earthwarrior : that is misinformation man

the only way to legally own a ROM is to have made it yourself from a game you own... and since noone has the tools to rip ROMs, every ROM is illegal...

its just like a DVD... if you download a DVD it is an illegal copy, even if you own a real copy of the DVD... but if you make a digital backup of your own DVD, it is completely legal... make since?

Davideo7 : Im not sure if you will read the posts above but they suggested a list of games made for this competition is made.
LocksmithArmy : Yeah but who is going to know if you downloaded them illegally or got them legally? And you pretty much told aba it was legal (he most likely will download it from a website)

I agree of having a list. I would definitely love to see other people's works and play them. :3

Anyway, some questions...
- 25%, does it mean to have 2 gyms? What about Mystery Dungeon-themed hacks, or other themed hacks that don't specialize on the generic "collect 8 badges to enter the League"...?
- in submitting our betas here, does the view/play count be added when we release the final product of the hack?
--- if it'll be added, does the collected number of gameplay during the beta phase be included in the final count to decide who wins?

Black Bot : Indeed, no one said it would be easy. =) But I look forward to tackling this challenge! There are a lot of days between now and the deadline, so I'm sure I could get enough of my idea done to compete. ^^

NeppyLeet : dont let anyone shoot you down man... you dont need a team... I hack alone... I occasionally ask for help or storyboard ideas and when i get stuck I might need some ASM help... but i certainly dont have a "team" you can do it

(there is nothing wrong with asking for help tho)

May someone explain to me exactly how you make a hack of a game? Is it just a bunch of coding and other work inside the data of the game?

malkin77 : yes it is just a bunch of coding and other work inside the data of the game.

there are tutorials on how to do it, linked in the first post and several posts thereafter... 

LocksmithArmy : Thank you for your encouragement! It's really nice to know that there are others willing to help if I need it, and that it's okay to seek it out. I'll probably be bugging a few people about something involving my hack later, especially since I'm changing quite a bit of the game for it.

someone also pointed this out for me.
the contest submission ends on october, the same month where pkmn x and y will be released.
i wonder if there will be lots of gamers that'll play our hack entries than x and y though... =/

theironhide : Send tRIUNE a Private Message and he'll help you out.

LocksmithArmy : I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

NeppyLeet : This is a great way to get into game design because you're basically provided the tools and engine to create your own Pokemon games. Most of the time when you create a game, you're rarely given the engine (you usually have to create it yourself) and you usually have to pay a lot for the tools.

destinedjagold :
earthwarrior :
LocksmithArmy :
Oldschool41 :
I went ahead and made a thread for keeping track of all the submitted hacks so far:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=62794

destinedjagold : 25% is really hard to give guidelines on. All I can really say about that is if you plan to put 100 hours into your rom hack and you've put 25 hours so far, than we can say it's 25% complete. I know it's really hard to know how many hours you'll be putting into your hack but it can just be based on a very rough guess.

The play and view count of a beta does not count toward the final product. The only real benefits of submitting a beta or demo of your game is to get feedback and ideas, get people to test for bugs or problems, and to get users excited for your hack. The betas/demos will have separate game pages from the final game.

Regarding the Pokemon X and Y, that could possibly increase interest in the submitted games. Not everyone is going to get those games right away, some may not be able to afford it and others may not even have a 3DS. Some may even beat Pokemon X and Y right away and want more Pokemon games to play. I don't think that'll hurt the chances of the submitted rom hacks from being played.

Sounds interesting. Might give it a go. Might not. It all depends on my laziness, and, if I get a Jersey in the next five days. I'm really straining for the TDV, and I can't risk failure lol .

I need some motivation... 

My hack is so very near completion... its about 4 major scripts away from being released... and i just ran out of steam... 

someone motivate me to finish this game.

LocksmithArmy : Whats it about? 

lol i know i CAN... doing it is the easy part, its finding the willpower

but its about a team rocket scientist... who gets fired from silph co... after the hero from fire red kicks team rocket out of silph co... 

LocksmithArmy : Maybe release a demo for everyone to try out, perhaps the feedback will motivate you to continue.

Davideo7 : Welp it looks like me and Locksmitharmy are going to be the only people who submit hacks and follow the rules. 

earthwarrior : I think its too early to say that man... there is still LOTS of time for people to finish their hacks... (the deadline is still over 2 months away)

Davideo7 : I wont be releasing a demo for this hack... I believe that is counter intuitive for the competition...?

out of curiosity, if I submit a game... and there is a silly game ending glitch, can I send an updated version that fixes the glitch... not a second hack but a replacement... with the same name so players can continue playing their games...

(like when ultraviolet had messed up statues in the pokemon mansion)

UPDATE: the game is done

gotta do a round of testing then ill send it to triune

Oldschool41 : you just pointed to 3 very famous hacks that took a VERY long time to make (and one of the 3 still isn't finished) I'm not saying those are bad tips I'm just saying that creating a FULL hack with new everything in 3 months is NOT going to happen. your going to get cramped on time and cut out good stuff...

Take Ultra Violet for example... its got a 9.5 rating (i think) and it took me 3 months to make... I added no pokemon to the rom, only placed them in the world. added no music or altered graphics. and i added minimal story... 

now 7.0 is difficult in a contest because others competing will rate your hack badly just so theirs will win (its upsetting but true) I've got several bad ratings on my hack from people who, if they played at all, couldn't have played for longer than an hour.

People do seem to like MORE pokemon... a 386 hack will make players happy. (I'm not a fan of smashing as many pokemon as possible in a hack)

Adding a new story is not altogether time consuming... so it SHOULD be a goal if that's what your going for.

adding new graphics are flashy. but extremely time consuming to make. if you can find tilesets online, get permission and use them. people do like the DS graphics and they are fairly easy to find.

I will agree 1,000% on the complete game deal. for starters, a beta is counter intuitive to this contest. and sooo many new players (in my hack) ask if its complete, I think many players (including myself) will not bother playing incomplete hacks... and i think its a rule that is has to be complete

Fakemon are not altogether bad. I personally am not a fan but 1 or 2 STORY BASED fakemon wont deter me... the issue with fakemon and this contest is, they take awhile to make, longer than you would expect. so don't try and make a whole new pokedex or you will run out of time.

I think most important is the story... the story keeps players intrigued enough, many believe FR graphics are the best in the series so I wont be updating graphics. but the world you create should be exciting aswell. your maps are important, the way they flow should be sure not to get any players lost. in todays high def world I don't believe people playing gba games (with gba graphics) care too much about graphics, they are in it for the story and the enjoyment. before anything else, make your games fun, new, and exciting.

I'm not trying to shoot anyone's ideas down. by all means do what you think you can do. but coming from someone who makes entire hacks alone, I understand time frame quite a bit. many of these famous hacks take years to make. Liquid crystal began in 07 i believe and still is not 100% finished. I put my major hack project on hold to make my competition hack, its over 3 months in the making now and only about 40% done.

I understand contests need to have an end, and the amount of time given is perfect for beginners, as they need to make something short (ultraviolet was my first major hack and took me 3 months) but be realistic about your plans, i would even suggest to start smaller and if you have left over time expand it... 

LocksmithArmy : Yeah you can replace the game with a patched version of the game, I'm sure tRIUNE has already explained to you how that works.