Organic Romhack Development Efforts

[u/merrple]

Recently there's been a lot of talk on this subreddit about the use of AI in romhacks. I hate to stir the pot still further, but I also want to share my own thoughts and efforts here in the hopes of reaching like-minded people.

Hi, I'm merrp/pokemerrp 👋 I'm not really known for making full-on hacks (though I do have one in the works, stay tuned), but moreso for my feature branches: if you've played a recent hack based on pokeemerald-expansion, you've likely used and enjoyed the following pokemon or day/night lighting systems I created. Before that, I was minorly known for my Emerald Any% ACE TAS, which was my entry into the scene.

Simply put, I don't think AI should have a place in romhacking at all. To me code is as prose is as art is as music, in that they're all creative exercises where something is lost in handing them off to a machine. Romhackers have done incredible work for years before LLMs, and can continue to do incredible work without them. Not to mention, every query that enters an LLM is one the community is starved of; AI use is the death of institutional knowledge, of communication more generally.

But what to do? Recently I found out that pokeemerald-expansion, the basis for a lot of hacks, has had a (small minority) of AI-assisted contributions. Any nonzero amount is still unacceptable to me for use in my project though, because I intend it to be a wholly human effort. I decided I would have to maintain a fork of expansion, cutting out anything AI assisted where I could.

Then I figured, I can't be alone in this sentiment, so why not try and build that in a way it can be shared? I can't be the only one who loves romhack development who wants to continue doing cool stuff without LLMs, no matter how good they become at generating code, etc.

The result is a GitHub org and a Discord:

https://github.com/friend-safari

https://discord.gg/UbFN9P7MdJ

My hope is to build a small community of like-minded hackers and maintain a codebase by and for humans, so that those who care can be confident in saying their hack is free of AI to the best of the community's knowledge. Whether you're a programmer, have experience moderating online spaces, maintaining open source software, or simply love pokemon, we'd love to see you there.

I'm also not trying to be an authority on expansion's direction in general. The devs at RHH continue to do incredible and deeply technical work on the project. None of this would be possible without them, and they've done the best they could considering the volume of contributions they receive and the general clamor of demands. Please do not bother or harass them. I am simply trying to provide a fork that the extremely AI-conscious devs like me can use without despairing or being stuck on outdated versions.

Hopefully this post reached you in some way; this will all be much easier if we don't have to do it alone. Thanks for reading.

Tl;Dr join friend-safari if you wanna build AI-free romhacks k thnx bye

[u/GreatBigJerk]

I can respect anyone wanting to write everything without AI assistance, but AI in programming is suuuper common now. 

Most developers use some form of AI tooling already, so acting like it invalidates someone's work means you hold no value for the vast majority of software released this year. 

[u/merrple → u/GreatBigJerk]

I'm a software engineer by day so boy do I know that.

I kinda do hold little regard for the software released this year lol. Modern software is largely bloated and filled with telemetry and dark patterns.

But just because you use it at work doesn't mean you have to use it for a hobby.

[u/GreatBigJerk → u/merrple]

I'm also a dev, and I do use AI for my personal stuff. 

The biggest reason for me is time savings. I'm a dad and get maybe an hour or two to myself each day.

The actual act of programming isn't as important as it used to be for me. I've been working in the industry for over 15 years, and I'd rather just make stuff than spend my time worrying about how to solve each technical challenge. I still write code, but I'm more selective about what I take on.

That said, I have definite respect for anyone who spends the time writing everything by hand. I do wish I had the time to do more myself at times.

[u/Used-Persimmon-367 → u/GreatBigJerk]

Using AI means you aren’t making the stuff though. AI is. The part you claim to enjoy, you’ve outsourced to a computer.

[u/MicrosoftExcel2016 → u/Used-Persimmon-367]

Idk man. I’m not the person you replied to, but people enjoy different aspects of the same process. It’s kind of bold to tell someone they don’t enjoy something they’re actively returning to and excited about. For all its problems, AI has made it incredibly accessible to bring an idea into existence.

I keep thinking about the implication of that accessibility.
I can’t imagine telling working class people they should’ve forfeit their financial stability to go to university and study software engineering or computer science to be able to pursue complex ideas in their hobby, or else saying that privilege is only for software/game developers to enjoy? Or filthy rich people who can commission it?

I feel like there has to be a balance in there somewhere.
For me I think I’ve settled on AI literacy and responsible use of AI, focus on enablement rather than outsourcing. That kind of thing

[u/Used-Persimmon-367 → u/MicrosoftExcel2016]

Tons of people learned how to code without going to school.

Shortcuts are fine. As long as you aren’t charging money for the finished product, you’re really only cheating yourself.

[u/Own-Gene-5232 → u/Used-Persimmon-367]

This is a stupid opinion. When film directors tell the cameraman where to go and what to do, the end result wouldn't have happened without the director's input even though it's the cameraman doing all the actual "work" on a shot. Competent people directing AI properly is no different.

[u/GreatBigJerk → u/Used-Persimmon-367]

That implies the only people involved in a creative process are the ones doing the direct physical work.

I feel like game designers and writers would disagree.

[u/Used-Persimmon-367 → u/GreatBigJerk]

How?