Update
Being on vacation is good for making progress. I've mapped out a very simple dungeon, with these tilesets:
- https://rekkimaru.itch.io/gb-studio-dungeon-tileset-8x8
- https://petricakegames.itch.io/retro-green-dungeon-tileset
- https://niamov.itch.io/16x16-gb-tileset
- https://monkeyimage.itch.io/home-interior-tilesheet-gameboy-styled
- https://monkeyimage.itch.io/outdoors-gameboy-tileset
- https://limezu.itch.io/weaponsprites
- https://gumpyfunction.itch.io/game-boy-rpg-fantasy-tileset-free
- https://gamekrazzy.itch.io/gameboy-zelda-like-dungeon-assets
- https://monkeyimage.itch.io/world-tilesets-remastered
- https://monkeyimage.itch.io/fantasy-character-set
- https://sondanielson.itch.io/gameboy-simple-rpg-tileset
- https://stevencolling.itch.io/16x16-dungeon-crawl-assets
- https://teaceratops.itch.io/farmtiles
Here are some GIFs of the character options, made with MacOS's Screenshot app and gifify:
Fighter
Thief
Cleric
Wizard
These are all edits of these sprites, which are themselves derived from these. (And I'm just noticing that the he/him wizard's hairline changes length in one frame—something to fix when I'm done here.)
It's a bit tricky to implement a character choice like this in GB Studio, because there isn't a way to change the default player sprite after the game is compiled. (Unless there's a function in the engine code, but I'm not touching that, for now.) So every scene has a script that runs on initialization to pick the right sprite sheet. Works fine so long as I remember to copy-paste the script into every scene.
Next Steps
I have some ideas for monsters to include. I'm converting these neat public domain sprites from an old roguelike project. I likely won't be able to add too many for the jam project, since it's a lot of scripting: I want the player to be able to choose between fighting, sneaking, and using social skills (frighten, befriend, and trick) to successfully complete encounters with monsters. It's so much easier, technically speaking, to make a violence simulator—which makes me think about how the affordances of the computing systems we use are value-laden, but that's a story for another time.