Debugging your GBDK-2020 game

As a Game Developer, you are destined to run into many bugs. These bugs will you great stress and confusion. The process of finding and fixing errors is called debugging. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to debug your GBDK-2020 games.

Troubleshooting common GBDK-2020 Errors

Game Development can be very difficult at times. Writing retro Game Boy games can have it’s own difficulties. There’s a lot of internal mechanics you need to have an understanding of. In this tutorial, I’ll troubleshoot some of the basic problem’s you’ll run into with the GBDK-2020 suite.

How to Save Data in Game Boy Games

Giving players the option to save their data is another essential part of games. It allows the player to relax and continue their progress again, at a later time. It also allows the developer to make larger games.

Playing Music in Game Boy Games with hUGE Driver

Music and Sound Effects are an essential part game design. They set the tone for your game’s world. This tutorial will show you how to use hUGE Driver to play music in GBDK-2020 projects.

Distributing your Game Boy Game

Making a game is difficult. But, what’s also difficult is getting your game out there for other people to play. It can be nerve-wrecking, putting yourself out there. This step is not 100% required, but you should do it anyways.

Setting up Visual Studio Code for making Game Boy Games

Visual Studio Code is a code editor redefined and optimized for building and debugging modern web and cloud applications. There is some slight configuration needed to get it working with GBDK-2020.

Adding Variable Width Fonts to your GBDK-2020 game.

This tutorial uses Toxa’s variable widt font library. Using this library will help you save space in VRAM, and on the background/window layer. Each character is dynamically drawn. The library is pretty easy to use, and requires minimal setup.

Drawing Advanced Dialogue Boxes

You’ll need a lot of text in your game boy game. Unique conversations and world texts will increase your games’ lore and depth. In previous tutorial, i discussed how to draw text in Game Boy games. Now, we’ll take it up a notch and look into a more advanced version.

Drawing Text in Game Boy games

Text us neccessary for every game. It explains, to the player, what is going on in your game. The Game Boy doesnt support modern fonts. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the background or window to draw text.

Running your game on an Actual Gameboy

Emulators are the best option for testing your game boy games. They offer a suite of features to assist you. However, part of the true retro experience lies in the physical side of things. There’s no better feeling than playing your game on an actual game boy.