this is why we encourage people to work with others.

this is not related to GBJam. post on that jam’s forum, not here.

you have to make your own sprites. see if you can find an artist to help you!

the jam theme is not “surf”

hey! game looks cool. just a heads-up though, you’ve got more than 4 colors in several places because you’re using a background behind the menus (and the credits page) that is partly transparent. this also makes everything hard to read! just making the background 100% opaque should fix the issue.

it would make more sense to use B instead of Start. the Start and Select buttons were generally only used for menus and stuff rather than gameplay. it probably doesn’t make a big difference though.

yeah, so… don’t use those buttons! lol

i don’t know about Godot, but if you don’t assign mouse input to anything in your game in GameMaker, there simply is no mouse input. you don’t have to disable it with extra code. i would assume this is how all game engines work, but maybe Godot is different?

yeah, it’s fine as long as it’s an optional thing and the game follows the rules by default with the option off.

the GameBoy frame is fancy and all, but the screen is very small. it’s hard to see the game. also the game should have keyboard controls.

the FAQ has information about colors here and on the main jam page.

FAQ > Questions about GBJam entries >

I have a question about the four colour limitation

You can only have four colours on the screen at once. Black is a colour. The four colours include all shades, all tones, all hues. Gameboy does not support semi-opacity. The four colours apply to the whole screen, including sprites. ➡️ You cannot have one four colour palette for your background and another for sprites. This jam does not allow for a fifth experimental colour like ‘default screen background’. Four is the total amount of colours you are allowed.
You may use three or two. Five is right out.
The four colours you choose do not have to be the default palette you’ve found on Wikipedia. Lospec.com has loads of four colour palettes you could try. You can even make your own.
You can change your palette mid-game so long as the new palette is four colours. You cannot change your colours mid-scan-line or any other sneaky trickery. If you have more than four colours on the screen at any one time it is not obeying the rules.
Yes, the gameboy had three colours plus transparency on sprites. No, this is not a restriction you need to obey in your competition entry.
You can change the palette with a light switch or when it’s night time so long as there are only four colours on the screen at one time. Are there four colours on the screen? Yes? Congratulations, you abide by the rules. Are there five colours? Do two of the colours blend with opacity to make a new colour? Wow buddy, looks like you’re in more than four colour territory!
‘Four colours maximum’ means ‘four unique colours’. A colour is a unit measured by its unique properties such as hue, saturation and value (or whatever other colour system you subscribe to). You could have red, blue, green and yellow on your screen, but ‘a slightly darker shade of red’ would count as a new colour. You could not have fifty shades of blue and argue that you’re only using ‘one colour’.
Yes, the illusion of a fifth colour counts as a fifth colour. Do you quickly flip the palettes to make an extra colour? Does it have an extra colour on the screen? Welcome to five coloursville friendo, population: you.
No, dithering does not count as an illusion of a fifth colour, as long as you are sticking to the 160x144 resolution.
If you want to argue how your five colours are special, do it in your game jam submission. I’m sure the reviewers (your fellow game jammers) will understand… 👀
If your next question starts with “but what if” the answer is no. No, you can’t do your special idea. It breaks the rules.
“Can I use shaders?”
Does your game have four colours? Is the resolution 160x144? Does your game art adhere to the spirit of the jam - i.e. does it look and feel like it’s on a gameboy? Yes? Go ahead.
“But-”
Then no.

covers, remixes, remakes, demakes all are not allowed. just make something new. use the song as inspiration without copying it.

it’s a good idea to scale up your game 5x so that it will be larger on the page.

you can be on multiple teams

no

um akshually… technically the use of public domain works (or any assets, except fonts) is not allowed.

Can I use public domain assets?
No. Music, art and programming must be provided by the people entering the jam. This is to encourage teaming up with other users to make the best game you can!

Ultrabox is probably the best place to start if you’re new to making music. it probably won’t sound exactly like Game Boy music, but there are a lot of chiptune sounds you can use that will sound similar enough.

nope! so you can go crazy and do basically whatever you want on the page.

• what exactly do you mean by “splash art”?
• is it in the game? then the restrictions are what is stated in the rules.
• is it just on the itch page? then there are no restrictions.

No. /jam/gbjam-14/topic/6931462/can-i-use-mouse

so are you making a game about finding your dad’s old Game Boy?

this is actually answered in the Rules & FAQ here and on the main jam page.

FAQ > Questions about GBJam entries >

I have a question about the four colour limitation

You can only have four colours on the screen at once. ➡️ Black is a colour. The four colours include all shades, all tones, all hues. Gameboy does not support semi-opacity. The four colours apply to the whole screen, including sprites. You cannot have one four colour palette for your background and another for sprites. This jam does not allow for a fifth experimental colour like ‘default screen background’. Four is the total amount of colours you are allowed.
You may use three or two. Five is right out.
The four colours you choose do not have to be the default palette you’ve found on Wikipedia. Lospec.com has loads of four colour palettes you could try. You can even make your own.
You can change your palette mid-game so long as the new palette is four colours. You cannot change your colours mid-scan-line or any other sneaky trickery. If you have more than four colours on the screen at any one time it is not obeying the rules.
Yes, the gameboy had three colours plus transparency on sprites. No, this is not a restriction you need to obey in your competition entry.
You can change the palette with a light switch or when it’s night time so long as there are only four colours on the screen at one time. Are there four colours on the screen? Yes? Congratulations, you abide by the rules. Are there five colours? Do two of the colours blend with opacity to make a new colour? Wow buddy, looks like you’re in more than four colour territory!
‘Four colours maximum’ means ‘four unique colours’. A colour is a unit measured by its unique properties such as hue, saturation and value (or whatever other colour system you subscribe to). You could have red, blue, green and yellow on your screen, but ‘a slightly darker shade of red’ would count as a new colour. You could not have fifty shades of blue and argue that you’re only using ‘one colour’.
Yes, the illusion of a fifth colour counts as a fifth colour. Do you quickly flip the palettes to make an extra colour? Does it have an extra colour on the screen? Welcome to five coloursville friendo, population: you.
No, dithering does not count as an illusion of a fifth colour, as long as you are sticking to the 160x144 resolution.
If you want to argue how your five colours are special, do it in your game jam submission. I’m sure the reviewers (your fellow game jammers) will understand… 👀
If your next question starts with “but what if” the answer is no. No, you can’t do your special idea. It breaks the rules.
“Can I use shaders?”
Does your game have four colours? Is the resolution 160x144? Does your game art adhere to the spirit of the jam - i.e. does it look and feel like it’s on a gameboy? Yes? Go ahead.
“But-”
Then no.

this is quite a charming little game and very satisfying when you have hundreds of balloons to pop all at once. pretty nice for just a day of work!

no. the Game Boy does not have a mouse or anything similar (like touchscreen). the control requirements are explained in the rules.

Rules & FAQ are on the main jam page and here

Rules

4 colour palette

Color palettes must consist of a maximum of 4 colors. (Only 4 colors can be displayed on the screen at a time).

FAQ > Questions about GBJam entries >

I have a question about the four colour limitation

You can only have four colours on the screen at once. ➡️ Black is a colour. The four colours include all shades, all tones, all hues. Gameboy does not support semi-opacity. The four colours apply to the whole screen, including sprites. You cannot have one four colour palette for your background and another for sprites. This jam does not allow for a fifth experimental colour like ‘default screen background’. Four is the total amount of colours you are allowed.
You may use three or two. Five is right out.
The four colours you choose do not have to be the default palette you’ve found on Wikipedia. Lospec.com has loads of four colour palettes you could try. You can even make your own.
You can change your palette mid-game so long as the new palette is four colours. You cannot change your colours mid-scan-line or any other sneaky trickery. If you have more than four colours on the screen at any one time it is not obeying the rules.
Yes, the gameboy had three colours plus transparency on sprites. No, this is not a restriction you need to obey in your competition entry.
You can change the palette with a light switch or when it’s night time so long as there are only four colours on the screen at one time. Are there four colours on the screen? Yes? Congratulations, you abide by the rules. Are there five colours? Do two of the colours blend with opacity to make a new colour? Wow buddy, looks like you’re in more than four colour territory!
‘Four colours maximum’ means ‘four unique colours’. A colour is a unit measured by its unique properties such as hue, saturation and value (or whatever other colour system you subscribe to). You could have red, blue, green and yellow on your screen, but ‘a slightly darker shade of red’ would count as a new colour. You could not have fifty shades of blue and argue that you’re only using ‘one colour’.
Yes, the illusion of a fifth colour counts as a fifth colour. Do you quickly flip the palettes to make an extra colour? Does it have an extra colour on the screen? Welcome to five coloursville friendo, population: you.
No, dithering does not count as an illusion of a fifth colour, as long as you are sticking to the 160x144 resolution.
If you want to argue how your five colours are special, do it in your game jam submission. I’m sure the reviewers (your fellow game jammers) will understand… 👀
If your next question starts with “but what if” the answer is no. No, you can’t do your special idea. It breaks the rules.
“Can I use shaders?”
Does your game have four colours? Is the resolution 160x144? Does your game art adhere to the spirit of the jam - i.e. does it look and feel like it’s on a gameboy? Yes? Go ahead.
“But-”
Then no.

it means: OLD GOLD.

however you want to interpret that is valid.

it looks cool! glad you enjoyed making it. the jam starts in about a day if you want to make another game. there are still some folks looking for teammates too if you want to try working with others. then someone else can make the pixel art and music so you don’t have to.

/jam/gbjam-14/topic/6904268/another-question

4 colour palette
Color palettes must consist of a maximum of 4 colors. (Only 4 colors can be displayed on the screen at a time).

I have a question about the four colour limitation
You can only have four colours on the screen at once. Black is a colour. The four colours include all shades, all tones, all hues. Gameboy does not support semi-opacity. The four colours apply to the whole screen, including sprites. You cannot have one four colour palette for your background and another for sprites. This jam does not allow for a fifth experimental colour like ‘default screen background’. Four is the total amount of colours you are allowed. You may use three or two. Five is right out.
The four colours you choose do not have to be the default palette you’ve found on Wikipedia. Lospec.com has loads of four colour palettes you could try. You can even make your own.
You can change your palette mid-game so long as the new palette is four colours. You cannot change your colours mid-scan-line or any other sneaky trickery. If you have more than four colours on the screen at any one time it is not obeying the rules.
Yes, the gameboy had three colours plus transparency on sprites. No, this is not a restriction you need to obey in your competition entry.
You can change the palette with a light switch or when it’s night time so long as there are only four colours on the screen at one time. Are there four colours on the screen? Yes? Congratulations, you abide by the rules. Are there five colours? Do two of the colours blend with opacity to make a new colour? Wow buddy, looks like you’re in more than four colour territory!
‘Four colours maximum’ means ‘four unique colours’. A colour is a unit measured by its unique properties such as hue, saturation and value (or whatever other colour system you subscribe to). You could have red, blue, green and yellow on your screen, but ‘a slightly darker shade of red’ would count as a new colour. You could not have fifty shades of blue and argue that you’re only using ‘one colour’.
Yes, the illusion of a fifth colour counts as a fifth colour. Do you quickly flip the palettes to make an extra colour? Does it have an extra colour on the screen? Welcome to five coloursville friendo, population: you.
No, dithering does not count as an illusion of a fifth colour, as long as you are sticking to the 160x144 resolution.
If you want to argue how your five colours are special, do it in your game jam submission. I’m sure the reviewers (your fellow game jammers) will understand… 👀
If your next question starts with “but what if” the answer is no. No, you can’t do your special idea. It breaks the rules.
“Can I use shaders?”
Does your game have four colours? Is the resolution 160x144? Does your game art adhere to the spirit of the jam - i.e. does it look and feel like it’s on a gameboy? Yes? Go ahead.
“But-”
Then no.

no. this is explained in the rules. please read them.

ALSO the use of assets is not allowed

Making Things
All music, code and assets (except font) must be created by you and your team during the jam period. You may use a pre-existing font.

PLEASE read over the rules and the FAQ on the jam page!

also there is a theme that you need to incorporate into your game for the jam:

Theme
The themes are “GameBoy” and a second theme which will be announced on the first day of the jam.

games are rated in several categories, including the second theme:

Secondary Theme Interpretation
Does the game include the Secondary Theme well? Is it particularly original, true or inventive with the restriction?