist of a single file alone). From there you will have to know your tools, and also have the right ones for the right job (refer to the tutorials section for more details).

When you are ready to start, remember these two:
1) Begin with the basics (if you aren't experienced) which include: How does a Rom work, what are offsets, what are bytes etc (you don't need to get too technical about this right away). As far as pokemon are concerned, much progress is made so you should follow the tutorials.
2) It's better to devote a certain time period to carefully watch tutorials and getting a good understanding while experimenting a bit, rather than jumping on the bandwagon immediately and having lots and lots of questions before grasping the basics. (it might hinder your time organization/ arrangements)

Lastly, after you know your stuff a bit, you should decide if you are able to undertake the whole hack by yourself little by little, or recruit a team in which each member will have different tasks to do. Good luck on your hacking beginnings!

 

[gioo13]

Woah, thank all of you for being so helpful! Also thank you for wishing me well on my hack. All of you have given me some useful information that I needed to get started, so you guys are pretty awesome. :)