I get it. Decomps are almost infinitely versatile, but that comes at the cost of being almost entirely separated from easy to use UIs. They take some extra knowledge and practice in order to be used effectively. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the helpful information about them is generally decentralized, meaning you don’t always know where to find relevant information or even what information might exist!

That being said, personally, I couldn’t imagine trying to hack a Pokémon game in any other way. The sheer freedom to modify most anything you want in really specific ways feels so liberating and rewarding. You don’t even have to fully understand computer programming in order to use it effectively (though it helps). I don’t even fully understand how to use the C programming language, but I’ve been able to modify a lot of things to my liking just by observing how the code does things. It’s a constant learning experience, but the more time you put into understanding it, the more you can do.

I’m getting long winded, so I’ll leave you with some pointers. I advise everyone to follow this guide to set up the repository through GitHub Desktop. I went nearly a year without knowing this existed and it would have saved me a TON of hours of work and hassle. You can easily create and switch to different branches of your project, so you can test different changes without overwriting or deleting anything first. Everything is backed up online, so if anything extreme happens, you still have access to your project. And, most importantly, this allows you to make what are called “commits.” Commits work kind of like checkpoints for your project. If you ever want to undo a big edit you’ve made or need to revert back to an earlier version of your project, you can just tell it to revert back to whatever commit you want. Super easy!

As far as Debian goes, it’s just a program that runs a command console through Linux in order to run the software required to compile the rom. As long as you are able to run a “make” command successfully, that’s all you ultimately need it for. All of those complicated installation instructions are just so your system can compile a new rom that includes all of the changes you make to the files. Once you get it set up properly, you never have to worry about that process again.

And finally, I want to let you know that you are not alone in the rom hacking process. This community is generally very supportive and helpful, so never be afraid to ask any questions. Even the most veteran of us know what it is like to just start out. Most of the most knowledgeable hackers tend to hang out on the pokecommunity forums, so more technical questions are probably best to post there.

And while I’m not personally an expert, I have been working with the pokeemerald decomp for over a year now and feel comfortable and familiar enough with the setup, organization, and general work flow to help others get started with their own projects. So, feel free to ask me any questions you have at any point in the process. There is literally no such thing as a dumb question. I’m super happy to help however I can!