My response is too lengthy for the comments box...

Well the frame rate I believe you're referring to the character animation, this isn't an
improved frame rate of the game, this is just additional frames created and applied with
careful attention to detail.

Regarding what methods involve making short but excellent ROM hacks, you'll be at work or
at school or walking down a street, and you'll see something, or think about something.
You then wonder how that would work if it were in a Sonic Game.  If the idea is plausible
enough you go and experiment, try something out quickly in a ROM hack, if it's solid enough
you put more detail into it, if it doesn't seem to work you shelve it and work on something
else.

There are other necessities though, knowledge and experience which you acquire over time,
but also intuition and trial and error.  But perhaps most importantly; COMMON SENSE, and I
cannot stress that enough, you ask yourself basic questions about the project.  I mean, if
it's a small joke hack then perhaps you can leave common sense at the door, but for ones
which are attempting to achieve a specific goal in mind, you ask yourself "What would the
original creators or the company do?", "If I were playing this as a player (not as a creator)
will I enjoy this?", "Does this look stupid?", "Is this annoying to play rather than fun?",
and so many more...

As a side note, the smaller projects are much more fun to make, reasons include the very
nature of them being small, you can shelve them and not lose too much effort or time over
them if they fail, assets from them could potentially be reused too.  You don't have to
worry about deadlines, or critical responses under the grounds that it's just a small thing,
and no effort put in would be implied, so players should go in with low expectancy right from
the get go, and it can only go up into critical acclaim if it must, and you can also cut the
project short of it's absolute final goal under the same assumption above.

It is also important to consider your own well being and mental health, you don't want to
driver yourself up the wall because something doesn't look or play right even though you've
been working on it for 3 years straight.  You should enjoy doing what you're doing, if you
don't enjoy it then you are doing it for all the wrong reasons, these I feel this applies to real
life situations too, if you are unhappy with your job or a relationship or involvement with
a friend or family member, we must be big enough to make certain changes to protect ourselves.
I don't necessarily mean to say you shouldn't care for others, but you really should put your
own self interest ahead, THEN help others.

Do these projects for you, and you alone, then invite people in.  Don't do it for others for
popularity or to try and be one of the gang.  The last hack I released, the Tiny Sonic 1, I
did it for ME, I wanted to know what it would feel like, I wanted to know how it would play,
I was curious to know if the extended screen space really makes the game better.  Other people's
enjoyment is only a byproduct, I do enjoy people's response to that though of course, which
is why I asked MegaGWolf to blind play it, but I didn't go in initially for that purpose, I
did it for myself first, and you should too.