If you have any general questions about the competition, feel free to ask below and I will add them to a list here!
Is there an official Discord Server for the compo?
There is not, but I recommend where most of the NES development community seems to reside and is often happy to help people out:
And of course, there is always the traditional NESDev Forums.
How do I learn to make NES games?
I wrote this article on the topic: How to Create NES Games
Here's a few resources to check out:
- Nerdy Nights: Probably the most popular tutorial series on learning to code for the NES in assembly. This will take you from "no programming experience" to "making a basic Pong game".
- Famicom Party: Another NES programming tutorial, this time using the more modern CA65 assembler. It is still a WIP, so you will need to go beyond the tutorial a bit to have a full game experience.
- NESDoug: Probably the most popular tutorial series on learning to code for the NES in C. The Minimal Mapper 28 project is an extension of the nesdoug tutorials.
- NESFab: A new programming language specifically targeting the NES. It lives somewhere between C and Assembly, and has specific support for this nesdev competition!
Can I submitted a game that is not free?
Yes, but your game must have a free demo or similar, and that is what will be judged.
Can I submit a game made with NESMaker?
Out of the box, probably not. NESMaker uses more than the 64KB PRG ROM limits imposed by the competition. However, it might be possible to hack things up to the point of meeting the requirements!
tepples has put together a guide to how this might be done here. If you end up doing this, please let us know how it goes!
