One-Week Hack Jam! ✨

[anon35700933]

The Rules:

• You may use FE6, 7 or 8, Tactile, Lex Talionis, SRPG Studio or FEXP, depends which one you prefer

• The hack must have at least* one fully playable and beatable chapter

• The hack must be done within a week**

• The hack must have something to do with the keyword*** (important)

• Last but not least, you must have fun! Bring a friend or two on board!

* I encourage you to make more than one chapter.
** You can take more time if you feel like it. I wouldn’t be able to tell either way.
*** Your submission should include a short explanation how it’s related to the keyword, just to be safe.

You heard me right, folks! It’s a hack jam!

“But what does all of this mean,” you may ask. In short, this is a contest where you have to create a GBA hack (or GBA inspired fan game) within a week. The hack must be inspired in some way by the keyword™ given at the bottom of this post. There are no hard rules how you achieve the end goal of creating the hack or of imbuing it with the keyword™, but the more creative the better.

Be sure to use the community-made assets, if you don’t feel like making new ones from scratch!
Heck, you can even use an AI-generated map or two if you like! (Just try not to use a vanilla map.)

The Keyword™ (not actually trademarked)

Present

Deadline is: 2022-12-24T23:00:00Z

Have fun, gamers!

[Goldblitzx]

Wouldn’t it make more sense for the deadline to be Christmas in GMT? I know that the current deadline is based on your current location, but the more universal time would make sense, yes?
(P.S. We’re allowed to start right now, right?)

[anon35700933]

Yes and yes!

[GabrielKnight]

What about engines, such as Lex Talionis and Tactile? Are those excluded? I know this is hack jam, but you could make a project in them within a week.

[anon35700933]

You’re totally right! I’ll be honest, they totally escaped my mind.

[Goldblitzx]

One week Project Jam time?

[BandanaSplitzzz]

I’m proud to be your first victim and contestant.

Featuring submission #1…

Fire Emblem: Time Trials!

Not very impressive, but have I shown you THIS?!?!

FE: Time Trials is an innovative trailblazer cutting edge entrepreneurial million dollar net worth hack. Instead of dwelling on one, boring, ordinary map, FE:TT requires you to swap through TWO different maps (and enemies) for you to reach the end! Strategic usage of swapping timelines is required to beat the map, and return to your timeline!

Plot hook! (And the cool word)

In this hack, you play as Steve and Gerald, a duo of horrifyingly awful human beings. Upon stumbling upon a magical artifact, this dynamic duo is thrust into the ancient past, filled with people who want their guts on the floor. Timelord Damas is unreachable in the past alone, so they must use this artifact to swap back and forth to and from the future, where the monsters there are kind enough to clean the floor after they unseam you. This may just give them the upper hand to face this threat beyond space and time…

Steve and Gerald must fight through this threat and achieve a timely victory to get back to their present!

Screenshots

Download

my roomate is playing this hack next to me, and i have to fix bugs IN REAL TIME to appease him.

readme

CLICK HERE NOW NOW NOW NOW

[BandanaSplitzzz]

fixed a bug.

[ArcherBias]

uhh uhm erm ahm alph

I made this hack called Grains of Sand based around Creature Campaign and Lagdou Ruins as a way to try out new map styles.

It was made in seven days, but they weren’t consecutive. I was really busy so I had to take a break between the first four days and the last three days.

Enjoy (extensively) edited Lagdou maps with an emphasis on weapons and map gimmicks!

also its 3 maps there are 3 maps it is 3 maps long

Plot Thing

Eirika goes to investigate the Lagdou Ruins in an attempt to find a source of the monsters plaguing Renais. In doing so, she uncovers something much darker…

Enjoy my attempts to write characters for a game I last actually played around 2 years ago, as they learn to live for the present.

Screenshots

Downloads

Patch to FE8U, credits are included in this link.
Grains of Sand

shoutouts to two hacks in a row with no christmas in sight

[ArcherBias]

just played this and it’s great, super creative concept. Special shoutouts to the tutorials that pop up as needed and the great use of visual indicators.

My only slight issue is that

mild gameplay spoilers

damas moving in the past (fort one) makes it possible to cheese him through the wall, leading to a slightly anti-climatic ending.

anyway yeah this was freaking great and also very funny, keep up the good work chief

[BandanaSplitzzz]

ty for the feedback!
i’m glad to hear your commendations on the tutorials because i struggled quite a bit with them. it felt like there’s so much to lay on the player (swapping timelines, enemy telegraphs, map change telegraphs [both the crosses AND the walls], respawning enemies, and the small tidbit about blindspots), and all of it was stuff that the player needs to learn immediately. if not, they should be able to see all of it in their first run, which is likely to end in catastrophe.

my biggest concern was honestly any bugs i might have missed from doing something so unconventional, alongside any balancing issues. i think i did a half-decent job for a 1 chapter hack anyway lol

i look forward to playing your submission too!

[BandanaSplitzzz]

FINALLY got around to playing this. i really enjoyed this too! my favorite part outta all of it was on the last map, where

final map spoilers

all of the doors opened the moment the map opened up at once, which devolved into a really nasty pincer attack from the enemies. the resemblance to fe7 was not lost on me, and i imagine it wouldn’t be lost on anyone with a passing familiarity to that map (me, i have a passing familiarity with that map)

if i were to complain about anything, i was pretty upset by the story

endgame spoilers

not because it was bad, but because i WAS invested in it. i would have loved to learn more about innes descent into the ruins and his usage of the demon king. i understand that doesn’t have to be covered in this hack, but the fourth wall break at the end left me feeling a bit sour.

overall this was pretty sick! maps were well balanced and challenging, all the pcs had proper time in the spotlight, the story had good intrigue, overall, a killer short hack.

Gee, I sure can’t wait to see OTHER people’s entries! (i want more contestants)

[ArcherBias]

About the Ending

yeah, oops. i really bit off more than i could chew while writing, and i was at the end of the seventh day with almost none of chapter 3’s story done. my b

EDIT:

Final Map

I never know how to end hacks without doing a boss gauntlet akin to light, so i was thinking of ways to make interesting when i came up with the six way pincer. That was super fun to make and test, so im glad it was the highlight for you!

[BobbyAsaka]

yay, deadlines!

I have an entry almost ready, but something major came up last minute so it probably won’t be present-able until tomorrow. Expect a .ups patch in place of this post within 12-24 hours.

And here we have it: a half asset-test, half hacking exercise for the third entry of this hack jam! Project HBR: Blooming Bard is my attempt at putting some of my amateur custom assets to use while practicing my hacking and writing skills. Taking place in the same setting as another long-term project I’ve been drafting a script for, Blooming Bard is two maps long and filled to the brim with dialogue and interactions… well, a lot for a weeklong project, that is.

Story

The continent of Aolara has long been wrought with strife between its two races: the magic-using Hemics and the magicless Cordics. Yet in recent years, a new rebel group has risen: the Hemic Freedom Force, a band of both races fighting for unity and mutual coexistence. Under the leadership of a southern noble, this army seeks out all the allies it can muster, striving to end conflict between Hemic and Cordic once and for all.

Amidst this recent political tension, a budding bard named Aloe leads a group of young refugees to a big city in the northern country of Sebastos. Alongside her is her longtime friend Gabriel, who aspires to enlist in the military and go on the front lines as a healer. Knowing that Gabriel will likely leave soon, Aloe does all she can to scrounge up enough money for a farewell gift. And as she scrambles to make ends meet, Aloe accidentally provokes one of the locals into damaging her precious instrument, and likewise, her source of income…

Features

• Just like last time I did a timed exercise like this, way too much text and not enough gameplay testing for a blitz project! (I really need to get better at writing faster…)

• A series of side objectives on each map which alter the ending if fully completed!

• Weather which only reduces the movement of fliers!

• Pegasi with bows!

• A few prototype character and music assets designed prior to the hack jam for a far-future project!

Screenshots

Patch

enjoy, and let me know when some problem inevitably arises!

Credits

assets were planned out/gathered ahead of time before starting

FEBuilder: 7743 and crew

Tilesets: Wave, ZoramineFae

Music: Pandan, Realxviperz, Tristan_hollow, Sme, Chair, DrGreen, SurfingKyogre

Portraits: Zessdynamite, serif, LaurentLacroix, monk-han, Flasuban, Sphealnuke, Peerless, Der, Zeldacrafter

Anims: GabrielKnight, Knabepicer, Flasuban, DerTheVaporeon, eCut, Skitty, Yangfly Master, Spud, Pushwall, Nuramon

Spells: Sme

Icons: LordGlenn, Beansy

Playtesting: MasaHaru

I had a lot of fun with this exercise! Thanks for hosting.

[anon35700933]

We have reached our (awesome) deadline! If you’ve made a submission, please post it in a somewhat timely manner. (Within this year. Please.)

[BobbyAsaka]

Had to hotfix something after watching a friend stream the project. Hopefully things should work the way they were intended to now.

I’m looking forward to trying out the other two entries c:

[anon35700933]

After this point, I will no longer accept submissions as part of the Hack Jam, but I will still play them if you submit them after this point.

We’ve had three(!) entries this time, that’s a 50% increase from the previous Two-Day Hack Jam!

So what happens after this point, is that a few friends and I will play the submissions and rank them. The rom hacker, whose submission is ranked highest on aggregate, will then get a big hearty virtual hug!

[BandanaSplitzzz]

Finally got around to giving my thoughts on this one (i like this tradition of peer reviewing [and subliminally implanting my opinions into the judges]). I played this the moment it came out, but i wanted to reserve my thoughts till i got to the true ending, and i’m glad i did. i feel like i went on a spiritual journey with getting the perfect ending, but that was BECAUSE it was so grueling. Playing through this short hack was personally pretty enlightening for me cuz I was actually making my ligit shit hack in a similar format (chapters you had to perfect, rather than clear 1 by 1), and the dopamine boost I got at the end was all worth it. it dispelled an insecurity i had that this format doesn’t work in fe, because chapters can be stressful and rng dependent. but it’s not!! and i had fun :). i am a little ashamed to say i did have to look at the code for intel, but i’ll get into that later

sorry for rambling now and later, i spent the better part of the day clearing ch1.

proof :)

uhhh i think videotuber kingk said something along the lines of “nohit challenges can expose the flaws in a games combat system because flaws aren’t forgived anymore” and i think the same is kind of true here.

ch1

one thing that struck out to me throughout this whole hack is that even without going for the true ending, this hack is damn hard. in my first attempt of ch1, everyone except Gabriel and Aloe died just from the sheer enemy quality and density. Aloe couldn’t deal any damage to the boss and the green units had to come in clutch. trying to go for the true ending, it was pretty frustrating, especially since villages didn’t give money (why i checked the files) and the green units could kill your targets.

ch2

ch2 was a lot more fair and rewarding. the two recruitables at the other side of the map, in addition to being mandatory, are super powerful, so getting them on your side is paramount. you also have to rush so that the most prominent enemy type on the map doesn’t get it’s mov doubled, and get your entire army ganked by 24 atk wyvern riders.

and, i’m in no way a professional writer, and this is obviously a smaller part of a bigger story, but i enjoyed this hacks writing! i especially liked how the true ending differed from the main one, as simple as it was comparatively

tl;dr good hack!

[BobbyAsaka]

Hey, thanks a lot for the kind words and for sharing your thoughts. I was def a bit worried about whether I’d structured the writing in a way where it could function on its own without any outside context. So I’m glad that you enjoyed it, and that you got enough of a kick out of the hack to try and go for the perfect ending.

I could go into more detail behind my own thoughts on how the exercise came out, but I think I’ll wait a bit more till the dust settles and the event wraps up. I will acknowledge though that while the first chapter was 100% intended to be harsh, having watched some friends stream it live it definitely felt a bit harsher than I’d initially intended.

also, since you said you checked the files...

there’s one tiny thing I smuggled in the hack for the fun of it that I’d classify as a true “secret” and don’t really expect anyone to find blind. did you find it?

[BandanaSplitzzz]

yeah i saw the secret lol. I wasn’t able to take advantage of it was because i was too inundated with actually snagging all the objectives to care