INTRODUCTION

A dream of mine since becoming a programmer has been to create my own GameBoy game, and in January 2022, that dream became a reality with the creation of Digging Simulator 1989.

The development of Digging Sim started with the discovery of GBDK and an introduction from a Modern Vintage Gamer YouTube video (More on that in my blog). He showed me how much easier the development process for GameBoy can be using the GBDK framework, so I decided what better "Hello World" learning project than a remake of my classic boring and practical joke game Digging Simulator 2015!

PROJECT GOALS

There were several goals for Digging Sim, starting with the desire to expand my programming knowledge and develop something outside the scope of Unity once again. A bonus to changing the programming scope was the opportunity to use the C language, something I hadn't found a reason to develop in yet. So a good time as ever to try something I always wanted to experience, especially the discovery of differences between C and more modern languages like C++ and C#. But the main goal of this project was, of course, creating my first GameBoy title, though the problem with this being the desire was I had no actual idea or direction for what kind of game I wanted to develop. So that brings me to goal 4, the recreation of Digging Simulator 2015.

The reason I chose to recreate Digging Sim for my introduction into GameBoy development and GBDK was that the idea of this game was relatively straightforward, pixel graphics and very simple logic. It was the perfect "Hello World" experience, allowing me to learn the framework and limitations of the GameBoy hardware with the added bonus of something more to show off on this website than just a small blog post!

PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• I Developed my first GameBoy game.
• I Developed something in C for the first time.
• I learnt to develop within strict limitations of the hardware.
• Develop a game outside of Unity once again.

LESSONS LEARNED

Over the years, there have been several moments I have looked into the possibility of creating my own game for the GameBoy, sadly my lack of confidence always scared me away. But projects like An Infestation have been great for my confidence in my programming skills and especially good at teaching me to go with my gut and create what I want! So that would be one of my first lessons learnt, and an addition to the main lesson of An Infestation's development.

Another obvious lesson, based on my personal accomplishments above, was learning about the limitation of a system or hardware. Most of my game development experience up until this point has been in Unity, and like most modern techniques, the sky is the limit! You feel like you can create anything your heart desires, but that is not the case for older systems or hardware and something I have always wanted to experience for myself. I think this kind of experience will be incredibly valuable in the future, especially with the release of the highly anticipated PlayDate, which I plan to play around within development when mine arrives!

The final lesson (and goal for this year (2022)) is to get my hands dirty in development more often. The creation of this game has been inspirational, and I want that feeling more much often!