Beginners Guide To Hacking | Castle Mod Forums

Beginners Guide To Hacking Aug 22, 2012 13:48:37 GMT -5

Post by MetroidMst on Aug 22, 2012 13:48:37 GMT -5

Just found out you can hack your favorite game? With this knowledge normally comes a spurt of activity that leads you to downloading SMILE and getting a ROM and thoughts of creating the biggest, best, most amazing hack ever seen in the world. Then you open SMILE.

This is not a how-to on the inner workings on SMILE, but rather a guide on what I personally think you could/should do when making a hack. Remember, this is my opinion, and others may disagree or have better options/solutions for some things. This is still a work in progress.

What is the hack? The beginning should be the most obvious. What is the plan for your hack? Is it going to be small or large? What is the difficulty? What bosses, items, progression are you using? Is it going to be an exploration hack? Will it be Impossible 2? Before even touching SMILE, you should have a decent idea what you want the hack to be.
Know what you want in your hack. This seems like a simple thing, but once you delve into how many patches have been made and what they do, you will soon realize this is a huge job in itself. Do you want to use someones patch, or make it yourself? Do you want spin-jump restarting or not? What custom tilesets are you going to add in? Are you going to make them, or use some of the ones already made?
Make detailed notes. For those of us who spent time looking for something we did before, but couldn't find it, this is a major thing we have learned. Take a gander at Charmander's notes here. Keeping detailed notes and making sure to track what you've done, what is left to do, where you're going is very important and will save you time in the future, plus it will keep you much more organized.
Prepare to spend a lot of time. Most head into hacking Super Metroid without any knowledge of the effort and time it takes, or they know of the tales that are told, and think it won't happen to them. There are by far many more failed projects than completed efforts, because many do not expect it to be difficult. Making a hack is a long, arduous process. Remember, people make a living making these things. (Games, not hacks.) It is a job. It will take time, and a lot of effort. And that is proportional to the size of your hack. I have spent over 4 years hacking, and I still think I am at least another year away from finishing. Keep in mind, that is with using custom tilesets, patches, ASM, and even some level design by others in my hack. 4 years, and I currently have about 15 different people to thank for doing something in my hack. There is a lot of man-hours invested into any hack.
Hold your excitement in check. So you've got started and want to tell the world you are making the next big thing. Don't. Wait until you have an actual amount of content. Don't do some changing to the landing site and make a topic about this brand new hack that promises to blow everyone's mind. You've made a landing site, everyone does that, and frankly, no one is impressed when you make one room and start waxing poetic about the greatest hack ever. We want to see your work, but we also want to see content, not a room. Big difference there. Create about 20-30 rooms first before making a topic. Then, if you decide to announce it to the world, you will have a much larger base to take the pictures from, make a video, show SMILE pics, and then you will have our attention. For some reason, a lot of new hackers just have to show off their first room, and they really have no content. Once you've got deeper into making your hack, you will also have a better idea of what it is going to take to make it, so when you make a topic and you have a larger base, we are more likely to support that because you've shown effort and a willingness to continue despite the time and effort it takes to make a hack.

So then what? You have prepared, kept detailed notes, made 50 rooms and even have working elevators and save stations. You've made your topic telling us about the hack and explaining what it is and showing off the hard work you've put into it. There are a few more "hack related" topics I want to hit. These are based on the hack itself, and everyone may not agree with these, but they should give you a good starting point with room design and such.

Room design. I am going to touch off on what is probably my biggest pet peeve about room design. I have played the original to death. I know the game, I know the rooms. I can tell when you just change the tiles in a room and keep the same layout. If you are making a hack, make it a hack, not half of the rooms, all of the rooms. I don't want to walk through the hack and find multiple rooms I recognize from the original. I don't even want to find one room I recognize. You're making a hack, don't be lazy if a rooms layout fits what you want. Make the layout you want, but make it so it isn't recognizable. Rooms that often fit into this are the landing site, the Craterian shaft before Old Brain's destroyed tank, elevator and save rooms, and boss rooms. Of those, boss rooms I will give you a little leeway on, those are harder to edit and require much more effort, and to really get them different would require ASM, as they are programmed to work within the 1*1, 1*2, and 2*2 rooms they occupy. (There are other sizes, and those bosses can be even more complicated.)
Item Progression. This requires serious thought, and a good item progression makes a hack stand out and funner to play. You don't have to follow the original pattern, Plasma doesn't have to be the last beam collected, Bombs can come after Power Bombs, and the suits can be removed entirely. It depends on how it is done. I don't expect to explore brand new areas constantly and never find a new upgrade. Spacing and timing are important factors to consider. When was the last major upgrade found? Are they spending a good chunk of time going on a path with no other bonus for them? Throw an item in there. Another thing I want to mention is beams. Almost every hack has them all in there, which is fine. Some though, tend to give the player all the beams on the back half of the game. That is poor spacing. It is like they want the game to be a challenge, so they just won't give you any beam until late. Remember where Spazer was in the original? You can grab it before Kraid if you could wall-jump or infinite bomb jump. That is right, two beam upgrades before you even get to the first major boss. Think about that.
Now, beams aren't even required in the hack at all. You can make a hack with just the Power Beam, or just adding Charge into that mix. You can also do some other really interesting things with them. Every hack seems to have Plasma as the ultimate beam upgrade. Why not switch it up? Also, consider giving the player the option to get the "best" beam early. If you hide it well enough they won't find it at all on the first playthrough, and when they do find it, it will give them another way to play your hack. Searching For Items did this with the Plasma. You can get it early if you know where it is, but that doesn't mean the player will get it early, it just means the option is there.
Consider optional items. You want to have every major item in the game, and there is nothing wrong with that, but consider making a couple optional. Most already do this with the X-Ray Scope, but do they need the Varia Suit? Do they have to have Spring Ball? Can they go without Space Jump? It doesn't mean remove them completely from the game, but consider making it an optional 100% thing.
Speaking of 100%. Make sure your percentage is correct. You can either have the same numbers as the original, or use some already made ASM for the job. You can grab the file here. It takes more effort, but effort is what will make your hack better. Having a correct ending percentage is going to give the player something to work towards. Some hacks like Mockingbird Station have less total items, and being before the ASM was made for the correct ending percentage, it could've been an issue, but Xaggoth knew the grand total was 50%, so that gave me a barometer for what I needed to find. Now that the ASM is available though, there is no excuse not to have a correct ending percentage.
Change the palettes! This is another large pet peeve of mine. There is much more than just moving tiles, items, and bosses around. I have nothing against the original palettes, except Red Crateria, but if you are making a hack, make it yours. Something very rarely change are the beam palettes. Change them up, and you have an instant recognizability factor for your hack. Make new suit palettes, tileset palettes, beam palettes, boss and enemy palettes, and anything else you can find. Separate your hack from the rest. Custom GFX and such can do that, but so can some palette changes.
Enemy health. This can be a huge issue, and a complete turnoff in some hacks. Most want their hacks to be harder. Super has been broken for nearly 20 years now, and you want to have a challenge. Giving enemies a ton of health is not the way to do it. If it takes a long time to destroy regular enemies, then that ruins the flow of the game and it just becomes a boring repetitive process. The better option is for the enemy to deal a lot of damage, but also for it to die quickly. In some cases and enemy with a ton of health is justified, such as a one time deal where it is guarding an optional item, or it unlocks something important. Often times, Space Pirates are given this abundance in health. That is also the worst enemy to give it to. Space Pirates have dumb AIs, and they are a boring fight anyway, don't prolong misery, or that is what will stand out in your hack.
Bosses. Any Metroid game is going to have one of these in it somewhere. You have to realize that by now, everyone has fought the original bosses to many times that it is almost boring now. More health? You're prolonging a boring fight, which multiplies the effect, and that is bad for your hack. You can do things to make it different, and there are some HEX tweaks you can do to make them different. It will take some exploration and finding some things out, but a different boss fight is an interesting boss fight. Just remember, sometimes you can do something people aren't going to like, but they will remember it anyway. Phantoon only hurt by bombs? Pretty much universally despised, but everyone remembers Mockingbird Station did that. Some things may not come out as expected, but it might be worth thinking about keeping it anyway, just to separate your hack from the rest.

So after all that I'm finished right? Nope. There is even more. There is a ton of stuff that goes into making a hack, and I am trying to hit on all the points I think are needed. Which leads me right into the next section, how you are hacking. Some other suggestions for yourself while hacking.

Don't get discouraged. A lot of things to think about isn't it? A lot of work too... Here is where a lot of hacks die. Once the hard parts hit, the realization of the effort and work required make a lot of people stop hacking, and their projects die off. It does take time and effort, there is no getting around that, but no one makes Redesign in a month. Remember, my team and I have been on Fear for over 4 years, and I'm still far off from completing it. But I am getting closer, and the more I do, the more excited I am to see things coming together. Don't focus on how much there is to do, focus on how you are getting those things done.
Take breaks. This may seem strange at first, but recharging your hacking battery is much better than hacking on empty. A break gives you time to clear your head and focus on other things you enjoy, then when you feel like hacking again, you will have a fresh mind and might see some solutions to problems you had before.
Have some other things handy. There are many different ways people hack. Some build their rooms differently, some have a map designed and stick to it, others just wing it. But most share something in common. They like to listen to music while hacking, they might have something nearby for inspiration, they might have a musical instrument nearby to fiddle around on while thinking about their room design or some problem that has appeared. I like my lava lamp, coffee, music, guitar, Legos, and food handy while I hack.
Have fun with unexpected situations. The best ideas aren't often thought up, they normally come from a bug of some sort that the person ran with. So you wanted a verticle Boost Ball? Changed it around and then your gravity got screwed up? Well, there is a whole hack based off that bug called AngryFireChozo. Most bugs are annoying and cause frustration. But try to think outside the box and see if you can use it in any way.
Speaking of music... Mix up the songs for the areas. Don't just stick with what was in the room. There is a list of the music combinations that work. Fool around until you find something you think fits for your idea. Don't expect custom music anytime soon. It is possible, but unless you figure it out yourself, you're likely stuck with what is in the game already.
Story. Important? Story is much more important in an official game. A hack isn't nearly as important in a timeline as the official games. Think of them more as side stories. Samus is a bounty hunter. She may always get the hardest, top paying bounties out there, but some just aren't as important as others. And in some cases, getting paid isn't even going to happen. (You defeated Mother Brain in your dreams? Yeah, do something real and we'll pay you. - Galactic Federation.) You can go down a whole other branch of story in your hack. Dreams, small bounties, return to K2-L, hunting down a plague, searching for items, collecting trophies, these are all things Samus could be doing between her main "life" in the official game. It doesn't have to be serious at all. Of course, that is probably going to be the main focus of all hacks though, Samus is the baddest bounty hunter around and can kick anything to the ground. But some downtime could be in order every now and then. Think outside the box a little.
Make some videos! Find something interesting? Make a video of it! Something interesting? Make a video! This is just something I do personally. I like to see what shenanigans I got into earlier, plus they can give you ideas later. So keep a visual record, keep some pictures. Put them in a private place if you don't want to share, but have them available so you can go back. Often times you will see something you did a while ago and realize how far you've come from there too, which is always a boost.
Make backups constantly! This cannot be said enough. Backups will save you, especially when starting out, because you will break something. A backup will save a lot of time and effort, and a recent backup almost always prevents rage quitting a hack because you lost it all.
Not getting much attention? There can be multiple causes for this. You haven't released much info on the hack, there is just a small group of people aware of its existence, and so on. Put it out there! Show the beginning of your project so you get it out there, while not spoiling anything. A video can be made, or a patch just including the very beginning can be very effective tools to use to get awareness out there. Start a Let's Play, TAS, or just a walkthrough of Metroid hacks. If no one knows Metroid hacking exists, no one will search for any new hacks will they? Getting that info out there is half of the battle. Once they know it exists, if it looks like fun and they have an interest, they will start keeping track of what is going on, and then they might come across your post filled with your awesome content, and just like that, you've got someone looking forward to playing your hack!
Test, test, test! Start up a new hack, get two minutes in, get permastuck. This situation has happened, and it is a killer to anyone who thought of playing the hack. You know your hack, make sure to play it and test it thoroughly before releasing it. Permastucks shouldn't exist anywhere. Getting locked into an area you can't advance from because you lack Grapple Beam shouldn't exist. Those are game killers. Make sure you the hack is beatable, make sure you do the bare minimum when testing. Don't expect the player to find the hidden items. Skip them all, and see if you can still beat it. If not, you should consider giving the player some more stuff so they can beat it. Difficulty is nice when done right, not when impossible.
Speaking of testing. You will always want one person not in the development of the hack testing it out. Why is this? They won't know what to expect, so they will give you actual player feedback about the hack. This in turn will help you shape your hack, and more often than naught the tester will find bugs you never will. A tester who is also helping make the hack isn't the best choice normally, as they will have an idea what to expect, so they can't give you actual feedback that a player who goes in blind will experience. Pick your testers wisely too. Some just want to test to get an early glimpse at the hack. Make sure it is someone who is serious, testing is a job, and it should be treated as such. A serious tester is going to play the game normally, but they will also try to find out bugs. They will try to find permastucks, they will go back up an elevator just to test the connection, they will save at every save station to make sure it is correct, and they aren't going to be afraid of upsetting you with their huge list of bugs.

Now, for some resources! You've read through and maybe got some new ideas on how you plan on doing things and what exactly what you're going to do. Now, where do you get all these things I mentioned? There are multiple places to go to. Here is a list of some things you will want to look at.

None of this really even relates to SMILE, the object that you will be using to create this masterpiece, but it should give you some thought to how you will go about making the hack and what you plan to do. There are many things I didn't mention in this that I may do at some other point. There may be future additions to this wall of text. But I do highly suggest you think about it. Nobody wants to make a bad hack, and no one wants to play a bad hack. So take some time, and make the best hack there is. It doesn't have to be serious, it doesn't have to be the biggest, it doesn't have to have to most ASM, it doesn't have to be best. It can go many directions, intense, serious, hilarious, spoof, crazy, weird, troll, among other things. Make it you, and make it the best for what it is.

Take a gander at the following pictures.

They were made by the same person. One is my very first SMILE effort, the second is four years later. Takes time, but your skill will increase and your design will become better. I may get more into actually working with SMILE at a later date. For now, enjoy my terrible first room.