itch.io

Code's here: https://github.com/ekimekim/desertboy

It shouldn't be too hard to add a second counter sprite that updates based on the distance travelled variable each frame, but you'll have to do it yourself. I want this version to remain in its original state as of the end of the Jam where I made it.

The rom version is the full version. You need to play for 8 hours straight to get a point. That's a point counter, not a mile counter. It doesn't go to 1 until your first point, after 8 real time hours.

You can download the "short" rom instead, in which case you'll only need to play for 2 minutes in order to get a point.

In the in-browser version, it should take about 2 minutes for 1 point.

In the full version, it should take about 8 hours, as per the original game.

> Does it actually have random memory?

Probably not. As you may have noticed, I couldn't even get sound working. I just figured that anything at all was better than nothing.

Also I'm not actually using RNG for very much, just bat movement, which looks "random enough" even if the seed ends up consistent. I'm also advancing the RNG each frame so it's also somewhat dependent on player input.

Cool little game, and great to see more people getting into Gameboy dev. Are you just using straight up uninitialised memory for the random values, or are you using it as a seed for some PRNG (like I do here: https://github.com/ekimekim/gb_necrodancer/blob/master/rng.asm)?

The other RNG approach I see a lot of games take (most infamously pokemon) is just sampling the DIV register (a fast counter), and relying on the variance in players' input timing to provide the randomness.

Going to chime in here and say that I'm also very annoyed by this policy. I've submitted a build now even though I _might_ be able to get some more polish done before the deadline, but I can't risk sleeping in and missing it entirely. So instead I just have to cut my work short for no reason. What is this policy even trying to accomplish?

Yeah, sorry about that. Normally I use a JS emulator to make a browser-playable submission but the one I've been using isn't accurate enough for this crazy ROM.