Roadblocks happen to everyone, on every project. How does it usually happen? Your project is progressing fine, then something comes up. This something puts progress at a complete halt. Sometimes a bit of tweaking here and there can be enough. However, commonly you’ll have to search the internet for external assistance. The purpose of this page is to list some resources viewers may find useful. Some context/background/examples may also be included for some resources.
If you have some helpful links, please reachout to [email protected]
Games are still being made for the Nintendo Gameboy. One of the major ways to do so, is through a free library called GBDK. This library compiles into assembly, and ultimately a .gb ROM file that can be played on gameboy emulators, flashcarts, and in physical carts.
The GameDev.io Gameboy Development Community has a great amount of helpful content. One page that i reference very often for gameboy game development is their awesome list. Here is the explanation for the awesome list as listed on their site:
A curated list of Game Boy development resources such as tools, guides, technical documentation, tutorials, emulators, related projects and open-source ROMs. Everything you'll ever need to know and see about this console is here. If you want to code an emulator, create your own game or simply dive into the software and hardware architecture of the Game Boy, this is the place!
GameDev.io also has a discord server , that is active and helpful.
The GBDK 2020 is not lacking in documentation. This is one of the first places i would recommend for getting help/info on Gameboy Homebrew Projects.
If you need to learn C, they have section for that: https://gbdk-2020.github.io/gbdk-2020/docs/api/docs_coding_guidelines.html#docs_c_tutorials
If you are just getting started, they have a section for that too: https://gbdk-2020.github.io/gbdk-2020/docs/api/docs_getting_started.html
For me personally, their page on banking was priceless. So many times i would need to refer to it during my struggles in bank-land. That page on banking is here: https://gbdk-2020.github.io/gbdk-2020/docs/api/docs_rombanking_mbcs.html
This playlist is something i commonly reference. It was one of the first pieces of internet content i saw for making gameboy games. This series ultimately started off my “How to make a Gameboy Game in 2021” series. So i have to give credit where/when credit is due.
The playlist covers many useful topics, from rendering sprites & backgrounds, to joypad input and physics. If you are interested in making a gameboy game using GBDK 2020, this playlist is a valuable resources.
Checkout the “Learn how to develop your own gameboy games” Playlist by Gaming Monsters on YouTube.
The Gameboy Pan Docs are an online, comprehensive documentation about the gameboy HARDWARE. If you really want to understand the hardware you will be running your game on, they can assist you.
Being able to get real-time feedback for your answers is a very useful thing. In addition, it’s good to interact and chat with people with similar interests. The GBDK discord server is a definite join, it’s free and will be asset on your gameboy game development journey.
Despite it’s old look, these forms still have good activity. The blog is no longer active, but the forms do. It may or may not be a one stop for all your gameboy game development needs. However, it wouldn’t hurt to add it to a mental “list of places to find help”.
You can’t have a game without graphics. One method of creating the graphics for gameboy is the GBTD and GTMB. GBTD stands for Gameboy Tile Designer. GBMB stands for Gameboy Map Buildder. These are both old. However, despite their age; they are sufficient in creating tilesets and tilemaps. I plan on making a GBTD and GBMB tutorial on Larolds Jubilant Junkyard, so stay tuned.
Get the originals here: GBTD and GBMB (giving props to the original creator)
A Up-to-date version can be found in the GBDK-2020 (recommended): https://github.com/gbdk-2020/GBTD_GBMB
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