Table of Contents
The tutorial ladder
Twelve rungs, dependency-ordered: each one builds a runnable mod, ends with a checkpoint you can verify in-game, and leans on the rungs before it. Start at 01 even if you only want the later material — the early rungs establish the manifest, validate, and enable/disable loop everything else assumes. Task-sized lookups live in the cookbook.
| Rung | Page | You build | New ground |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Sprite and text tweak | a recolor + one dialogue line | asset transforms, text:override |
| 02 | Balance patch | move/stat/party rebalance behind a toggle | patch, merge rules, mod.options |
| 03 | New species | a catchable dex entry | pokemon:register, icons, cries |
| 04 | New item and ball | a mart item + a custom ball | items, balls, mart shelves |
| 05 | New move | a move with a custom effect | moves, move_effects, the ctx facade |
| 06 | NPC and dialogue | a branching conversation | map objects, map_scripts talk entries |
| 07 | New map | a connected route with encounters | maps, connections, encounters |
| 08 | Quest | a multi-map fetch quest | script rows, flags, mod.save, migrations |
| 09 | Custom music | file songs + an authored chiptune | music, map_songs, ChipAsm, music.select |
| 10 | New mechanic | a status, a type, a difficulty hook | statuses, type_chart, battle.damage |
| 11 | Custom UI screen | a quest log screen | screens, ui.* hooks, mod.ui |
| 12 | Mini total conversion | the previous rungs as one shippable mod | field.boot, profiles, packaging |
Every rung ends the same way: disable the mod and confirm the game is vanilla again. That is the parity invariant, and it is the platform's core promise (Lifecycle).
Start here
Concepts
Tutorials
- The ladder
- 01 Sprite and Text Tweak
- 02 Balance Patch
- 03 New Species
- 04 New Item and Ball
- 05 New Move
- 06 NPC and Dialogue
- 07 New Map
- 08 Quest
- 09 Custom Music
- 10 New Mechanic
- 11 Custom UI Screen
- 12 Mini Total Conversion
Reference
Guides
- Art Pipeline
- Audio Authoring
- Preparing Your Mod for Gen 2
- Translations
- Total Conversions
- Link Compatibility
- Publishing a Mod
- Docs Style Guide
Playing
Engine 1.0.0 · mod API 2 · repository · Discord
This project ships no ROM data. All game content is decoded on the player's machine from their own verified Pokemon Red ROM; mods ship recipes and original assets, never extracted content.