# Glitch City Laboratories Archives

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## Video Games

### Making my own video game - Page 1

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#### Making my own video game

Posted by: Missing? NO!
Date: 2019-01-21 15:53:18
So, yeah, uh, I decided to make my own video game recently. Thought why not, I have the time and a bit of programming experience, so why not dive in and see what I can do?
I started work on January 3rd using the Gamemaker 8.1 Pro Engine; I'm planning to convert over to Gamemaker Studio (or maybe Unity, not sure) once I've finished a beta version and all the elements work properly. The game is basically a top-down adventure-puzzler, where your character will traverse through many dungeons with traps, enemies, and other hazards that could kill him. I'm using a "16-bit" graphic style for this project (it's not really 16-bit, but will definitely look that way once the project is finished).
So yeah. I'll go ahead and post updates here I guess?
After a few weeks of work, I've finished the movement of the main character, gotten 7 different interactable tiles coded, finished the death sequence, and made a test level. Now I'm just adding elements to the game (currently adding projectile hazards, such as an arrow and bullet).

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2019-01-21 16:39:36
Why not doing it on an actual 16-bit console? GBA seems to be pretty nice to start on.

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: Sherkel
Date: 2019-01-21 18:11:29
GBA's not really 16-bit, but it definitely looked that way once the project was finished. :P Anyway, I'd assume it's a matter of time spent learning a niche area of development and the niche nature of it to begin with. 16-bit influenced games for PC and modern systems are…well, it's in your avatar.
Looking forward to whatever updates you have, Missing!

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: Missing? NO!
Date: 2019-01-21 18:28:23

> Why not doing it on an actual 16-bit console? GBA seems to be pretty nice to start on.

A GBA-style would be great, I agree! I'm definitely looking at GBA games for graphical inspiration. My plan is, eventually, to release my game on the Switch, hopefully by the end of the year. A license to publish Gamemaker games on the Switch doesn't cost an exorbitant amount, and if I can make something quality enough to sell, then hey, why not?

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: Parzival
Date: 2019-01-22 22:59:37

> Why not doing it on an actual 16-bit console? GBA seems to be pretty nice to start on.

Timings, bankswitching, etc. can be a hassle, but on modern systems you don't NEED to worry about them!!!!1!!!!2!!!!

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2019-01-23 05:14:13
There's little of those on the GBA. Also, Shek' said it's not exactly a 16-bit console: why?

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: Zowayix
Date: 2019-01-23 08:10:20
There's nothing really 16-bit about it. 32-bit ARM7.
Well, okay, you can have 32767 colours on screen so you could say it has a 16-bit colour depth, but is that ever used to refer to the bitness of a console?
Although saying a console is "x-bit" is often wrong for numerous reasons anyway. Please shut me up before I go on a rant about how nobody would consider the Intellivision to be a 16-bit console, and mmffmffffffmmmmmmf
ANYWAY yes, as much as I love the GBA, there are many reasons to make a game for modern platforms instead of the GBA. Lost of little various reasons, but it's definitely easier for one, especially if you're trying to make money.

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: Parzival
Date: 2019-01-23 08:31:50
The TG-16 uses a "19-bit" VRAM address bus (a 16 bit value is prepended with 3 bits to select a GPU (out of 3 GPUs!), which the CPU aliases to a 24-bit total sent value), a 32-bit total address space and a 16-bit processor. They called it the TG-16.
Determining console bitness is hard, yo…

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: Zowayix
Date: 2019-01-23 08:54:09
8 bit CPU and 16 bit GPU, actually.
I think back then it was basically all about lying to the consumer and misrepresenting everything for marketing purposes. Like, more so than today. Well, maybe like… more overt than today.

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2019-01-23 10:45:58

> There's nothing really 16-bit about it. 32-bit ARM7.
> Well, okay, you can have 32767 colours on screen so you could say it has a 16-bit colour depth, but is that ever used to refer to the bitness of a console?
> Although saying a console is "x-bit" is often wrong for numerous reasons anyway. Please shut me up before I go on a rant about how nobody would consider the Intellivision to be a 16-bit console, and mmffmffffffmmmmmmf
> ANYWAY yes, as much as I love the GBA, there are many reasons to make a game for modern platforms instead of the GBA. Lost of little various reasons, but it's definitely easier for one, especially if you're trying to make money.

The GBA's CPU is 32-bit, but, most memory is constrained to 16-bit busses (EWRAM, ROM, mostly). The exceptions are SRAM (8-bit) and IWRAM and VRAM (32-bit).
Thus, most GBA code runs on 16-bit Thumb ops, and tends to process only 16 bits at a time, at least as far as memory is concerned (registers are still 32-bit, though half of them cannot be used as GPRs).
Also, if the bitness was about the width of registers, the Game Boy would be a 16-bit console. Or, at least the Game Gear.
I'm not too fond of retro-styled modern-platform games, for the most part. Most of them just feel like the "retro" style is just laziness to not make good-looking "modern" graphics.
That said, some games really use pixel art etc. well. UNDERTALE, Hyper Light Drifter, CrossCode, and more.

#### Re: Making my own video game

Posted by: Torchickens
Date: 2020-03-05 12:44:38

> So, yeah, uh, I decided to make my own video game recently. Thought why not, I have the time and a bit of programming experience, so why not dive in and see what I can do?
> I started work on January 3rd using the Gamemaker 8.1 Pro Engine; I'm planning to convert over to Gamemaker Studio (or maybe Unity, not sure) once I've finished a beta version and all the elements work properly. The game is basically a top-down adventure-puzzler, where your character will traverse through many dungeons with traps, enemies, and other hazards that could kill him. I'm using a "16-bit" graphic style for this project (it's not really 16-bit, but will definitely look that way once the project is finished).
> So yeah. I'll go ahead and post updates here I guess?
> After a few weeks of work, I've finished the movement of the main character, gotten 7 different interactable tiles coded, finished the death sequence, and made a test level. Now I'm just adding elements to the game (currently adding projectile hazards, such as an arrow and bullet).

How is it going? :)
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