`altcoin-cli generate 1` returns empty brackets

A brand new problem for me that I haven't seen before. I normally do not use SHA256 hashes, and this is my first time. I enabled the

Code:

fMineBlocksOnDemand

in chainparams.cpp. The output of the generate command I am running just returns:

Code:

[
]

Giving a

Code:

null

value. Do I need to mine my first block with secondary software for SHA256? If anyone has any idea on what's going on and would like to help me out, thanks.