Once you’ve completed your game, the final step is to get others playing it. You have a couple different options here, each with their own pros and cons.
Homebrew Hub
“Homebrew Hub is a community-led initiative to collect, archive and preserve homebrew software developed for Game Boy (Color) and the Game Boy Advance. We’re building an open digital repository providing accurate metadata and emulating capabilities directly in the browser.” ~ https://hh.gbdev.io/
Made by the @gbdev team, Homebrew Hub is a the first option for getting your game out there. To add your game to Homebrew Hub, you’ll need to create a pull request (PR for short) in it’s database repository.
Fork & Clone that repository, then following the instructions on the CONTRIBUTING.md:
- Decide the game slug
- Create the game folder and add the related files
- Add the ‘game.json’ file
- Check your changes and create a PR
You can learn more about pull requests here: About pull requests – GitHub Docs. If you aren’t familiar with git, i have a tutorial about the basics here: Using Source Control during Game Development. If you need any help, you can find it in the gbdev discord server.
Itch.io
Itch.io is a free way to share and find games online. Many developers will distribute their games on itch.io. Here are some features:
- Traffic by users searching the platform.
- You can add embed the game in your game’s page, so players can play it online.
- Users playing your game can leave comments and feedback.
- You can even ask for payment.
Itch.io is a marketplace, by having your game on Itch.io, someone might stumble upon it in search of their next thing to play. Additionally, itch.io has featured games if your game starts doing well, which would bring it even more attention.
You have full creative freedom about your game. You’re free to decorate your game’s page, as you wish, and can have the game embedded in the main page.
If you are looking for a side income, you can even ask for money for your game:
Your own shop
If your willing, you can setup your own shop and handle everything yourself. This option requires more effort than the others, because you need:
- a ecommerce website (i.e. shopify, wordpress, wix, squarespace)
- physical inventory if you plan on selling physical versions (boxes, cartridges, shipping packages, etc…)
- A GBxCart RW from InsideGadgets so you can put your ROM
On this option, You’ll be tasked with self-promotion. You’ll need to spread word of your games online. If you’ve already got a good online brand/presence, this can be fruitful. Otherwise, it might take time to get your desired audience size. For starters, make sure you follow and interact with other developers/groups on social media.
In addition, selling products online may have varying tax/business requirements, depending on where you live.
However, for all the costs/requirements/difficulty, you have 100% control over your game and take the largest total percentage of money (if you can get sales).
Finding a publisher
The final option to distribute your game is via a publisher. A game publisher will do, for you, nearly everything previously mentioned.
- Selling on a ecommerce site
- Managing inventory
- Promotion
- etc…
This does come at a slight cost though. Publishers will take a cut of the overall sales of your game. Most publishers give the developer creative freedom. However some might make specific requests for your game.
Here are a list of some publishers:
If you want more insights about using a publisher, GB Studio Central has done an in-depth survey: Homebrew Publisher Survey.
The bare minimum
Putting yourself out there can be a daunting experience. If you don’t want to do any of the above options, that’s perfectly fine. At the very least, post a picture of it on social media or in a discord server. Making a game is not an easy task, all developers deserve a little recognition for their work. There are a lot of developers, just like yourself, willing to test, show appreciation and give their opinions.
