Tip: Kaizo hacks often rely on consistent interactions but the base game uses different frame timers to process those interactions. Applying this tweak will make those interaction counters be every frame.
Tip: Since players usually have to put in a lot of attempts at Kaizo levels, it's highly recommended to not have finite lives that would result in game over. Applying this tweak will disable life loss.
Tip: The Counterbreak UberASM is recommended for Kaizo hacks to reset Mario's powerup and Yoshi status to prevent bringing them over from previous levels.
Tip: Fast Retry (either using the Patch or UberASM) is recommended for Kaizo hacks to help improve the pace of the game between player deaths since they wouldn't have to re-enter the level each attempt.
Tip: Be conservative with item usage. Unnecessary throw blocks, powerups or a Yoshi may let players make unintended breaks or skip parts of your level.
Tip: Kaizo and Tool-Assisted hacks often abuse glitches or bugs in the game, and leave them unfixed. This thread has information about the glitches found in the base game.
Tip: After being "killed", the Amazing Flying Hammer Brother (Sprite
Tip: All objects, sprites, and screen exits can be deleted from the current level in Lunar Magic from the menu action "Edit → Delete All" or by pressing Ctrl + Del
Tip: Always check which slots an ExGraphics resource is trying to use to make sure glitched graphics don't appear elsewhere accidentally.
Tip: Any Moon, midpoint, or Dragon Coin placed through Map16 will always respawn whenever a level is re-enter. They will not respawn if they are added through the Add Objects Objects
window.
Tip: Avoid placing doors, pipes, or other exit-enabled objects on screen boundaries. If unavoidable, make sure both screens on either side of the boundary have a screen-exit set.
Tip: Be aware of how palette colors provide contrast. Clashing, overly-bright, or overly-dim colours may make levels difficult to play because elements are hard to see.
Tip: Both Level 0 and Level 100 are used for the Bonus Game, depending on the starting level,
Tip: Check for glitched graphics in all frames of an object or sprite (e.g., the ON/OFF block changing, etc.).
Tip: Collecting the goal tape in a vertical level and crossing 100 stars will not trigger the Bonus Game. This UberASM resource will fix that issue.
Tip: Editing tiles in the first two pages of Map16 will affect all foreground objects in all levels. Edits here will affect the functionality of all objects.
Tip: Lunar Magic's Restore functionality can revert a ROM to a previous state, using "File → Restore → Restore ROM to Previous State" action in the menu, to undo changes. Set this up in Lunar Magic's "Restore Point Options…"
Tip: Make a backup before using any external tools on a ROM in case something goes wrong so a previous version is available to restore from.
Tip: Make sure that all exit-enabled objects have a screen exit defined or they'll teleport to an unbeatable Bonus Game. Getting stuck here is inescapeable and, unless Start + Select is enabled, the only way out of it is to reset the game.
Tip: Make sure to proofread all message boxes for spelling and grammar mistakes.
Tip: Objects that use certain colors reserved for layer 3 will stay visible when a level fades out after the goal.
Tip: Objects that use colors 8-F in palettes 0 and 1 will stay visible when a level fades out after the goal.
Tip: Putting Dragon Coins on subscreen boundaries will cause them to glitch. Press F2 on the level editor to see these boundaries in Lunar Magic to avoid this.
Tip: Reading Lunar Magic's help document, accessed from "Help → Contents", is highly recommended as it will give a lot of information and guidance for using Lunar Magic itself.
Tip: Setting the upper tile of a door to act like the lower tile in Map16, any two-tile-high door can be entered even while riding Yoshi.
Tip: The "Horizontal Level Mode" settings in Lunar Magic's Header Properties
dialog have options to enable levels with more height and area than seen in the original game.
Tip: The Edit Animation Settings
dialog in Lunar Magic have options to disable certain animations in the game to make room for additional ExAnimations or to override the default animation.
Tip: The first column of colors in the Palette Editor is transparency. Editing it will have no effect.
Tip: The maximum file size for an ExGraphic in slot
Tip: Tile surface outlines can be shown in Lunar Magic by pressing Ctrl + F2. With this slopes, which tiles hurt Mario, and which tiles affect sprites become visible. Green is solid, blue is for slopes within water, red hurts or kills Mario, and yellow only affects sprites.
Tip: Tileset-specific sprites (such as a Buzzy Beetle or Bob-omb) can be carried through a pipe, make sure it has the correct graphics and sprite palette on the other side!
Tip: Using Lunar Magic's Change Properties in Sprite Header
dialog can adjust the sprite slots in which sprites can spawn.
Tip: Using solid tiles at the top of a slope makes Mario lose speed when he reaches the top. Use ledge tiles before and after slopes. View Diagram
Tip: Using wall-running triangles, without using Extended Object 44/45, will require the use of tile
Tip: When re-creating the Boss Door in Map16, be sure to use Act As
must be "Castle 1" for this to work.
Tip: When using custom palettes, remember that changing certain colors in palettes 0 and 1 will also affect the status bar.
Tip: When Yoshi wings are activated in levels
Tip: Yoshi's House (Level 104) appears during the original ending credits, so any edits to that level will also appear there.
Tip: If too many sprites appear on the same screen, it will slow the game down. The normal limit for sprites is 12, but this can be increased to 22 with the SA-1 Pack.
Tip: Entering a door or pipe, activating a P-Switch or grabbing a star, completing the level, hitting a message block, and dying will cause issues on the Title Screen, such as causing musical glitches, or trapping the player in an endlessly-looping level.
Tip: When adding music be sure to balance the volume of the port in each level. This can be done by editing the global volume for each track, which is denoted by a
Tip: When porting a song, make sure to keep the more important parts out of the last 2 channels, since they can be cut off by in-game sound effects which use these channels.
Tip: When the music is temporarily changed to a global song (such as a P-Switch or a Star), that music will not stop playing after the intended end time if the music bypass setting is set to
Tip: After editing the Overworld, make sure to use an EMPTY save file when testing, as save files with progress may load Mario's position based on previous versions of the Overworld. Also altered level flags will only take effect on new save files.
Tip: Don't just modify the original game's Overworld; delete everything and start from scratch!
Tip: Palettes 0-3 do not work correctly on the Overworld unless the "Disable event path fade effect" setting is used to disable the animation. This can be found in the "Overworld → Extra options…" of the Overworld Editor
.
Tip: Pressing Shift while placing event tiles will be make them "silent" and they will not appear until a map transition happens. Use silent event tiles to draw paths during events on one map in another without visual glitches.
Tip: The Layer 2 event tiles space below the submaps in the Overworld editor is entirely editable for custom use tiles!
Tip: When creating new Overworld events, delete all of the existing events to avoid unintended tile changes when levels are beaten.
Tip: When making the Overworld, mix up the terrain! Don't leave large empty regions, add decoration and detail. Angled land and varied colors look much more interesting than flat land and plain colors.
Tip: While in the Event Editor Mode, the PageUp and PageDown keys will go forward and back through events, and the Home and End keys to do the same but step by step.
Tip: Unlike for traditional and Kaizo hacks, usage of tools such as savestates and rewinds in Tool-Assisted: Kaizo and Tool-Assisted: Pit hacks is encouraged, if not necessary.
Tip:
Tip: $5.27
Tip: All of the SMW Central Tips can be read at once in this thread.
Tip: Before asking for help on the forums, make a good attempt to find existing answers or figure out the problem to the best of your ability on your own first.
Tip: Before extracting any resources, such as graphics, music, or ASM, from a hack or other non-public source, seek the permission from the original author.
Tip: Before releasing a hack, make a patch first, patch it to a clean ROM, and then test that ROM to make sure it still works.
Tip: Check out the Hall of Fame for hacks recommended by the community!
Tip: Check the Documents section for documentation, tutorials and other useful information about resources and SMW hacking.
Tip: Every user has a "My Files" section to store files. Use this for hack screenshots or videos, sharing BPS patches, or whatever else.
Tip: Hack submission screenshots should be captured at native SNES resolution (256x224) from an emulator's internal capture (typically F12 key). For more information see the Screenshot Guidelines.
Tip: Have a work-in-progress project to show off? Share about it in the Works in Progress forum!
Tip: Make sure to review the relevant Submission Guidelines before submitting anything to SMW Central.
Tip: Need testers for a hack, or looking to be a hack tester? Check out the Hack Testing forum for details.
Tip: Read this guide for information about SMW's samples, global music and SFX.
Tip: Releasing a demo for a hack is not an excuse for leaving things unfinished or broken; Demos should be as polished as full hacks.
Tip: SMW Central's F.A.Q. has some answers to basic questions about of SMW hacking.
Tip: Stay up-to-date with new tool and resource releases on the SMW hacking scene by viewing the Resource & Tool Releases forum.
Tip: The Helpful Diagrams thread has many useful diagrams and data.
Tip: Verify that a new BPS patch will apply correctly by testing it on a clean ROM before submitting or sharing it.
Tip: Effect Tool can be used to create fancy HDMA effects with minimal ASM experience.
Tip: Floating IPS can apply multiple BPS patches at once! If multiple files are selected when opening a BPS patch they all will be applied.
Tip: ExAnimation also works on sprites!
Tip: Blockreator can help make basic custom blocks with little to no experience with ASM.
Tip: YY-CHR can be used to edit exported Graphics and ExGraphics files.
Tip: These tools are recommended for ripping graphics.
Tip: A number of sprites that normally cannot be killed will look glitched if the player manages to defeat them by sliding or with a star. This can be fixed with this patch.
Tip: Applying patches can be difficult to reverse. The best way to undo patch changes is to either use Lunar Magic's Restore function, or port everything to a clean ROM.
Tip: If sprites are not displaying tiles, apply the No More Sprite Tile Limits patch. Note: this does not increase the limit for the amount of sprites onscreen at once.
Tip: Keep track of ALL patches and hex edits in case you need to transfer your data to a new ROM. It's definitely worth the trouble in case you need to trace your steps or undo something.
Tip: Layer 3 backgrounds and tides will disappear when a message box is hit, so plan your level around that. For example, you can add a sublevel without layer 3 at the start/midpoint, and include your message there.
Tip: Make note of ALL resources use in your hack and where you got them from, this will be useful in case you need to need to transfer your project, and helpful for forming credits.
Tip: Munchers will still act like a coin when a silver P-switch is active, whether it looks like a coin or not.
Tip: Sometimes resources have issues on other SNES emulators due to accuracy differences. Test your hack on multiple emulators to see if anything is incompatible or breaks.
Tip: Switch Palace switches will normally disappear after being pressed and will be gone when a level is replayed. But, if the hex edit at
Tip: Take advantage of easy to install Patches to fix common bugs or enhance a project with quality of life features.
Tip: The Iggy/Larry Battle Tools can be used to edit Iggy/Larry's platform.
Tip: The SMW Customizer can edit tons of miscellaneous features in SMW, including the speed of Bullet Bills, how many points a 3-UP Moon gives you, and more!
Tip: The properties of the original sprites can be edited using Tweaker.
Tip: Use Gopher Popcorn Stew to insert custom blocks. A tutorial for using GPS is available here.
Tip: Use PIXI to insert custom sprites. A tutorial for using PIXI is available here.
Tip: Use UberASM Tool to insert custom ASM without using a patch.
Tip: Use AddMusicK to insert custom music. A tutorial for using AddMusicK is available here.
Tip: When patching a BPS/IPS file to a ROM, make sure that the ROM is clean (unmodified) beforehand. If it's not clean, use ROMclean to fix it.
Tip: A power-up is most useful to a player shortly after the midway point. But it doesn't have to be freely given, think of interesting ways to give a power-up as reward.
Tip: Avoid having the player carry P-Switches, Springboards, or other items for long periods in levels without using it. Usually, this sort of "item escort" doesn't end up being very engaging.
Tip: Avoid jumps where the player can't see obstacles ahead of them and guide the player with indication to ground or platforms that cannot be seen.
Tip: Be aware that if a is coin over a block Mario can hit, it will create an invisible solid block above it when the block is hit. Apply this tweak to fix it.
Tip: Check levels for visual discontinuity (a.k.a. cutoff), glitched sprites, and any other visual errors to keep things looking polished.
Tip: Hack creators are expected to be able to clear their own levels without relying on tools, like savestates, slowdown, fast-forward, and so on, when submitting them.
Tip: In water levels or those with Layer 3 tide Mario can swim under the level. This can be prevented by raising up a level's obstacles and changing the "Set FG/BG relative to player" settings in the Modify Main and Midway Entrance
dialog.
Tip: Keep in mind that giving a Cape Feather may allow players to break or skip levels, such as by flying over them!
Tip: Large, flat areas of terrain without many sprites are not interesting to play. Add variety to the structure of ground and use different types of sprites.
Tip: Line-guides in a level with a dark background are hard to see, make sure the lines are visible against the background by changing their color.
Tip: Mario can still die while walking after collecting the goal tape, so make sure there's a safe area.
Tip: Re-making notable levels from other Mario games, such as SMB 1-1, is not recommended. As they have a huge presence in fan games already level remakes are not seen as very creative.
Tip: Test levels with all powerups available to players in the game, as well as with Yoshi, to make sure they can be completed in all valid ways.
Tip: The Multiple Midway Points resource enables using more than the single midway point the original game allows for, for more frequent checkpointing.
Tip: The lowest row of 16×16 tiles in a level do not appear, unless the "Allow viewing full bottom row of tiles" box is checked in the menu. Be mindful of this when designing levels!
Tip: Try to not have a lot of sources of Layer 1 shake active simultaneously or continuously as this can cause motion sickness or affect people with photosensitivity.
Tip: When determining a time limit, remember that players won't be as familiar with the level as you are. If you normally complete the level with around 100s left on the timer, others might run out of time on their first try.
Tip: Sometimes it is helpful to sketch out or jot down ideas for Overworlds or levels, even if they don't manage to fit into a project, just to have something to work from.
Tip: Since players usually have to put in a lot of attempts at Kaizo levels, it's highly recommended to not have finite lives that would result in game over. Applying this tweak will disable life loss.
Tip: The Counterbreak UberASM is recommended for Kaizo hacks to reset Mario's powerup and Yoshi status to prevent bringing them over from previous levels.
Tip: Fast Retry (either using the Patch or UberASM) is recommended for Kaizo hacks to help improve the pace of the game between player deaths since they wouldn't have to re-enter the level each attempt.
Tip: Be conservative with item usage. Unnecessary throw blocks, powerups or a Yoshi may let players make unintended breaks or skip parts of your level.
Tip: Kaizo and Tool-Assisted hacks often abuse glitches or bugs in the game, and leave them unfixed. This thread has information about the glitches found in the base game.
Tip: After being "killed", the Amazing Flying Hammer Brother (Sprite
9B) will still throw hammers as it sinks or goes off-screen in lava. You can use this tweak to fix it.Tip: All objects, sprites, and screen exits can be deleted from the current level in Lunar Magic from the menu action "Edit → Delete All" or by pressing Ctrl + Del
Tip: Always check which slots an ExGraphics resource is trying to use to make sure glitched graphics don't appear elsewhere accidentally.
Tip: Any Moon, midpoint, or Dragon Coin placed through Map16 will always respawn whenever a level is re-enter. They will not respawn if they are added through the Add Objects Objects
window.Tip: Avoid placing doors, pipes, or other exit-enabled objects on screen boundaries. If unavoidable, make sure both screens on either side of the boundary have a screen-exit set.
Tip: Be aware of how palette colors provide contrast. Clashing, overly-bright, or overly-dim colours may make levels difficult to play because elements are hard to see.
Tip: Both Level 0 and Level 100 are used for the Bonus Game, depending on the starting level,
Tip: Check for glitched graphics in all frames of an object or sprite (e.g., the ON/OFF block changing, etc.).
Tip: Collecting the goal tape in a vertical level and crossing 100 stars will not trigger the Bonus Game. This UberASM resource will fix that issue.
Tip: Editing tiles in the first two pages of Map16 will affect all foreground objects in all levels. Edits here will affect the functionality of all objects.
Tip: Lunar Magic's Restore functionality can revert a ROM to a previous state, using "File → Restore → Restore ROM to Previous State" action in the menu, to undo changes. Set this up in Lunar Magic's "Restore Point Options…"
Tip: Make a backup before using any external tools on a ROM in case something goes wrong so a previous version is available to restore from.
Tip: Make sure that all exit-enabled objects have a screen exit defined or they'll teleport to an unbeatable Bonus Game. Getting stuck here is inescapeable and, unless Start + Select is enabled, the only way out of it is to reset the game.
Tip: Make sure to proofread all message boxes for spelling and grammar mistakes.
Tip: Objects that use certain colors reserved for layer 3 will stay visible when a level fades out after the goal.
Tip: Objects that use colors 8-F in palettes 0 and 1 will stay visible when a level fades out after the goal.
Tip: Putting Dragon Coins on subscreen boundaries will cause them to glitch. Press F2 on the level editor to see these boundaries in Lunar Magic to avoid this.
Tip: Reading Lunar Magic's help document, accessed from "Help → Contents", is highly recommended as it will give a lot of information and guidance for using Lunar Magic itself.
Tip: Setting the upper tile of a door to act like the lower tile in Map16, any two-tile-high door can be entered even while riding Yoshi.
Tip: The "Horizontal Level Mode" settings in Lunar Magic's Header Properties
dialog have options to enable levels with more height and area than seen in the original game.Tip: The Edit Animation Settings
dialog in Lunar Magic have options to disable certain animations in the game to make room for additional ExAnimations or to override the default animation.Tip: The first column of colors in the Palette Editor is transparency. Editing it will have no effect.
Tip: The maximum file size for an ExGraphic in slot
AN2 (used for ExAnimation) is 16×13 tiles, rather than 16×8 tiles.Tip: Tile surface outlines can be shown in Lunar Magic by pressing Ctrl + F2. With this slopes, which tiles hurt Mario, and which tiles affect sprites become visible. Green is solid, blue is for slopes within water, red hurts or kills Mario, and yellow only affects sprites.
Tip: Tileset-specific sprites (such as a Buzzy Beetle or Bob-omb) can be carried through a pipe, make sure it has the correct graphics and sprite palette on the other side!
Tip: Using Lunar Magic's Change Properties in Sprite Header
dialog can adjust the sprite slots in which sprites can spawn.Tip: Using solid tiles at the top of a slope makes Mario lose speed when he reaches the top. Use ledge tiles before and after slopes. View Diagram
Tip: Using wall-running triangles, without using Extended Object 44/45, will require the use of tile
1EB (or a tile that acts like it) underneath it so the wall run works.Tip: When re-creating the Boss Door in Map16, be sure to use Act As
9C rather than Act As 1F-20 to avoid the region in the middle of the door where Mario can't enter. Note: the Graphics header must be "Castle 1" for this to work.Tip: When using custom palettes, remember that changing certain colors in palettes 0 and 1 will also affect the status bar.
Tip: When Yoshi wings are activated in levels
0-24 they will take Mario to Level C8, and in levels 100-13B they will take Mario to Level 1C8.Tip: Yoshi's House (Level 104) appears during the original ending credits, so any edits to that level will also appear there.
Tip: If too many sprites appear on the same screen, it will slow the game down. The normal limit for sprites is 12, but this can be increased to 22 with the SA-1 Pack.
Tip: Entering a door or pipe, activating a P-Switch or grabbing a star, completing the level, hitting a message block, and dying will cause issues on the Title Screen, such as causing musical glitches, or trapping the player in an endlessly-looping level.
Tip: When adding music be sure to balance the volume of the port in each level. This can be done by editing the global volume for each track, which is denoted by a
w followed by a number in a port's text file.Tip: When porting a song, make sure to keep the more important parts out of the last 2 channels, since they can be cut off by in-game sound effects which use these channels.
Tip: When the music is temporarily changed to a global song (such as a P-Switch or a Star), that music will not stop playing after the intended end time if the music bypass setting is set to
00.Tip: After editing the Overworld, make sure to use an EMPTY save file when testing, as save files with progress may load Mario's position based on previous versions of the Overworld. Also altered level flags will only take effect on new save files.
Tip: Don't just modify the original game's Overworld; delete everything and start from scratch!
Tip: Palettes 0-3 do not work correctly on the Overworld unless the "Disable event path fade effect" setting is used to disable the animation. This can be found in the "Overworld → Extra options…" of the Overworld Editor
.Tip: Pressing Shift while placing event tiles will be make them "silent" and they will not appear until a map transition happens. Use silent event tiles to draw paths during events on one map in another without visual glitches.
Tip: The Layer 2 event tiles space below the submaps in the Overworld editor is entirely editable for custom use tiles!
Tip: When creating new Overworld events, delete all of the existing events to avoid unintended tile changes when levels are beaten.
Tip: When making the Overworld, mix up the terrain! Don't leave large empty regions, add decoration and detail. Angled land and varied colors look much more interesting than flat land and plain colors.
Tip: While in the Event Editor Mode, the PageUp and PageDown keys will go forward and back through events, and the Home and End keys to do the same but step by step.
Tip: Unlike for traditional and Kaizo hacks, usage of tools such as savestates and rewinds in Tool-Assisted: Kaizo and Tool-Assisted: Pit hacks is encouraged, if not necessary.
Tip:
Tip: $5.27
Tip: All of the SMW Central Tips can be read at once in this thread.
Tip: Before asking for help on the forums, make a good attempt to find existing answers or figure out the problem to the best of your ability on your own first.
Tip: Before extracting any resources, such as graphics, music, or ASM, from a hack or other non-public source, seek the permission from the original author.
Tip: Before releasing a hack, make a patch first, patch it to a clean ROM, and then test that ROM to make sure it still works.
Tip: Check out the Hall of Fame for hacks recommended by the community!
Tip: Check the Documents section for documentation, tutorials and other useful information about resources and SMW hacking.
Tip: Every user has a "My Files" section to store files. Use this for hack screenshots or videos, sharing BPS patches, or whatever else.
Tip: Hack submission screenshots should be captured at native SNES resolution (256x224) from an emulator's internal capture (typically F12 key). For more information see the Screenshot Guidelines.
Tip: Have a work-in-progress project to show off? Share about it in the Works in Progress forum!
Tip: Make sure to review the relevant Submission Guidelines before submitting anything to SMW Central.
Tip: Need testers for a hack, or looking to be a hack tester? Check out the Hack Testing forum for details.
Tip: Read this guide for information about SMW's samples, global music and SFX.
Tip: Releasing a demo for a hack is not an excuse for leaving things unfinished or broken; Demos should be as polished as full hacks.
Tip: SMW Central's F.A.Q. has some answers to basic questions about of SMW hacking.
Tip: Stay up-to-date with new tool and resource releases on the SMW hacking scene by viewing the Resource & Tool Releases forum.
Tip: The Helpful Diagrams thread has many useful diagrams and data.
Tip: Verify that a new BPS patch will apply correctly by testing it on a clean ROM before submitting or sharing it.
Tip: Effect Tool can be used to create fancy HDMA effects with minimal ASM experience.
Tip: Floating IPS can apply multiple BPS patches at once! If multiple files are selected when opening a BPS patch they all will be applied.
Tip: ExAnimation also works on sprites!
Tip: Blockreator can help make basic custom blocks with little to no experience with ASM.
Tip: YY-CHR can be used to edit exported Graphics and ExGraphics files.
Tip: These tools are recommended for ripping graphics.
Tip: A number of sprites that normally cannot be killed will look glitched if the player manages to defeat them by sliding or with a star. This can be fixed with this patch.
Tip: Applying patches can be difficult to reverse. The best way to undo patch changes is to either use Lunar Magic's Restore function, or port everything to a clean ROM.
Tip: If sprites are not displaying tiles, apply the No More Sprite Tile Limits patch. Note: this does not increase the limit for the amount of sprites onscreen at once.
Tip: Keep track of ALL patches and hex edits in case you need to transfer your data to a new ROM. It's definitely worth the trouble in case you need to trace your steps or undo something.
Tip: Layer 3 backgrounds and tides will disappear when a message box is hit, so plan your level around that. For example, you can add a sublevel without layer 3 at the start/midpoint, and include your message there.
Tip: Make note of ALL resources use in your hack and where you got them from, this will be useful in case you need to need to transfer your project, and helpful for forming credits.
Tip: Munchers will still act like a coin when a silver P-switch is active, whether it looks like a coin or not.
Tip: Sometimes resources have issues on other SNES emulators due to accuracy differences. Test your hack on multiple emulators to see if anything is incompatible or breaks.
Tip: Switch Palace switches will normally disappear after being pressed and will be gone when a level is replayed. But, if the hex edit at
$00EEB2 in the ROM map is applied, and they are insert as Direct Map16 tiles they will re-appear.Tip: Take advantage of easy to install Patches to fix common bugs or enhance a project with quality of life features.
Tip: The Iggy/Larry Battle Tools can be used to edit Iggy/Larry's platform.
Tip: The SMW Customizer can edit tons of miscellaneous features in SMW, including the speed of Bullet Bills, how many points a 3-UP Moon gives you, and more!
Tip: The properties of the original sprites can be edited using Tweaker.
Tip: Use Gopher Popcorn Stew to insert custom blocks. A tutorial for using GPS is available here.
Tip: Use PIXI to insert custom sprites. A tutorial for using PIXI is available here.
Tip: Use UberASM Tool to insert custom ASM without using a patch.
Tip: Use AddMusicK to insert custom music. A tutorial for using AddMusicK is available here.
Tip: When patching a BPS/IPS file to a ROM, make sure that the ROM is clean (unmodified) beforehand. If it's not clean, use ROMclean to fix it.
Tip: A power-up is most useful to a player shortly after the midway point. But it doesn't have to be freely given, think of interesting ways to give a power-up as reward.
Tip: Avoid having the player carry P-Switches, Springboards, or other items for long periods in levels without using it. Usually, this sort of "item escort" doesn't end up being very engaging.
Tip: Avoid jumps where the player can't see obstacles ahead of them and guide the player with indication to ground or platforms that cannot be seen.
Tip: Be aware that if a is coin over a block Mario can hit, it will create an invisible solid block above it when the block is hit. Apply this tweak to fix it.
Tip: Check levels for visual discontinuity (a.k.a. cutoff), glitched sprites, and any other visual errors to keep things looking polished.
Tip: Hack creators are expected to be able to clear their own levels without relying on tools, like savestates, slowdown, fast-forward, and so on, when submitting them.
Tip: In water levels or those with Layer 3 tide Mario can swim under the level. This can be prevented by raising up a level's obstacles and changing the "Set FG/BG relative to player" settings in the Modify Main and Midway Entrance
dialog.Tip: Keep in mind that giving a Cape Feather may allow players to break or skip levels, such as by flying over them!
Tip: Large, flat areas of terrain without many sprites are not interesting to play. Add variety to the structure of ground and use different types of sprites.
Tip: Line-guides in a level with a dark background are hard to see, make sure the lines are visible against the background by changing their color.
Tip: Mario can still die while walking after collecting the goal tape, so make sure there's a safe area.
Tip: Re-making notable levels from other Mario games, such as SMB 1-1, is not recommended. As they have a huge presence in fan games already level remakes are not seen as very creative.
Tip: Test levels with all powerups available to players in the game, as well as with Yoshi, to make sure they can be completed in all valid ways.
Tip: The Multiple Midway Points resource enables using more than the single midway point the original game allows for, for more frequent checkpointing.
Tip: The lowest row of 16×16 tiles in a level do not appear, unless the "Allow viewing full bottom row of tiles" box is checked in the
menu. Be mindful of this when designing levels!Tip: Try to not have a lot of sources of Layer 1 shake active simultaneously or continuously as this can cause motion sickness or affect people with photosensitivity.
Tip: When determining a time limit, remember that players won't be as familiar with the level as you are. If you normally complete the level with around 100s left on the timer, others might run out of time on their first try.
Tip: Sometimes it is helpful to sketch out or jot down ideas for Overworlds or levels, even if they don't manage to fit into a project, just to have something to work from.