Tales from the Ether

So, I've been making games since before I knew you could even really make a game.

When I was really, really, really small, I would complain to my older sister that I had either finished all of the Gameboy games we had or I didn't want to play anymore (Super Mario Bros disagree with me). This could easily be diagnosed as an early symptom of what would become my generation's horrifyingly tiny attention span but it's far more likely that I was just an impatient little kid.

So, my sister taught me how to create my own Gameboy out of cardboard. She drew out the net, I cut it out and glued it together. The top was open, the buttons were drawn on and the screen was just a square hole in the front. Now, I wasn't an idiot I knew that for a Gameboy to work it needed, wires, circuitry or at the very least batteries (which were always in short supply). However, she showed me that I could also make my own fake Gameboy cartridges which would have the screen of the game on the front and if I slipped in them into the top of my fake Gameboy and the screen would align with the front and it would look like I'm playing a game. Her first example was Super Mario Bros in a classic childhood tempt to irk me, but she said that I could make any game I wanted with this. Naturally, I decided to make games that were entirely unoriginal and sequels to my favourite franchises like Final Fantasy or The Legend of Zelda but every now and again I'd make a silly game about a blob or a cool adventure game that was about me and my friends from school.

Make no mistake, I knew these weren't real games and I couldn't actually play them but it felt good creating my own versions of the things I loved. Naturally, if Nintendo knew what I was doing they would have sued me for copyright infringement but luckily I believe Father Time has destroyed those cute little game cartridges.

Imagine my surprised when I find out there's a game jam going on, a few weeks before I ship out to university, where you have to recreate a Gameboy game. Don't get your heartstrings out, Daikenriden isn't an idea I've had ever since I was as tall as the desk I'm currently writing at. It's a silly idea I had while on a car ride thinking about a fun arcade-y type game to quickly make, finish and release before the deadline. It's harmless fun, took way more work than I was expecting and is probably my most tested and polished game to date, requiring equal amounts of skill and strategy.

But the Gameboy, as a platform, is very important to me (even though I technically had a Gameboy Color) because it landmarks the earliest point in my life where I thought I would enjoy making games and that has stayed with me through every choice I've made in my path that currently leads here, and hopefully leads somewhere even better.

I hope everyone who plays it has a fun time and I especially hope that everyone else who has entered the jam has had an equally good time as I have!