INTRODUCTION

I’ve been fascinated by the Game Boy ever since I was a kid. It was the first game system I ever played, and it’s at the center of many of my favorite childhood memories. Ever since then I’ve wanted to create the kind of game I would have loved back then, and BugSprayer finally feels like it fulfills that dream.

I’ve made one Game Boy game before, Digging Simulator 1989. That project was also a dream come true, but it was mostly a tech demo rather than something truly fun to play. It was still a valuable stepping stone that helped me get to where I am now. BugSprayer, unlike Digging Sim, is a game that’s genuinely fun and, in my opinion, pretty addictive. I’m really proud of what I’ve managed to create in such a short time.

PROJECT GOALS

I had three main goals with BugSprayer. First, to keep sharpening my game dev and programming skills. Between jobs, staying mentally active isn’t just good for future career opportunities, it’s also essential for mental health during tough financial times.

Second, to create a real Game Boy game, something genuinely fun and engaging, not just another tech demo like my previous GBDK project, Digging Simulator 1989. It was also the perfect chance to finally develop a game idea I’ve had for years on this hardware.

Finally, to finish something. I have countless projects simmering in the background (which is fun!), but sometimes you need the satisfaction of taking an idea from zero to complete release. Finishing BugSprayer in such a short time was incredibly refreshing and motivating, I hope it carries me through some of those longer-term projects waiting in the wings!

PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• I developed my first real GameBoy game.
• I made something genuinely fun.
• I completed and released a new project again.
• I expanded my knowledge and skills further with C.
• I got a true taste of working under hardware limitations.

LESSONS LEARNED

The first thing I learned was that GBDK and Game Boy development wasn’t as limited as I thought. I quickly realized how much you can actually do, which is why this project grew from a single gamemode and simple start screen into a full minigame collection with menus, pausing, high scores, difficulty modes, and more. Looking back, this misunderstanding probably led me to oversimplify Digging Simulator 1989 more than necessary, which almost makes me want to remake it... But honestly, it was just a boring joke, so I'll leave it as my "Hello World" project.

While I discovered GBDK's flexibility, I was quickly reminded of older hardware's real limitations. In the first week, I finished everything I wanted, but when I started adding menus and sound effects to tie it together, I hit the dreaded "Warning: Write from one bank spans into the next. 0x7ff0 -> 0x800f (bank 1 -> 2)" error. I'd run out of ROM space, with everything crammed into banks 0 and 1, so expanding wasn't an option without a major rewrite.

That forced my first real "Game Boy developer" moment: going back through the code, squeezing space wherever I could. Stripping down sprite sheets, reusing map tiles, simplifying sound effects and music... During this crunch to fit everything into 32KB, I gained a true appreciation for classic Game Boy games. How Pokémon Gold and Silver basically stuffed the entire Generation 1 game into that hardware is genuinely mind-blowing.