Why I Use GB Studio and Why You Should Too

[@skycloud4802]

I hope GB studio starts a new trend of retro console development engines.

[@RobertDoman]

I agree! What other systems would you like to see? I think NES already has one

[@skycloud4802]

@@RobertDoman all the them to be honest. I'd be basically listing every single one.

[@wolfetteplays8894]

@@RobertDoman I’d love to see a dev client for Saturn/Xbox

[@artbydaelok]

technically not a real console, but you should look into PICO-8, its a very cool fantasy console that people make games for

[@davidlecompte9467]

What about pico-8 ?

[@idnitmedia]

What I love about GB Studio is that I finally know I'll finish a game (hopefully multiple games) not just dream about it. After years of hitting dead-ends with other engines and my lack of coding without tutorials, I finally have a tool that fits my needs, albeit with heavy limitations. But I love it and I find it perfect for my art and music too. It also has a fantastic community! :D Thanks for this and all of your other great videos! They've been very helpful to me along the way :) Cheers!

[@RobertDoman]

I love that too! Well done for experimenting and getting to somewhere you enjoy! I'm glad you enjoy my videos and if there is anything you ever need, just comment! I try to reply to everything!

[@HendersonSoftworks]

Hi Rob, absolutely agree with your thoughts on the industry and GB Studio's purpose. I've been developing games for a while, trying to be a "professional" with other engines such as Unity. However, I really want these types of engines to succeed. It's so cool that someone who played GB games as a kid can pick this up and make something interesting and fun! Being able to put your creations on a physical cartridge is incredibly cool as well.

[@730indoorsman]

"Ideas are very easy to come by; it's knowledge, will, motivation, and creativity that are important in order to create it." Very inspirational. Thank you for this.

[@canadianturtle7240]

Your videos are very important, especially to busy people who don't have the time to learn every nook and cranny about game development. Thank you. Looking for one that is good for NES.

[@swedishgamedev]

Really inspiring! I can really relate to the need of having small enough projects as I think all adults (read early middle aged...) need. Thanks for telling us about GB studio!

[@wackyswacky1374]

On a subconscious level, I think if you are making simpler types of 2D games, GB Studio (or GB dev in general) is a better choice for you. Why? Because instead of your game being compared to other modern games, it is being compared to the other games in the Game Boy library. For years I was developing in RPG Maker for modern systems, and I couldn't remove this thought from my head that it didn't matter how good of a game I made, because when I release it people will be viewing it from the lens of "this is a modern game", and if you look at it that way it is near impossible to compete directly with all of the AAA blockbuster games that are created by teams of hundreds of people. So, instead of trying to make the greatest game of all time, I can instead focus it down to trying to make the greatest Game Boy game of all time.

[@RobertDoman]

Yes you are right, I think subconsciously that helps a lot. But my goal has never to been to be the best, and I don't think anyone should aim for that as it is unachievable My goal is to make and finish games. If I was to make games in a bigger engine in 3D that would take much longer and wouldn't be as easy For a lot of people game development is a hobby, and it is much more satisfying to finish many small projects The limitations of the Game Boy and GB Studio force you to get creative and cut corners, some will see this as bad and that's fine, but others will take this to heart and learn a lot about the art of game development 🙂

[@wackyswacky1374]

@@RobertDoman I was using a bit of hyperbole when I said greatest of all time. I just meant the best that I could put out. Another aspect of Game Boy development that I like is the idea of doing physical game releases and keeping the Game Boy alive. The collection is never complete if we keep making more games lol. The restrictions of Game Boy development also helps me to focus on practical game design. If I was developing in Unreal or Unity, I would feel like the sky is the limit, and I'd probably get stuck in a cycle of adding more and more content and features until solo development became unfeasible, and the game would never get finished.

[@RobertDoman]

@@wackyswacky1374 definitely, we are 100% on the same page It's great to keep the Game Boy alive and it's always good to have limitations to keep you focused

[@LocherYT]

Playing around with GBStudio is like stepping into a time machine. Although your mind is taught by many peers and resources of the modern days, you yourself are capable of creating a game that is able to be compiled to play onto a live gameboy. If you were born earlier, you could have been a creator of such game and made many children happy. At least that's what i thought when i created my own gameboy cartridge complete with an own game title sticker made with paint. I show it to everyone with pride.

[@luis-kw4qy]

This video is great! Honestly it has inspired me to keep going and pursue my dreams as a game dev! I wish everyone here the very best of luck.

[@Zulck-Arth]

Thanks for this presentation C: I saw on twitter that the 3.0 just came out and it got me really curious, I think I’m gonna try this out right away!

[@RobertDoman]

Definitely! I'll try and make a video about it as soon as I can!

[@Zulck-Arth]

@@RobertDoman Ah, I guess I’m subscribing then haha!

[@RobertDoman]

@@Zulck-Arth haha fantastic!

[@ELV13S]

i use gb studio coz the original game boy was my first game console. i love how i can make games on my childhood introduction to gaming now. wiith that said, would you make an in depth tutorial on how to compile 3.0, and gb - apk / standalone exe installer? ive always wanted to do that but couldnt understand the other tutorials well.

[@RobertDoman]

I don't know how to do it myself but I will definitely try soon, that would be very valuable for both of us!

[@LeftEarth2]

Wait a minute! Hold up! Did that idea generator just say: _A fishing rhythm game with politicians?!_ 😂

[@mjsteelewasabipunk6091]

Thank you for this!

[@ragingsilver]

Great idea! I wanted to use other game making tools like Godot etc but it felt I needed a lot of work. I think GB Studio will be good for me to whip up some concepts in quicker time. Then if I really like the idea, expand it to another tool like Unity as you say.

[@inceptional]

I just bought myself a ModRetro Chromatic, a flash cart, and got GB Studio to start making some simple games there. Now all we need is something this simple for making SNES games similarly! Edit: Just want to add something about "ideas being easy": That's obviously true if it's literally just what you showed, a single sentence description of a game, but it's not quite as true if the idea is an entire design document with some mockup to-spec art examples and maybe even very simple working demos made in some basic tool, etc. That's still an idea for a game rather than a finished game, but it's certainly not easy to come up with ideas like that. Programmers often throw out the phrase "ideas are easy", but those programmers are often crap at actually making good games similarly, so good ideas and proper game concepts and even a strong vision and eye for quality and so on are important too. That's why designers and artists and musicians, etc, exist in gaming. So, it's all aspects that have to come together, and having a great idea is a very good start, especially if it's backed up by strong technical knowledge of the various limitations of these consoles and so on. Then the only remaining stage is actually making it playable as a real game. And, yeah, that's the hardest part ultimately. And my point there to everyone even just thinking about making a game is not to let other people dissuade you with throwaway phrases like "ideas are easy" and "everyone has them" and so on. Every single game ever made started with the idea of the game.

[@RobertDoman]

Good point, maybe it should be: ideas are cheap, ideas are repeatable, ideas aren't games, but ideas are necessary Development is hard and time consuming

[@mothcub]

This is lovely

[@siskavard]

I just discovered GB Studio & am excited to make some things with it

[@RobertDoman]

Amazing, have fun!

[@tufif]

It's funny, I've used unity and godot in the past, but I'm coming into gbstudio after working with pico-8 a lot for the past year, so it actually feels like I can finally make much larger scale projects then I've been limited to lately.

[@griffinbrooks6748]

i liked the this video it was longer then your normal style videos! :D

[@thunderbro7218]

I’ve been wanting to use gb studio but It was still in its early stages but know I want to get into it

[@RobertDoman]

Well I'm glad I could help then!

[@galaxycraft007]

Do you by any chance have software used to create Game Boy Advance games? I wanna try to make a shooter in the same style as Medal of Honor: Infiltrator, but using something similar to GB Studio that doesn't require too much coding knowledge.

[@BryanRollinsTV]

great vid. i have wondered if you were ever gonna get the itch to dip into the engine code

[@RobertDoman]

I have no real experience coding, but I think it would be very valuable for me to learn!

[@BryanRollinsTV]

@@RobertDoman i'd say as a fellow artist, definitely give it a shot. Its really just changing a number here or there to get things to behave or sit on screen the way you want. The gbstudio team have done a great job making everything readable in the code so its not the hardest thing in the word to deduce what should be changed where.

[@RobertDoman]

@@BryanRollinsTV very interesting, I should definitely try!

[@sorcerian_bootleg7112]

Hi! I am new at programming and i wanted to do some stuff with GBstudio as well. I've already saw in the comments that there are some things that cannot be done in GBstudio as it is. So i was wondering if it's possible to do some effects like the one you can see in this intro at the minute 1:00 kzbin.info/www/bejne/nH7Jkmdpq6aratE Or the title animation you can see at 1:20. Those are pretty common in game boy games. Also, i was wondering if it's possible to customize the text boxes, like changing the frame around them, or changing the way they appear (instead of the default slide-up). Thank you for your videos!

[@RobertDoman]

The wavy effects aren't possible in this version of GB Studio unfortunately, but the animated title screen is definitely possible using some sprite/actor wizardry! I could do a tutorial for that kind of thing in the future!

[@sorcerian_bootleg7112]

​@@RobertDoman I see. Thanks for your answer!

[@GroovyGamersOfficial]

I love this engine and would like to use it more, the only problem i have with it is there are no pc export options.

[@RobertDoman]

I think there is a plug-in to do that, I will try and make a video on it for you!

[@GroovyGamersOfficial]

@@RobertDoman that would be so helpful, thank you! :>

[@pikachufan25]

A Blend of a Fishing Game and a Rythm Game Hmmmmm that sounds interesting. each fish Type has they're Own "Music Style", the Harder the Fish the Harder the Song Becomes... But not Every Fish you make Has a Unique Song... to keep it Small, have 3 Family Type (bass, Oct , Sharks),.... xD The story is up to you But the Politian one is Very Funny to do xD (16:37 Funny)

[@artmanstudios7037]

How do you make a game within a game in GBS? Like an arcade or console system or even a gameboy within the game?

[@RobertDoman]

Well the sample scene does that, doesn't it? Each scene you go to is a different game technically

[@joshuaholder3680]

19:45 "You can't get worse at making games." EA and UbiSoft are sweating nervously.

[@RobertDoman]

Hahaha they are great at making games, they just don't make them hahaha

[@dibujador9458]

I like pixelart and old school games💕 Could I make a 2D fighting game (like Street Fighter) with GB Studio?

[@RobertDoman]

Yes, I made a game called Office Combat, that is similar to that genre

[@nazomivanbergenbravenboer8118]

I have a question... Can you play you're own games on you own game boy if you make in on gb studios?

[@RobertDoman]

Yes! That's what's so amazing, you will need a flash cart but you just export the game file and put it onto the cart and off you go!

[@nazomivanbergenbravenboer8118]

Thank you very much!!!

[@reifielthedev4291]

using this engine i can put my game on steam or epicgame store?

[@RobertDoman]

I believe it is possible, there are also developers planning to release their games on Nintendo switch

[@lisatroiani6119]

I wanted to allow the player to name the main character and store enemy names, but I can’t find any way to do so. If you know how to store text could you please make a tutorial? Thanks!

[@RobertDoman]

There is no premade way for that yet, but there is a plug-in for it, I will definitely do a tutorial on that one day

[@lisatroiani6119]

@@RobertDoman Thanks!

[@thekrustyknuckles810]

Can you please show us how to put GB Studio games on Analogue Pocket. Super Imposter Bros. is made on GB Studio for example.

[@RobertDoman]

The creator will have to export the game for Analogue Pocket with GB Studio 3 It is rather simple so I would love to make a video on it

[@thekrustyknuckles810]

@@RobertDoman Will they put games that are made in GB Studio to Analogue Pocket?

[@RobertDoman]

@@thekrustyknuckles810 you can play any GB game on an analogue pocket device if you have an SD flash cart for example But obviously with the .pocket file it doesn't require the extra cartridges But if it's a GB Studio game, the creator needs to export that specific file type

[@Bleepoh]

I would love a PS1/2 version of this program.

[@RobertDoman]

Me too! That would be amazing!

[@lilrockstar77]

I’m using Construct 3 it’s a good next step.

[@RobertDoman]

I haven't used it myself, but any engine with good documentation and a strong community would be a great step forward for those not interested in the Game Boy

[@pikachufan25]

and also ill give this is a Try and see if game Developement is for me always wanted to make Games, But always found it Hard to get into. Maybe this is a Low Enough Bar of entry for me to enter xD...

[@RobertDoman]

I hope it is, good luck!

[@captainfach]

Like a Flappy Bird. Look how they massacred my boy

[@RobertDoman]

Hahah I realise my reference dates me pretty hard haha

[@colwarsstudiobrickfilmandm8580]

Easier than in the 90s with gbz80 assembly

[@hasan7786]

Should add a link to your games.

[@eldrickzero4885]

i wish theres gba game engine like gb studio. I found the color palette of gb and gbc very limiting. Gba color palette on the other hand is beautiful. Games like FFTA wid really good isometric backgrounds. Advance Wars and Minish Cap wid the bright colors. Metroid Fusion with the beautiful environments and expressive sprites.

[@RobertDoman]

I agree, the GBA's sound is also better But the idea of GB Studio is to be able to make games for the original brick of a Game Boy and the color is a bonus

[@edivaldobetta4437]

i tried it, and i had no idea what i was doing so i uninstalled it lmao

[@RobertDoman]

I'm very sorry! If you look into the sample project, you will hopefully understand what is possible quite quickly

[@kasperkap]

It's against the terms of service to sell or profit from GB studio games without a special license.

[@RobertDoman]

Where did you hear that? If that is true I need to look into it

[@SorceressGamelab]

@@RobertDoman from what I know GBS doesn't have an executable especially made for windows/Linux or Mac. So therefore you can not use it to publish to steam. I have been through steam process before and I don't think they accept the gb files. Nintendo I'm not sure but I know for sure for switch there is an application process and you have to get approved. I tried twice and got denied with a unity game lol

[@SorceressGamelab]

@@RobertDoman good news is on itchio they accept pretty much anything and I know it's no problem to have your GBS games there:)

[@RobertDoman]

@@SorceressGamelab I believe there is a plugin that lets you export an executable, but I haven't tried it myself, or with the latest version of GB Studio The switch doesn't natively support GB files either, so you would have to find a way around that anyway

[@alexmendez3681]

​@@RobertDomanQuestion. Do you know where I could hire someone to make me a retro game? I was going to try GB Studio but then I saw this helpful comment. Has there been any updates on using these files for the switch? And do you know where I could hire someone? I love retro games and want to start selling them.

[@-my4skinwastakeninasickjew426]

Is there something like this for the GBA? Or something more powerful.

[@RobertDoman]

Unfortunately not, the GBA is way more powerful compared to the GB, I think people who make homebrew GBA games code them themselves, but it might be worth researching what they use specifically as I don't think I've ever seen one use 3D for example