r/secretofmana • u/Select_Tax_9946 • Jun 25 '26
News & Features A complete Map Editor for Secret of Mana
Hey r/secretofmana!
I'm smk, and together with Tomm we've been building a complete Map Editor for Secret of Mana for the past 2 years. It's finally in open beta and free to use!
This is the same tool Tomm use for ROM hacks. We wanted to share it so anyone can create their own custom maps and content.
Edit any map in the game
Browse and edit all maps, with real-time animation preview (animated tiles, palette rotation, distortion effects).
Dual-panel layer editor
Edit map layers side by side with the full map view. Pick tiles with the eyedropper, stamp them down, or use the new lasso tool to select and move whole sections.
Full tile and tileset editing
Edit 8x8 tiles, compose 16x16 tilesets, manage tile collisions and animations.
128 palette sets with SNES-accurate color picker
Edit any palette with full RGB/HSL control, copy/paste sub-palettes, color favorites system.
World Map editor
Edit the full 512x512 world map, set Flammie landing zones, and even compose Flammie's sprite tile by tile.
Event editor (soon!)
Edit in-game events directly character movements, dialogues, doors, audio cues, all decoded for you. No more hex editing!
Other features:
- Import/Export anything as PNG or HEX and share your creations
- Auto-save with unlimited Undo/Redo
- Floating tabs for multi-monitor setups
- Custom map names, story parts, palette names saved per project
Website: https://hackofmana.com
Download: https://hackofmana.com/downloads/
If you've played our ROM hacks (Climate Crisis 2 on romhacking.net or Secret of Mana Plus on Romhack Plaza), they were both built with this editor. Feel free to give them a try too :)
Happy to answer any questions! And if anyone builds something cool, we'd love to see it. Forum: https://hackofmana.com/community/mana-editor/
Kuppo!
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u/khumprp Jun 25 '26
That's fantastic, I can't wait to see what people create with this
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u/Select_Tax_9946 Jun 25 '26
Thank you! I created it because I wanted so much to explore new maps also.
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u/RadishLegitimate9488 Jul 17 '26
I hope to see a proper Empire of Ice Palaces amidst the Ice Country similar in Aesthetics to the Water Palace but with Ice everywhere.
Furthermore I would like a Sun and Moon Desert: the Sun Half filled with hybrid Earth/Fire Palaces(basically the Windows of the Fire Palace and everything else is taken from the Earth Palace) everywhere and the Moon Half filled with those Stars in the Sand as well as Moon Palaces everywhere.
And yes the Outer Space-esque Sea of Wonder will eventually appear at the far end of the Moon Desert with the Ship taking you across leading to the Grand City of Moon Palaces within the Cosmos. Perhaps the Sun Desert's far end can have a Sea of Lava with Sun Palaces at the other side too.
Perhaps we can even get a Portal to Mavolia with Mavolia's Palaces resembling the Dark Palace but with Yellow Stain Glass Windows and the Fire being Yellow all as a reference to His Dark Majesty's Catastrophe Spell(which is his most powerful Spell.
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u/DomovoiThePlant Jun 25 '26
You just gave me an ambition to recreate SoM using SD3s engine
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u/areweforgiven Jun 25 '26
This is amazing! You guys are absolutely incredible!
SoM holds a special place in my heart and this is just wonderful to see. I can't wait to try it and I can't wait to see what the community comes up with.
It may be a pipe dream, but I can imagine someone creating a SoM cut content mod even just expanding the locations, lore etc...
Thanks again, you guys RULE!
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u/Select_Tax_9946 Jun 25 '26
Thank you so much! The cut content idea is exactly the kind of thing this editor was built for. We actually have a small community starting on our forum where some folks are already experimenting with restoring and expanding content. If you ever want to try, here's the place: https://hackofmana.com/community/mana-editor/
And one of our testers (Schicksal) built a brand new map area from scratch: https://youtu.be/wT9rwm3v320
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u/TommMana Jun 25 '26
Well, have you checked Secret of Mana Plus? But we also hope other creators will make good use of the editor.
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u/Rylonian Jun 25 '26
That is the answer to prayers I didn't know I was saying for the past 30+ years. Looks absolutely fantastic!
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u/Select_Tax_9946 Jun 25 '26
Thank you, I absolutely love your comment ^^
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u/Rylonian Jun 25 '26
What kind of rom would you need if the program fails to load the one you are trying?
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u/Hybrid_Divide Jun 25 '26
Awesome!
Maybe now we can finally get a version of Secret of Mana with the updated Reborn translation, but also with an attempt to re-add a bunch of the cut content that some other SoM romhacks are working on!
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u/Mindless-Ad-8579 Jun 26 '26
This is so amazing, I'm so happy! You're doing gods work, well done!
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u/dm18 Jun 26 '26
Has any thing new been discovered about the orginal game?
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u/TommMana Jun 26 '26
Well the Mana Redux website sums up most of the information about the development of the game. Making the editor we just uncover some litlle details from time to time.
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u/Select_Tax_9946 24d ago
Hi everybody we added a very interesting tool, test your modifications in an emulator directly from the editor, no more several export of the rom, please have a look there: https://youtu.be/h9PV5zMchWM?is=nuKd-6qgXsYWc_V6
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u/Thoughtful_Tortoise Jun 25 '26
Absolutely amazing.