How to start coding a cheat
If you decided to code your own cheat, then here are some information for you to know more about cheat development.
How to code a cheat from zero experience?
In the words of a wise man:
If you are going to make a cheat, you should know that this is a time-consuming activity that involved lots of researching, reading error-finding and practicing. So if you are going to dream about making a gamesense-alike cheat within months, you can give up on cheat development.
It's a good life lesson in general, if you focus on the journey the result will come, and often times the reward is less sweet without the pain and suffering of the journey.
Timeline for learning cheat development
Learn the absolute basics of using Cheat Engine: 1 week
Learn enough CE to use all it’s features, how to find pointers etc: 2 – 3 weeks
Learn C++/C# well enough to make a hello world and know the absolute basics of coding: 1 month
Experienced enough to make very basic trainers in C++/C#: 3 – 6 months
Learn enough to make trainers with more advanced features like pattern scanning, teleporting etc: 6-12 months
Intermediate coding/reversing skills to hack any game you want without anticheat: 1-2 Years
Start reversing anticheat: 2 Years
Mastering about Operating System internals (Optional): 1 ~ 2 Years.
Tips when coding a cheat / learning cheat development
Do not monetize your cheat without preparation. If you are going to make a cheat to make money and you have zero experience on it, sorry to burst your bubble but that's not going to happen. The developers behind major P2Cs are very experienced on cheat development, so if you're trying to monetize your half-baked product to the market, you're going to get a bunch of laughs and nothing.
Feel free to ask! If you face any problems when learning game hacking, feel free to ask on various online platforms! However keep in mind that no one on the internet would like to spoon-fed you some obvious information. So we would recommend make sure you have done your own researches before asking.
Practice! You have to practice more to improve your skills. The more time you invested on it, the more you will going to learn.
Don't give up! Game hacking is a time-consuming research. Don't give up on some obstacles, try to solve it and at the end, you're going to gain some useful experiences.
Do not look for frameworks at the beginning of learning! A lot of newcomers would face to a common problem is using libraries, or frameworks. This doesn't mean we don't encourage using libraries/frameworks, only if it is the only option, or the solution is beyond your knowledge. Using frameworks could definitely let your achieve your goal, but you're going to lose some experience on solving it. At the end you're not going learn anything from it.
Useful resources
Websites
Learn C++: Since most cheats are written in C++, this website would teach you about the syntax and concepts of C++, which is extremely useful.
Codeacademy: Codeacademy is a website that offers a lot of programming language for user to choose. Each programming language will have interactive lessons to let you doing exercises on it. A extremely useful website if you're going to learn about programming.
Guided Hacking: Guided Hacking is a good website if you want to learn about game hacking. In here you will going to learn about the basics of reverse engineering, cheat features (aimbot, esp, etc). A best place for inexperienced people who are interested in cheat development.
Unknowncheats: Unknowncheats is a cheat developing forum that covers many PC games on the market. There are a lot of resources for cheat developers The community is helpful and active. You can ask about cheat development questions if you face any problems on researching or developing cheats.
Github (aka gayhub): You will find a lot useful resources in GitHub, similar to GitHub.
Stack Overflow: A website for developers to ask questions, and answer questions about programming. You can always find various examples of different programming issues.
Google: Yes, make use of Google’s search tools to find solutions before asking questions.
x86 Assembly: Disassembler will decompile programs into some x86 assembly code (The reason it's x86 assembly code is because the platform for most of the PC's no matter you're using Intel or AMD, are based on x86 architecture.). Learning them could let you understand what the program is doing. There are a lot of sources available, feel free to google them.
Tools
Visual Studio: Visual Studio is an extremely powerful IDE for C++ development on Windows. A must have for cheat development.
Cheat Engine: Cheat Engine is a useful tool that can let you modify the values of a running program. It is also a useful tool for newcomers to learn about the basic concepts of game hacking.
IDA Pro / Ghidra: These are disassembler. Which is used to decompile programs for reverse engineering. If you could afford a license of IDA pro, then go for it since it's the most popular disassembler available on the market. Ghidra, which is developed by NSA, is a decent free alternative to IDA Pro.
Extreme Injector: Extremely injector is a useful tool for users to inject their .dll files into a running process. It's has a user-friendly interface. Recommend for newcomers to use.
Acknowledgements
Guidedhacking for external support on introducing game hacking.
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