Uhhh, I have sooo many things to tell about my past self (in chronological order). I'll summary each underneath.
1) "Comprehend hacking tutorials you'll need before you're able to put up an actual hack. Learning things shouldn't be really too hard for you! If you're not too sure about a certain thing, try not to make your hack too complicated."
Other than creating levels, drawing and inserting GFX, and editing map16, I can now create custom level backgrounds, use Super GFX Bypass, insert custom music, patches and custom ROM and RAM map addresses. I think I should be able to make an overworld and insert custom blocks and sprites. I don't feel too confident about creating custom music, ExAnimation and ASM, and I'm still concerned about these being too hard, even if they aren't in fact that difficult to learn. I would have made a serious hack a long ago if I had known enough. I think the reason why was my problems with understanding English.
2) "Draw inspiration from others' already existing hacks. You'll be able to build enjoyable levels, even using unusual gimmicks and you'll get a glimpse of how palettes should look like."
I can create various kinds of levels after seeing and playing many people's hacks. I can create anything that's fairly generic and even an easy pit hack, I suppose. I've improved with palettes lately, but I still don't think I'm a master.
3) "Don't focus on too many things at once, otherwise, you'll forget about your old projects."
A problem I'm still struggling with, although its scale isn't that horrendous now. I even could have like 10-20 unfinished projects on HDD, but now this count is reduced to 3-4. Due to that problem, I have only a few works finished.
4) "Listen to others, they'll definitely help you in future and shape out your liking, but remember - not always, though."
I didn't use to always listen to others' advice. Not only because I had a dumb excuse of "I'll fix it later" when it comes to a serious problem, but also my English skills once again.
5) "If you're making a kaizo: light hack, don't hesitate to provide some actual difficulty. If you don't provide enough precision and make a part of a level too easy, it may turn out not very entertaining for kaizo. Even kaizo: light hacks are not for casuals."
Back to when I was creating Monstrous Mario World, I hesitated that some of my setups would be too hard for anyone who wants to practice easy kaizo hacks. Precise setups are even welcome in hard regular hacks, but if you don't have to pull them off too much.
6) "Make backups. They'll be handy if you're either expecting a PC issue or not, thus you won't lose your work."
I lost the same hack for this reason. I didn't do anything that would guarantee my hack to still work. I only used my USB that was infected anyway to save Monstrous Mario World on.
7) "If you're making a pit hack, provide some pit difficulty to it, i.e. make parts that require some heavy tool usage. If you only need savestates and slowdown, it's not pit at all."
I'll recall MintGreenYoshi's challenge in this point. I think I made this pit hack kinda too easy while I was aiming it for beginners. No setups that cause major headaches, even to professional TASers, were used there. Only the last room provides pit difficulty, but doesn't go way too overboard with it.
8) "Don't procrastinate when making a level design contest entry. If you run out of ideas for what to do next, think about something you want to put later on. If you think you don't have enough time to finish the level, don't even bother with starting it."
Remember when I wanted to make a level for VLDCX? I would've done it a long time before the deadline if I had been focusing on any setups continuously regardless of their order. Similar thing was with my KLDC2017 entry. I had wasted a lot of time making it and it felt rushed because I didn't bother with making it a lot more entertaining and longer being afraid of deadline which was set pretty early after starting the contest. Yet another entry I wanted to finish was my OLDC entry, but I don't think I had enough time to finalize it. I also didn't submit my entry for the last ExGFX contest because I started kinda too late knowing that I couldn't find enough time for it. After thinking about my CLDC2018 entry I gave up on making it quickly, citing school.
Man, what kind of a person I am!
I have a Discord server as well! (by joining,
you agree to the rules)
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Basically, I believe in peace and bashing two bricks together.