Thank you so much! We're always glad when we hear how much people enjoyed the game.

We'll be running a kickstarter for our next game, Excelsior, later in the year. We're still working on polishing the demo right now. If you follow my itch account I'll make an announcement when it's ready :~)

Yes - from the rules "Use the same control limitations as the GameBoy (D-pad, A, B, select, start). These can be mapped any way you like."

The screen (the playing area) should be 160x144 pixels only. If you haven't already, you should read the FAQ and rules to avoid disqualification. I've updated the page with more pictures to help illustrate.

Do you mean for the whole screen, or for the sprites?

The usual button mapping for GBJAM is Z for A and X for B (or X for A and C for B). Then you use shift/control/space/enter for select/start and the arrow keys.

For the jam entry the game must be free for people to rate it. After the jam is finished you can develop it more and do what you like with it!

Wow! What a great tool! Thanks Kacper. I imagine you can do the same for the run cycle, you just make it follow a single pixel.

B~)

Sorry! I tried to keep it as lowkey as possible haha. We've already done significant work on the demo, so you shouldn't need to wait too long until the next not-quite-a-release announcement.

Post the cool art you make with the font here!

Thank you for posting it here! haha

Thanks for your patronage Lumpy! Be sure to post the video here when it's done!

The controls must match the number of inputs on the gameboy. You can use WASD or arrow keys for the D-pad. You cannot use the mouse, for example.

The FAQ is on the main page and answers most common questions. This jam has only one moderator, and it's me - so please be kind with my time. If you're unable to find an answer in the FAQ, or parts of the page seem unclear, feel free to make a post.

That'll be exciting!

Please be more specific with your question. I'm only one person moderating a jam and these kind of empty questions eat up my time. If you have a genuine question I'll be happy to answer it for you.

If you want to know the reasoning for four colours it's answered in the FAQ.

Yes.

Please read the FAQ before posting. Yes, you can make actual gameboy games. Make sure it adheres to the rules of the jam.

What a fun project!

Your places are all mostly abandoned - what would an island look like if it was populated? What if it was over populated?

I like the stories you tell and the toyboxes you're making. Some of the islands are complete stories and I find them less interesting than the ones that have open ends and invite the reader to explore and make new narratives. Particularly useful to my mind's eye is places for shelter, things to explore, and food to subsist on, as well as fertile soil and building materials for setting up and continuing the life of the place.

How will some of these places look in five hours? In five months? In five decades?

If the text is garbled, it probably boils down to how you're encoding the font. I'm not familiar with PSP infrastructure so I'm uncertain how helpful I can be, though I imagine it has something to do with requiring a wide set of characters. Note also that, while close, Kitchen Sink isn't an exact 1:1 mapping for the ASCII encoding, so you may have to rearrange it slightly.

No, you can make the game in any engine you like! Note that HTML versions of games are played a lot more often in jams, so having an engine that outputs to HTML5 is a benefit but not a neccessity.

Yes. You can implement your game in any way you like so long as it abides by the rules. I'll add this to the FAQs because it's one we get frequently.

I'll just copy and paste the rant from the previous years. The bit most relevant to your question is highlighted in bold:

You can only have four colours on the screen at once. Black is a colour. The four colours include all shades, all tones, all hues. Gameboy does not support semi-opacity. The four colours apply to the whole screen, including sprites. You cannot have one four colour palette for your background and another for sprites. This jam does not allow for a fifth experimental colour like 'default screen background'. Four is the total amount of colours you are allowed. You may use three or two. Five is right out. The four colours you choose do not have to be the default palette you've found on Wikipedia. Lospec.com has loads of four colour palettes you could try. You can even make your own. You can change your palette mid-game so long as the new palette is four colours. You cannot change your colours mid-scan-line or any other sneaky trickery. If you have more than four colours on the screen at any one time it is not obeying the rules. Yes, the gameboy had three colours plus transparency on sprites. No, this is not a restriction you need to obey in your competition entry. You can change the palette with a light switch or when it's night time so long as there are only four colours on the screen at one time. Are there four colours on the screen? Yes? Congratulations, you abide by the rules. Are there five colours? Do two of the colours blend with opacity to make a new colour? Wow buddy, looks like you're in more than four colour territory! Do you quickly flip the palettes to make an extra colour? Does it have an extra colour on the screen? Welcome to five coloursville friendo, population: you. If you want to argue how your five colours are special, do it in your game jam submission. I'm sure the reviewers (your fellow game jammers) will understand... If your next question starts with "but what if" the answer is no. No, you can't do your special idea. It breaks the rules.

"Can I use shaders?" Does your game have four colours? Is the resolution 160x144? Does your game art adhere to the spirit of the jam - i.e. does it look and feel like it's on a gameboy? Yes? Go ahead. "But-" Then no.

'Four colours maximum' means 'four unique colours'. A colour is a unit measured by its unique properties such as hue, saturation and value (or whatever other colour system you subscribe to). You could have red, blue, green and yellow on your screen, but 'a slightly darker shade of red' would count as a new colour. You could not have fifty shades of blue and argue that you're only using 'one colour'.

Yes, it can be an actual gameboy game as long as it meets the criteria in the rules. Check the FAQs for details.

You're welcome!

From the FAQs:

• Why are the rules and color restrictions so arbitrary?
  While we appreciate the artistic restrictions of the original gameboy, we are more interested in encouraging an interest in the platform than requiring entrants to code assembly or making functional ROMs. This is an open jam for all participants, both advanced and beginner. As such, the restrictions are arbitrary to encourage creativity, and not a definition of actual gameboy functionality.
  

Basically: it's four colours for aesthetic purposes and it's been that way for over a decade.

That's wonderful to hear. Thank you so much for playing :~)

No limit, though be advised that a team member count higher than three will require a lot of project management. (Signed someone who has once had a jam team of seven people).

Hi Nub! Take a look at GB Studio for making a gameboy game. They have a lot of good documentation and it's very user friendly. Or you could team up with someone else and make something with them.

Sorry, this jam doesn't start until next year, and this post was a little too commercial for me to leave it up and encourage more of the same. This jam is for the Gameboy and the SNES appeared some time after - I'd suggest learning how to use the GBStudio format tracker as preparation! Please do revisit closer to the jam.

Thanks,
Polyducks

Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it! People say similar things about our game Mud Warriors, but it's got a little more polish if you wanted to try that.

I enjoy the roughness of this game with the textmode art and I should like to go back to it. Thanks for reminding me!

~<3 Thank you! I'll pass on the compliment to the musician.

Thank you so much Adel! :~)

I really appreciate your patience with the game, especially after encountering the hastily patched bug with the banana combat. It was valuable to see where the pathing did and didn't work, and it's definitely a great piece of evidence to see why shorter games are more beneficial. We'll have a fully patched version released anon for a smoother experience.

On behalf of each game you reviewed, thanks for producing such an important document. There are jam entries I've made in the past which now only exist as gameplay videos. You are providing a very important service, thank you.

Congratulations on completing your first project! We have a lot of people submit their unrelated games to the jam. If you'd like to enter next year, be sure to stick to the restrictions of GBJam - specifically the colour restriction of four colours per screen, the resolution of 160x144 (with exceptions for certain engines) and the secondary theme.

Further, your game must be made during the time period of the jam.

Thank you, we're glad you enjoyed it! I'd like to release some physical games in the future. Still investigating different ways to do this :~)

A very cute and authentic game. I really enjoy the Mario "Homages"! The art and animation is full-on charming.