Quick question/Help about making a homebrew game for Gameboy Color

[Russell_SSB]

I hate to go off-topic on this forum, but I was thinking.

I am wanting to create a homebrew game for GameBoy Color, but in a original type of manner. It would play like Super Smash Bros., but instead of % it contains health. It would also contain 12 characters to choose from. 6 of the 12 characters are unlockable. I will start up a page for the project asap!

Anyway, I was wondering if I do get started on it since I downloaded the Gameboy Development Kit (GBDK for short), how do I install it? Also, how can I start working on the game? Just wondering since I am gonna be new to this and need some help from you guys who might know how to do this kind of stuff. Thanks!

 

[RogerBidon]

Disclaimer first: I did not try to code on the gameboy(color) yet, so I will talk from my experience with NES homebrew. Then, as you did not tell about your experience I will consider that you are experienced with programming, but completely new to the gameboycolor and reto-dev in general. Sorry if my assumptions are false, fell free to correct me.

If it is your first project on a retro system, you may gain a lot of knowledge by implementing very basic stuff first, like drawing a background and moving a sprite. This will be useful because you'll have to get some knowledge of the hardware (like CPU memory mapping, how to talk to the graphic chipset,...) even to do that simple things. On the way you will also learn about most prominent technical limitations, which will be invaluable when designing your mechanics.

As for the game itself, you will have to rethink the game design a lot considering that a GBC has a lot less buttons than a gamecube controller. Will you be able to shield? Air-dodge? Jump with B (comfortable) or with UP (saves B for attacks)? And think how you will map the moves on the available buttons, which moves you want or need to exclude and the impact on gameplay.

Regarding documentation itself, this wiki seems to contains a lot of useful information. What worked for me on this kind of wikis was to: try to read the documentation, figuring that I understand only a small fraction of it, follow tutorials, go read the documentation, be impressed of its quality.

Last but not least: you are on the right way! Retro-dev is the funniest thing in existence, you'll certainly have to write assembly, work with the graphic chipset's registers and love that stuff!

 

[Russell_SSB]

Disclaimer first: I did not try to code on the gameboy(color) yet, so I will talk from my experience with NES homebrew. Then, as you did not tell about your experience I will consider that you are experienced with programming, but completely new to the gameboycolor and reto-dev in general. Sorry if my assumptions are false, fell free to correct me.

If it is your first project on a retro system, you may gain a lot of knowledge by implementing very basic stuff first, like drawing a background and moving a sprite. This will be useful because you'll have to get some knowledge of the hardware (like CPU memory mapping, how to talk to the graphic chipset,...) even to do that simple things. On the way you will also learn about most prominent technical limitations, which will be invaluable when designing your mechanics.

As for the game itself, you will have to rethink the game design a lot considering that a GBC has a lot less buttons than a gamecube controller. Will you be able to shield? Air-dodge? Jump with B (comfortable) or with UP (saves B for attacks)? And think how you will map the moves on the available buttons, which moves you want or need to exclude and the impact on gameplay.

Regarding documentation itself, this wiki seems to contains a lot of useful information. What worked for me on this kind of wikis was to: try to read the documentation, figuring that I understand only a small fraction of it, follow tutorials, go read the documentation, be impressed of its quality.

Last but not least: you are on the right way! Retro-dev is the funniest thing in existence, you'll certainly have to write assembly, work with the graphic chipset's registers and love that stuff!

Thanks for the info on this stuff! About what you said on air-dodge and shields, you have a strong point. That would be a hard choice there since I might get started on this, along with finding a team. I hate to spoil things but I might use the Up button to jump like the original games, A for attacks, but I still might think about B for either Special attacks or the shield because you got me there!