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Interceptor, a new game for the Game Boy (new demo version released 07/07/2021)

A topic by Arvex created Jul 08, 2021 Views: 311 Replies: 2

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I'm happy to announce the newest demo build for Interceptor has been released. All the enemy types are now fully implemented after a massive overhaul to enemy and sprite management. The game is close to reaching a "feature complete" state, most of the work that remains is refining mechanics, adding a menu, more levels, music and visual/audio polish.

Interceptor is a top-down, arcade-style, space shooter for the Game Boy. You are an interceptor pilot for the Empire in a war against the Earth Federation, your job is to protect your fleet from enemy bombers, fighters and torpedoes while clearing a path to the enemy fleet for your own bombers and fighters.

For those who wish to put the ROM on a flashcart, the game runs on all Game Boy models from the "grey brick" Game Boy all the way up to the Game Boy Advance and features color modes for the Super Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

Interceptor was created using GBDK-2020, a revival/continuation of the GBDK toolchain that compiles C code into a Game Boy ROM. The game is distributed as a Game Boy ROM file, ready to be loaded into any Game Boy emulator or flashcart to run on live hardware. The demo, and final game, are free. I'm currently also designing a physical cartridge that I can produce in my own workshop so that I can sell physical copies in the future.

Check it out at https://arvex.itch.io/interceptor

cyber_minister3 years ago

Hi. I am sorry for disturbing you. But I'm just curious to know what is the reason that people are so interested in Game Boy in 2021. It's amazing that many people still customize their consoles, make games for this. Can you briefly name 3-5 reasons why you are passionate about GB? What attracts you in this?

Arvex3 years ago

You're perfectly fine asking. I was honestly hoping to get feedback or discussion going when I made this post.

It's a mix of a few things, I suppose.

Originally, I was just trying to learn GB coding to help a musician make an album that would play off of a GB cart that he could sell at his booth as he visited conventions. I started making early versions of this game to put those skills to practice and decided to continue developing this as its own game for fun.

Another not insignificant factor was that I wanted a small side project since most of my other games suffer from feature creep. The needs of many of my projects often grow faster than I'm able to develop my skills working alone. This was, in part, an exercise/challenge at keeping the scope of project small by using limited hardware to reign in my overactive need to add features.

There's also just the nostalgia factor of having a new game on a physical cartridge (which I plan to make the finished game available on.) When I found out that I could make my own GameBoy cartridges at home with a soldering station for relatively cheap, I set out to design a cartridge to go with this game.