Developer Chris Maltby has released his GB Studio, a free program that allows for aspiring developers to create their own Gameboy, Gameboy Color games without any programming knowledge.
The program can be downloaded from gbstudio.dev. There are versions available for OSX, Windows, and Linux.
Per the developer site, these are some of the benefits offered by using GB Studio:
- Visual game builder with no programming knowledge required.
- Design your graphics in any editor that can output PNG files e.g. Photoshop, Tiled, Aseprite.
- Example project included to get started right away.
- Make top down 2D JRPG style adventure games.
- Build real GB Rom files which can be played in an emulator or on device using USB Carts.
- Build a HTML5 playable game that also works on mobile and can deployed to any webserver or uploaded to Itch.io.
- Built for macOS, Windows and Linux.
- Supports both macOS light and dark mode.
- Includes the full tools that were used to build Untitled GB Game, free to play on Itch.io.
One thing to keep in mind is that while many of these types of programs seem like they are great tool for beginners, they never really mention a very important fact; which is that you’ll need to be a pixel artist, or know one that is willing to create a world of assets on demand.
Of course, you can use a site such as opengameart.org which has a ton of useful assets available for use, but the downside is that your game may have a ton of clashing art styles. There is also the chance that you may not find exactly what you’re looking for, which puts you right back to square one.
Developers are also limited to whatever features are built into the program which may end up being constraining to both novices and professionals alike.
Overall, as it’s a free program, the more creative among you may wish to give it a shot. Let your world creating begin!
