I made a game on GB Camera and here's how I did it! (save file included)

Attack of the Fluff Monster,
gameplay captured in an artsy photo

 

"I have 30 screens, 4 colours, and a screen resolution around 160x144px to use.
You get a bonus if you correctly guess what I'm planning to do."

~ Yours truly, on Twitter, 11:49 AM · Jan 23, 2021 

I have a bit of experience with the GameBoy Camera: back in the day, I did some hand-drawn animations, or photo-editing on it, etc. The idea of making a game on it kept returning to me on various occasions too. However, I never had the motivation to delve into it. But stuff happened, and the wintery season with the beginning of a new year (it was Jan 2021) is always an emotional (if not tormenting) period for me, which finally pushed me enough.

🌟The idea was simple: by using the software's Hot-Spot feature one can make a very simple point-and-click game. It's not a new concept by any means: the game would play as a glorified slideshow, changing the slides (rooms/menus) when the player presses on the right place/button.

The tools and possibilities were limited though - that was the fun part as it sparks creativity. The game had to have some kind of plot, gameplay, and logic behind it. The time I allocated to it was also short: a mere weekend, two days (and frankly, a few more days afterward to debug/perfect the thing hehe). Nevertheless, I succeeded. In two days I created and developed a fully working (but very simple and limited) game.

The Hot-Spot feature makes
point-and-clicking possible.

The game making phase...

Day 1.

The weather was perfect to take a walk, and the first day I spent thinking deeply about my in-mind prototype while enjoying a stroll with my partner. How many choices the players will have? Will I be able to make a functional menu? Is it possible to reach a satisfactory end with just 30 screens?

The plot unfolded as I was thinking about it. The game is going to be short, and I want to have fun doing it, thereof it should be both silly and light-hearted. Parrots - the budgerigars - were chosen as the main characters. And the player's goal was to find out what has happened to the parrots and how to help them. The most wholesome image I know of came to my mind: a budgie in a blanket*. And thus the villain was born too.

Having the basic plot done, some "puzzles" and exploration had to be added, so I could have an actual gameplay besides pressing "A" button if you know what I mean. I had some warm ideas already laid down, but I decided it will all come out in the wash - it was a simple concept after all. It was time to stop thinking and start doing. Attack of the Fluff Monster was about to be created.

*(a photo I keep on my desktop for what feels like an eternity and I look at it whenever I feel down. I dunno who made it, it's long lost in the internet's abyss, but whoever you are - thank you!).

Day 2.

Some people asked me if I did the backgrounds with the software's built-in drawing tools. To answer: no, I drew the backgrounds on paper - which is way faster to do for me; saving time is essential. Then I photographed the drawings under good lighting conditions and with the Camera's high contrast/brightness settings. The photos got further edits (artifact fixes, GUI elements, text) with the in-app tools; doing necessary copies of various "gameplay states" etc. as I went further. Always remembering to keep the pictures in the correct order.

The game features a Splash Screen, which loops with the ending screen. It was very important to have the Splash Screen first in the Album. This meant it had to be the very first photo you Shoot (as you can't swap the photos freely on the GameBoy Camera). As a player, you wouldn't want to dig through the 30 pictures, searching for the one that is meant to be the starting point! There was an issue with that first photo though... I can't recall the details anymore (perhaps I didn't plan to have a splash screen at all? Crazy, I know, but I planned to use my 30 screen limit on the gameplay first and foremost; fancy stuff could always be added later). Yet, I remember I had to scrap the first photo and whatever was on it. Which forced me to re-make the splash entirely from the scratch with the ingame tools (what a hassle!).

The splash screen has 2 hidden hotspots
on the monster's eyes for lolz and gigglez.
The Start "button" is filled with the remaining
3 hotspots, for better clickability.

Now, some people asked how I made it clickable, or playable, or how the Camera's Hot-Spot feature works. Well, to put it simply, the feature allows you to choose a spot on the photo, and assign an interactable action to it. There's a catch though: you can only assign few of them: just 5. I had to be very stingy about how I use my hotpots! Especially when applying them to bigger areas or adding QoL improvements... Another fantastic thing that comes with the Hot-Spot feature is that you can add various built-in sounds, visual effects, and transitions as well! It's worth remembering that a single hotspot cannot have *both* SFX and music in it - it all counts as a single "channel".

...and some deeper thoughts

Game design-wise, while the Splash Screen and the short Intro teach the player the basic controls (pointing-and-clicking) and give them a goal and motivation, the 1st interactable screen was made solely to immerse the player within the game's world, as well as to give the player room for exploration and to engage with the environment. This allows them to accustom to the finicky (even clunky!) interface, and to spark more interest in the story, maybe even allowing them to come up with some assumptions (conclusions?) already. The second room is where the real action starts and the player has to solve a tea-making puzzle to beat the final boss. There are two possible ways to finish the game: with and without meeting the monster earlier - adding replayability. While the ending is the same, I think that's still quite ingenious, if I may say so myself.

Room 1, Room 2, and the tea-puzzle.

Obviously, not everything went smoothly. As always, the scope of the initial game idea was a bit bigger; the player had one more option to interact with the monster, the puzzle was more fleshed out, there were more spots to click on, etc. Sadly, the 30 screen limit was not enough to remember every single "game state", and the underneath logic had to be simplified. The necessary corner-cuts had to be made. Some spots were removed, the puzzle had to be simplified, returning to the first room wasn't possible anymore. It was a game on balancing out and choosing which features were the most important, crucial, to the gameplay and overall experience - and then fleshing out what was left. Still, as it was supposed to be a fun side project, I didn't bother with perfecting it too much. Otherwise, I'm unsure if the game would ever be made haha.

"Condensed" view into the game's logic

In the end, even if a bit buggy and still rough in certain places, Attack of the Fluff Monster was pretty much completed on the same day, as seen here, on my joyful Twitter post. Moreover, there was virtually no way others could play the game anyway. So, it should be more or less the end of the story, right? Well, not quite so.

The recording and the save

I polished my little weekend project further in the next few days and called it a day. But then my partner came up with the idea of capturing the gameplay on a video.

With his retro-gear, the game was soon running on a Super GameBoy 2, and the SupaBoy SFC console. The footage was captured via the SB SFC's 's AV output, combined with a simple RCA USB grabber, and here's the effect:

Attack of the Fluff Monster!

🌟Discover the secret of the Fluff Monster!

🌟Explore 2 rooms, solve 1 puzzle, fight a boss, and save a parrot.

🌟Possibly the 1st actual game created on GameBoy Camera.

🌟Inspired by actual budgies in actual blankets.

Somehow, it gained some traction and people began inquiring about possible save-share to experience the game themselves. It was a tough thing to solve: I did it all on the original, physical, hardware and I didn't have any save dumper which could transfer my save - photos and all - to the computer. Regardless of that, and however simple this project was, people wanted to play it, and I was here to deliver. It happened that I found out about GB Operator, and it felt like a good option to try out. Pre-ordered it and waited those few months for the shipment. And it arrived, quite recently on Dec 1st.

Reusing photos: 2 Cameras (one is personal,
one is for fun things - just like this project ^_^),
Gameboy, and the GB Operator. And a dinosaur.

Cool! Can I play it?

Well, yes you can, at last! Here's the link to the save file:

Attack of the Fluff Monster Dropbox link!

It's been almost a year since I decided to make a game on GameBoy Camera, and I'm glad that I am able to finally share it with everyone. The way to play it is still a bit limited though: you will need to open the save file with an emulator. Or to have acces to a hardware that can transfer save files to your original cartridge, if you happen to have one (lucky you!). 

And thus you have survived through this wall of text! So treat yourself with the save. Hope you enjoy this short, but charming little point-and-click game :)

Quick guide at the end: how to start the game :)

PS. If anyone wonders: Mallo was the previous Camera owner. I didn't bother to change the profile when I got the camera :B