Easy software modding for beginners?

Creamu · Aug 10, 2022

Hello fellow Creamers,

I saw that there are mods being shared in the Downloads section. I wondered if I could make a mod myself. What is an easy mod a beginner like me could make?

Thanks in advance!

FAST6191 · Aug 11, 2022

Various schools of thought here.

If someone has made a tool then that might be the quickest route to doing things. You might not learn how to do much more than use the tool and maybe some light game design (just as a word processor does not make you an author a level editor does not mean you can design compelling levels) in most instances but you will be making alterations to the game.

Similar applies more to PC games where the developers themselves realise having a modding community for your game is only going to be a problem when you want to release a sequel and everybody is still happy modding the first one, in the meantime though you get those nice consistent sales. PC games, especially more modern ones, do however often feature (though not necessarily require) some scripting language aspects as well which does land you in the realms of general programming, indeed many have used such things to learn basic programming -- the best beginner project being one you stick with.

If you actually want to stretch into modding itself then most would probably start with cheats. Learn basic infinite ? https://web.archive.org/web/20080309104350/http://etk.scener.org/?op=tutorial and after that you can start thinking how a cheat might change the game more seriously to give more challenge, less, serve as the basis for a challenge run or whatever else.

Cheats is somewhat held apart from ROM hacking wherein games that devs did not provide tools for are picked apart and altered. https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbatemp-rom-hacking-documentation-project-new-2016-edition-out.73394/ and https://www.romhacking.net/start/ both being links on how to do such things as edit text, graphics, levels without editors for them (or weak in game editors) and start getting more into how the games work underneath it all. In many ways this is probably the highest barrier to if not entry then when you start getting to the more fundamental aspects of game code, or to the point where you can reasonably rock up to any game and be sure you can do some damage. That said in others I might even place it as easier than cheats when they get to the more exotic aspects (though some cheat stuff does land in the game coding arena as you can edit those in a variety of ways -- game genies/ROM codes and systems where the binary is in memory which is most things older than the DS on cartridge and anything that is not on a cartridge).

tech3475 · Aug 11, 2022

Wrong way to approach IMO, you need to ask yourself what you want to do and then see how easy it is.

In the case of say Sonic 2, map editors and disassembly are available and for Half Life 2 there's an SDK including a map editor and source code.

Documentation can also be an issue, with the aforementioned games documentation is available for allot of things but you might have a steep learning curve if you need to say learn a programming language.

Personally? The easiest mod I ever did was just loading Sonic 3D Blast into a Hex Editor and changing the intro cutscene to say something stupid because it was all stored as ASCII (i.e. uncompressed).

Creamu · Aug 11, 2022

Thank you so much for writing detailed responses.

FAST6191 said:
If someone has made a tool then that might be the quickest route to doing things.

Okay That sounds interesting. Is there a particular one that is easy to get into?

FAST6191 said:
You might not learn how to do much more than use the tool and maybe some light game design (just as a word processor does not make you an author a level editor does not mean you can design compelling levels) in most instances but you will be making alterations to the game.

As long as fits the common understanding/definition of mod that is okay. I need to do something that will work to make sure I stay in good morale.

FAST6191 said:
Similar applies more to PC games where the developers themselves realise having a modding community for your game is only going to be a problem when you want to release a sequel and everybody is still happy modding the first one, in the meantime though you get those nice consistent sales. PC games, especially more modern ones, do however often feature (though not necessarily require) some scripting language aspects as well which does land you in the realms of general programming, indeed many have used such things to learn basic programming -- the best beginner project being one you stick with.

That might overwhelm me.

FAST6191 said:
If you actually want to stretch into modding itself then most would probably start with cheats. Learn basic infinite ? https://web.archive.org/web/20080309104350/http://etk.scener.org/?op=tutorial and after that you can start thinking how a cheat might change the game more seriously to give more challenge, less, serve as the basis for a challenge run or whatever else.

I will think about it, but I'd prefer to do a mod.

FAST6191 said:
Cheats is somewhat held apart from ROM hacking wherein games that devs did not provide tools for are picked apart and altered. https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbatemp-rom-hacking-documentation-project-new-2016-edition-out.73394/ and https://www.romhacking.net/start/ both being links on how to do such things as edit text, graphics, levels without editors for them (or weak in game editors) and start getting more into how the games work underneath it all. In many ways this is probably the highest barrier to if not entry then when you start getting to the more fundamental aspects of game code, or to the point where you can reasonably rock up to any game and be sure you can do some damage. That said in others I might even place it as easier than cheats when they get to the more exotic aspects (though some cheat stuff does land in the game coding arena as you can edit those in a variety of ways -- game genies/ROM codes and systems where the binary is in memory which is most things older than the DS on cartridge and anything that is not on a cartridge).

Okay, but I don't want to do a hack, I would like to do something that is recognised as a mod. Also this might overwhelm me even more.

tech3475 said:
Wrong way to approach IMO, you need to ask yourself what you want to do and then see how easy it is.

I would like (purely hypothetically speaking I would never do this) mod the software of the international banking system so it only allows for prime numbers.

tech3475 said:
In the case of say Sonic 2, map editors and disassembly are available and for Half Life 2 there's an SDK including a map editor and source code.

Okay. I don't quite the semantic part of things here, but would that qualify as a mod?

tech3475 said:
Documentation can also be an issue, with the aforementioned games documentation is available for allot of things but you might have a steep learning curve if you need to say learn a programming language.

Personally? The easiest mod I ever did was just loading Sonic 3D Blast into a Hex Editor and changing the intro cutscene to say something stupid because it was all stored as ASCII (i.e. uncompressed).

That sounds awesome. Would this be a rom hack or a mod?

FAST6191 · Aug 11, 2022

Creamu said:
Thank you so much for writing detailed responses.

Okay That sounds interesting. Is there a particular one that is easy to get into?

As long as fits the common understanding/definition of mod that is okay. I need to do something that will work to make sure I stay in good morale.

That might overwhelm me.

I will think about it, but I'd prefer to do a mod.

Okay, but I don't want to do a hack, I would like to do something that is recognised as a mod. Also this might overwhelm me even more.

I would like (purely hypothetically speaking I would never do this) mod the software of the international banking system so it only allows for prime numbers.

Okay. I don't quite the semantic part of things here, but would that qualify as a mod?

That sounds awesome. Would this be a rom hack or a mod?

Mods and ROM hacks are overlapping fields, or indeed ROM hacks might be a subset, in many regards.

ROM hacking refers more to the field of things that start out on ROM based cartridges, or maybe tapes. CDs made things harder but ISO hacking is not the most popular term out there. Never the less you produce mods, also technically ROM hacks, but the distinction was more that self styled ROM hackers tend not to find those things made with such tools as quite the same and demonstrably it is a different set of skills.
PC stuff, https://www.moddb.com/ being one of the older but never the less active hubs for such things, tends to revolve more around level editors and avenues that the devs themselves bless (those making cheats, those working in very old games and sometimes the speedrun sets being the main ones to go outside it). Playing with underlying code and having to put time into understanding the data structures is any day ending with a y in ROM hacking world where that might represent something more for the vast majority of PC game modding circles. Avenues the devs bless includes the scripting mentioned in the earlier reply and usually quite able to be dodged whilst still making fantastic works ( https://www.probytes.net/blog/games-made-with-python/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lua_(programming_language)-scripted_video_games both representing significant works using two of what are considered general and easy to pick up programming languages that have millions of applications, in both senses of the term, outside games and if you want to feed back into it then Lua is extensively used in tool assisted speedrunning and emulation additions https://www.dropbox.com/s/b2kuma6zs89di8n/Metroid.lua being one such example of something that a ROM hacker would have to try for years to make where this is not that), though it is these days usually quite easy to get to grips with (while I think everybody should be taught programming in school, and probably should have been since the early 80s, that is a failure for future historians of education to ponder as the numbers that can even put something together with a basic scripting language, or indeed even visual approaches, is startlingly few and game devs have to play to that, these days rather than reinvent the wheel every game as it often was or have to teach every new hire then make something using the code known out in the world and that has spend thousands of man hours being refined by those with an eye towards refining it for general use by the not so programming inclined...).

As far as suggestions then I was not kidding when I said best projects are the one you will stick with. I could ponder the nature of UI and quality thereof from the perspective of a general editor but if said same is not going to be a game you care about or could readily come to care about (so many games would be good but for [minor change] that might well be within remit).
Now not every game has a tool set at all, never mind of quality. Indeed the list is on the shorter side -- Pokemon, Mario platform, Mario Kart (including several there looking to port tracks from other clones thereof), maybe some of the Rare platformers, Megaman platformers, megaman RPG, Zelda perhaps, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Tactics, various other Square (Enix) properties (Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger and spinoffs thereof), Advance Wars, Fire Emblem (various other turn based strategy also featuring reasonably highly, guess there is an overlap between those that enjoy such games that are of noted paucity compared to most other styles and the patience and analytical skills required) and Fire Pro Wrestling (odd choice given its relative unknown nature to the world at large but the community is dedicated enough for it to rank) tending to be the main list.
https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/ might not necessarily be complete but would be a good start. Both for tools in general, links to other communities (search for the names) and similar such ideas.

Creamu · Aug 11, 2022

FAST6191 said:
Mods and ROM hacks are overlapping fields, or indeed ROM hacks might be a subset, in many regards.

Okay, I see your point. Please understand, even if this might be just a semantical differentiation for you, it is important for me for my work to be recognized as a 'mod'.

FAST6191 said:
ROM hacking refers more to the field of things that start out on ROM based cartridges, or maybe tapes. CDs made things harder but ISO hacking is not the most popular term out there. Never the less you produce mods, also technically ROM hacks, but the distinction was more that self styled ROM hackers tend not to find those things made with such tools as quite the same and demonstrably it is a different set of skills.
PC stuff, https://www.moddb.com/ being one of the older but never the less active hubs for such things, tends to revolve more around level editors and avenues that the devs themselves bless (those making cheats, those working in very old games and sometimes the speedrun sets being the main ones to go outside it). Playing with underlying code and having to put time into understanding the data structures is any day ending with a y in ROM hacking world where that might represent something more for the vast majority of PC game modding circles. Avenues the devs bless includes the scripting mentioned in the earlier reply and usually quite able to be dodged whilst still making fantastic works ( https://www.probytes.net/blog/games-made-with-python/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lua_(programming_language)-scripted_video_games both representing significant works using two of what are considered general and easy to pick up programming languages that have millions of applications, in both senses of the term, outside games and if you want to feed back into it then Lua is extensively used in tool assisted speedrunning and emulation additions https://www.dropbox.com/s/b2kuma6zs89di8n/Metroid.lua being one such example of something that a ROM hacker would have to try for years to make where this is not that), though it is these days usually quite easy to get to grips with (while I think everybody should be taught programming in school, and probably should have been since the early 80s, that is a failure for future historians of education to ponder as the numbers that can even put something together with a basic scripting language, or indeed even visual approaches, is startlingly few and game devs have to play to that, these days rather than reinvent the wheel every game as it often was or have to teach every new hire then make something using the code known out in the world and that has spend thousands of man hours being refined by those with an eye towards refining it for general use by the not so programming inclined...).

Okay. I am a creative person. I was even able to make an album about EMF radiation. Unfortunatly I am not so crafty, making it hard for me to get in such technical things. If there is a way I can make a mod with my creative capability without being hindered by complicated technical stuff that would be awesome.

FAST6191 said:
As far as suggestions then I was not kidding when I said best projects are the one you will stick with. I could ponder the nature of UI and quality thereof from the perspective of a general editor but if said same is not going to be a game you care about or could readily come to care about (so many games would be good but for [minor change] that might well be within remit).
Now not every game has a tool set at all, never mind of quality. Indeed the list is on the shorter side -- Pokemon, Mario platform, Mario Kart (including several there looking to port tracks from other clones thereof), maybe some of the Rare platformers, Megaman platformers, megaman RPG, Zelda perhaps, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Tactics, various other Square (Enix) properties (Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger and spinoffs thereof), Advance Wars, Fire Emblem (various other turn based strategy also featuring reasonably highly, guess there is an overlap between those that enjoy such games that are of noted paucity compared to most other styles and the patience and analytical skills required) and Fire Pro Wrestling (odd choice given its relative unknown nature to the world at large but the community is dedicated enough for it to rank) tending to be the main list.
https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/ might not necessarily be complete but would be a good start. Both for tools in general, links to other communities (search for the names) and similar such ideas.

Okay, I will have a look at the utilities. For me it is fine to work with whatever is approachable, since I am very creative, but not a technical genius like many here.

FAST6191 · Aug 12, 2022

Creamu said:
Okay, I see your point. Please understand, even if this might be just a semantical differentiation for you, it is important for me for my work to be recognized as a 'mod'.

Okay. I am a creative person. I was even able to make an album about EMF radiation. Unfortunatly I am not so crafty, making it hard for me to get in such technical things. If there is a way I can make a mod with my creative capability without being hindered by complicated technical stuff that would be awesome.

Okay, I will have a look at the utilities. For me it is fine to work with whatever is approachable, since I am very creative, but not a technical genius like many here.

Is the game different in some way to the base game and done by outside normal gameplay means? It is a mod. There is no council of hackers (at least not since the great FBI raid of 2003) proclaiming one thing as mod and others not. It is not a particularly high bar to clear so interest tends to be some combo of interest in the base game, quality of the end result and effort put in to do it.

Technical stuff might appear regardless of what you do, just might not be code based. For instance game cameras, probably not a thing you have thought much about, but https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iNSQIyNpVGHeak6isbP6AHdHD50gs8MNXF1GCf08efg/pub can get quite interesting. You can make custom levels by clicking in some kind of simplistic 3d modelling tool or glorified puzzle solving program (put this tile here, this tile here...) that the devs provide but does not mean it will be compelling for the end result. Or to go back to the writing analogy earlier and go a bit further then basic language skills will allow you to write a summary or events and thus a story but how characters work is a bit more involved if you want others to care.
I don't know what I have for level design, or scenario design if you want to make a visual novel mod say (though that is closer to traditional story writing). I can cover game theory (an area of maths and some psychology in later scenarios), and have books to that end ( https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262542692/ being an amazing work if you want to know how games tick underneath it all and basically not code in the book). You can ponder the boring and basic three lanes approach if you want to make some kind of balanced multiplayer game, though also if balanced multiplayer is a thing you go for them do also learn Pareto distributions/frontiers and probably intangibles (more of an economic term but applies here as well -- you might optimise all your weapons to be the same damage per second by the time rate of fire, damage and accuracy are accounted for but make one gun not exceed that but maybe have some fun knockback effect and things change). Asymmetric gameplay however is something not so well explored in games (is a long standing term, was a sort of buzzword a few E3s back but devs did not latch on like they could have) where you might not want balance in all things but instead different ways of playing. It should also be noted that the DOTA/MOBA craze spawned from a mod to a fairly pedestrian traditional real time strategy and very much encompasses the greater than the sum of its parts idea, or emergent gameplay if you prefer that term. If you can crack that one however and reliably make those then... yeah, not to mention many examples of this are from players discovering such a setup on their own (sometimes enforced within the game's, or modded version thereof's, own mechanics, other times by player agreement as in many speedruns or house rules).

Creamu · Aug 12, 2022

FAST6191 said:
Is the game different in some way to the base game and done by outside normal gameplay means? It is a mod. There is no council of hackers (at least not since the great FBI raid of 2003) proclaiming one thing as mod and others not. It is not a particularly high bar to clear so interest tends to be some combo of interest in the base game, quality of the end result and effort put in to do it.

Technical stuff might appear regardless of what you do, just might not be code based. For instance game cameras, probably not a thing you have thought much about, but https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iNSQIyNpVGHeak6isbP6AHdHD50gs8MNXF1GCf08efg/pub can get quite interesting. You can make custom levels by clicking in some kind of simplistic 3d modelling tool or glorified puzzle solving program (put this tile here, this tile here...) that the devs provide but does not mean it will be compelling for the end result. Or to go back to the writing analogy earlier and go a bit further then basic language skills will allow you to write a summary or events and thus a story but how characters work is a bit more involved if you want others to care.
I don't know what I have for level design, or scenario design if you want to make a visual novel mod say (though that is closer to traditional story writing). I can cover game theory (an area of maths and some psychology in later scenarios), and have books to that end ( https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262542692/ being an amazing work if you want to know how games tick underneath it all and basically not code in the book). You can ponder the boring and basic three lanes approach if you want to make some kind of balanced multiplayer game, though also if balanced multiplayer is a thing you go for them do also learn Pareto distributions/frontiers and probably intangibles (more of an economic term but applies here as well -- you might optimise all your weapons to be the same damage per second by the time rate of fire, damage and accuracy are accounted for but make one gun not exceed that but maybe have some fun knockback effect and things change). Asymmetric gameplay however is something not so well explored in games (is a long standing term, was a sort of buzzword a few E3s back but devs did not latch on like they could have) where you might not want balance in all things but instead different ways of playing. It should also be noted that the DOTA/MOBA craze spawned from a mod to a fairly pedestrian traditional real time strategy and very much encompasses the greater than the sum of its parts idea, or emergent gameplay if you prefer that term. If you can crack that one however and reliably make those then... yeah, not to mention many examples of this are from players discovering such a setup on their own (sometimes enforced within the game's, or modded version thereof's, own mechanics, other times by player agreement as in many speedruns or house rules).

This is all useful information. For my first step it is important for me personally to crank something out regardless whether it is anything that will be valued by anyone. To get the feel for things and to build morale I just need to finish anything.

As an analog example if this was about music, I would write one bar of an one instrument piece, put it on loop and call it my first piece. This is of course a really basic result, but it is not overwhelming, is easily finished and released. I can expand from there, but it is important for me to get anything done. It is important to keep morale up.

Creamu · Aug 13, 2022

tech3475 said:
Personally? The easiest mod I ever did was just loading Sonic 3D Blast into a Hex Editor and changing the intro cutscene to say something stupid because it was all stored as ASCII (i.e. uncompressed).

Was that the windows version?

tech3475 · Aug 13, 2022

Creamu said:
Was that the windows version?

mega drive/Gen

Easy software modding for beginners?

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