Hello, everybody! I’m Tactician Aria, and I’m one of the leaders of the Fire Emblem Romhacking Amino, a place for beginners and experts alike. We’re here to recruit anyone who’s even remotely interested in romhacking. First, let’s answer some basic questions.
1: What even is romhacking?
Romhacking is when you edit a video game in order to make something original. In our case, we romhack the GBA fire emblem games in order to create original levels, characters, stories, and even entire games. This doesn’t just mean programming, though. Just because romhacking is programming doesn’t mean you can’t specialize in art, level design, writing, etc.
2: That sounds difficult. How hard is it?
In truth, there is a learning curve to romhacking, but once you get the hang of it, the only limit is your creativity. The best way to learn is through experimentation. Also, don’t forget that you would have an entire community to ask questions to. The curators and leaders are knowledgeable and are willing to answer any questions you may have from game design to aesthetics to glitches and errors. If you have a question, someone on the Amino will have an answer.
3: Why should I bother?
Well, for one, romhacking is an easy way to make a game without any prior programming knowledge needed. Second, romhacking allows anyone who’s wanted to make a fire emblem-esque game to do so. If you’ve always thought about making one, but were never quite sure, the summer’s the perfect time to take the plunge. Finally, because this community is niche, your content will never be lost in the crowd.
4: Alright, I’m interested. How do I get started?
Learning is the most difficult part, so be sure to take it slow. We, as always, recommend the first two videos of Ghast Station’s tutorial. They explain the basic concepts well and are good at showing what you need to do. Simply follow along and try to replicate what he does. After this, try to create some practice levels. Go slowly, and have each practice level be more complex than the last. Maybe you can start with just having a custom map with a player unit and an enemy unit. Then work your way up to more complex maps and features like reinforcements, opening/closing events, etc. Before you know it, you’ll have figured it all out and have some practice levels to boot. After this, what you do is all up to you. If you’re an artist, you can focus on making portraits for future projects or for other people’s projects. If you’re a writer, you can start writing scripts that go along with games. Remember that a game can range from anywhere between 1-50 chapters. It’s your choice. If you just want to make fun levels, you can focus on making fun levels. Whatever you want to do, you’ll find support and feedback at the romhacking Amino. We hope to see you there.
(Intro Speech originally written by Co-leader Mkol)