Design Philosophy takes center stage in Pokemon Garbage Gold Deluxe, the definitive upgrade to the first-ever hg-engine NDS hack. In this blog post, sauceyaTTa dives deep into the creative direction behind the game — from elevating forgotten Pokemon, implementing a custom battle AI, and refining gameplay balance, to reimagining what difficulty and fun look like in a modern ROM hack. Whether you’re here for strategy, innovation, or inspiration, this is a must-read.
Pokemon Garbage Gold Deluxe Design Philosophy
Welcome to Garbage Gold Deluxe!
I am sauceyaTTa, and I have been ROM hacking NDS games since 2021. In 2023 I released Garbage Gold (version 1). This was the first ever hg-engine hack ever made, and was a large step forward in modernizing NDS hacks.
It included:
- level caps
- dex expansion (through Gen 6)
- move/ability expansion
- a new story
- new graphics
- and much more.
Introducing Garbage Gold Deluxe
Now, two years later, I have decided to take a break from Iridium development, and make Garbage Gold Deluxe. This version is a massive upgrade from the original.
It includes:
- completely overhauled graphics to make the game look fresh out of Gen 5
- improved mapping from years of experience
- new graphical assets
This upgrade seems both appropriate and overdue.
Major Fixes & Improvements
Garbage Gold Deluxe smashes a ton of bugs, such as:
- Gen 5+ Pokemon’s inability to learn TMs/HMs (a very old hg-engine limitation)
- numerous softlocks and crashes on MelonDS
- sloppy scripting I didn’t catch the first time around
This new version is something I’m proud to see played by many people, and is representative of the quality of games I like to create.
The “Garbage” Philosophy
The design philosophy for the “garbage” hack is different from normal difficulty / enhancement hacks. The idea is that bad or underused Pokemon should get a chance to shine.
This includes Pokemon with:
- low base stats
- terrible typing
- or are simply entrenched in mediocrity
The game originally was based upon PChal’s Garbage Green, but has significantly more involvement than just a difficulty hack.
- There are around 430 obtainable Pokemon
- Each has a custom level-up learnset
While this is grueling to develop, watching/playing/developing vanilla learnset games is just awful and unacceptable in 2025.
Fully Custom Trainer Design
Another difference from Garbage Green is that every single trainer has been changed. Rather than moving around vanilla NPCs, I’ve crafted trainers that have both variety and challenge.
Garbage Gold Deluxe is also the first NDS hack to have a completely custom-from-scratch battle AI, similar to RnB and other notable modern GBA hacks.
(I took over two months to write it in C, which turns out to be over 9000 lines of code — seriously worth it though!)
Not a Dig at Garbage Green
All of the above is not said in an effort to trash on Garbage Green, though. Gauntlets are a really neat idea that has been kept in both my original Garbage Gold and the new Garbage Gold Deluxe.
These include:
- limited healing items
- no access to Pokemarts
- exp management with gym leader caps you can accidentally overlevel
All really awesome mechanics that make players really think strategically.
Let’s Talk Banlist
There are a lot of Pokemon that are bad that simply didn’t make the cut into the game. Simply put, I just didn’t want something like Swirlix or Chespin in the game.
There were plenty of other Pokemon that did essentially the same thing as them, but were more memorable in some way.
Most Pokemon banned from the game had one of three issues:
- Base stat total was too high
- Offensive stats (atk/spatk/speed) were too high
- Typing was too powerful
Usually, (2) was the reason for the ban.
Edge Cases and Risk vs. Reward
There are a few exceptions to this rule, however.
Take Aron for example. It does evolve into Lairon, but only right before the E4 battles. This is the case for a number of mons which are on the fence for the banlist.
Rather than outright make them useless for the latter half of the game, some Pokemon can actually be used in the very last challenge of the game.
For instance:
Wugtrio has a really high speed and attack stat, but is incredibly frail.
If the player wants to take that risk, that is a form of skill/decision making that seems fun.
Other Balancing Philosophies
Since HP/PP management in gauntlets is a crucial skill for this game, most (if not all) moves have had a significant PP reduction:
- Setup moves rarely have more than 2PP
- Healing moves like Slack Off or Synthesis only have 3PP
- This prevents excessive stall from both the player and the AI
Now, the player does get access to some setup moves, such as Hone Claws, but usually at a later level on Pokemon who are already struggling from low offensive base stats.
You’re not going to be setup sweeping anything in this game, at least not easily.
Learnsets Are Purposeful
Learnsets for each Pokemon focus on a combination of:
- status
- stab
- and some coverage moves
The idea is to level out the playing field so you won’t be completely stuck against any boss fight because of a bad box.
All boxes should be at least usable, and very few encounters are completely useless.
There’s So Much More
There’s a lot more to the game than I can describe here.
You’ll find:
- new areas
- tons of new sound tracks
- new characters from Gen 5
- new story to explain why there are only so many trash Pokemon left
Have Fun!
Have fun, and be sure to let me know how your run goes!
– sauceyaTTa