First Person Dungeon Crawler - GB Studio Plugin
A downloadable asset pack
Do you love classic dungeon crawlers like the Wizardry series and Shin Megami Tensei? Have you ever wanted to MAKE YOUR OWN for the Game Boy handheld? Now you can with help from this new GB Studio plugin!
You can try out the demo included with the plugin here.
Features
- First person rendering like the classics of old
- Grid based movement through sprawling maps of your own design
- Walls, doors, and 5 different special tiles for countless treasures and encounters
- A minimap so players can more easily navigate the world
- A darkness toggle to unexpectedly turn out the lights
What's Included
- The plugin that makes it all work
- A completely set up example project that you can use as a template
- Graphics for a complete "modern lab" environment to start experimenting
- A chest and generic NPC sprite graphics as well as some helper sprites for the map
- 5 events to help make your game more immersive
You can find the documentation here. This explains setup, how to design your own graphics, and many of the finer details on how the plugin works.
When using the plugin to create your own amazing dungeon crawls, credit is not required but is appreciated! Distributing the source however is not permitted. Thank you for supporting my work :)
Special thanks to Chris Maltby for creating the amazing GB Studio.
Purchase
In order to download this asset pack you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $19.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Bugfix for GB Studio 4.0.2Aug 29, 2024
- Update for GB Studio version 4Jun 19, 2024
Comments
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Hi. How much memory do the tiles used for firstperson view take? Would it possible to create more tilesets (to simulate different areas, for instance) and if so, what would be the limit?
Also, is it possible to define just when an item in the distance is seen? I've noticed in your demo that chests/boxes seem to be invisible from 3 steps away but show up when closer (I'm assuming a rendering quirk or limitation?).
Hi! The plugin is simply a type of Scene in GB Studio and is based on those limits, which you can read about in the GB Studio docs.
In the example scene that comes with the plugin, the background uses the maximum number of tiles (192), but that is only one area type. If you take a look at my (very unfinished) jam game, Abducted, there’s forests, caves, and a more plain warehouse style areas, each using different tilesets.
I don’t know how many full backgrounds you could fit into a GB Studio game, but there are projects with literally hundreds of them out there so just play around.
Seeing objects farther than the space in front of you was not a rendering quirk or limitation but rather a design choice. When I was originally making it for the jam, having to draw multiple sized sprites was not something I had time for so I didn’t implement it, and in the classic games that inspired the plugin (specifically Wizardry and the original SMT) you can’t see chests, etc, until they are in front of you anyway so it worked.
It’s not something I’ll be building into the plugin (it’s finished besides possible bug fixes with newer versions of GBS) but if you decide to use it, you’re more than welcome to build that out.
Ok thank you for your reply!
I've just purchased and downloaded it, so as soon as I have the time I'll dive deep into it :)
Thanks for the support! Good luck :)
Thank you! ^^
It's definitely fun to mess with and while I'm still unsure I'll use it for a full project, I'll definitely include it in some gameplay segment. I've been going over the documentation & it's too bad doors and events cannot be shown like in the picture for more unique tiles... But I've found a laborious (but useful) method to switch some Background tiles for cases where I don't want to change scenes or the whole background, so that might help somewhat.
Not sure if you'll include more plugin features in the future, but even as it is, it's fantastic work :)
Hi! Great plugin!
Can it be possible to support GB "Color Only" mode to increase the unique tiles limit from 192 to 384 tiles instead? Any tips in case I want to do the change myself?
Thanks! Glad you like it :)
I don’t know how the GB Studio engine (or the Game Boy Color itself for that matter) handles colour so I can’t make any guarantees that it will work as expected with that mode, and updating it to support that is definitely out of scope.
If you have the plugin, you’re more than welcome to dig into it and make changes!
If you do, the plugin copies tiles from the background to an area just off the screen to build the view (ROM to VRAM) and then does a big copy of that constructed view to the screen (VRAM to VRAM). See the docs. It does this using “set_bkg_submap” and “vmemcopy” (in v4) respectively. After a quick look at gbdk (which the GB Studio engine is programmed with) it looks like there’s also a separate flag to set if you want to copy the tiles OR the colour data (attributes), the VBK_REG flag.
I don’t know if this means that each function in the plugin would have to be run twice to get the tile data and the colour data, or what the actual address in VRAM the colour info is supposed to be written (or even if that gets handled automatically by gbdk). Additionally, some of the underlying engine code uses 8 bit integers for tiles, meaning 0-255, so I don’t know if my plugin could reach the tiles above 255.
These are the things that first come to mind. Good luck!
hi looks great! so drawing the minimap edits the 3d view? is there a way to make a one way door( go through but cant go back through). thanks
Thanks for your comment!
Drawing the minimap does NOT edit the 3D view. The 3D view and the minimap are both created from scene data in the ROM and are rendered separately.
There is currently no way to edit the map data, which is a limitation of GB Studio, and would require some extra tricks to achieve, including keeping track of the tiles that were changed so they don’t just change back.
There are two ways I can think of for doing a one-way door though:
1. You can make a door “lock” when you step through using a trigger by activating an actor over the door tile to block the player. I did this after the tutorial section of Abducted. Turning back and trying to step through the door activates the actor instead saying “it’s locked”.
2. You can place wall in the space after the door and a trigger on the door tile. When the player steps on the door tile, the trigger changes the player’s position to the other side of the wall. Kind of like a teleporter but only one extra tile ahead. If the player turns around they see a wall instead of the door they passed through.
Thank you for input on how to do door. I guess once i buy the asset i'll see more how rooms are set up. Maybe a vid tutorial? can i try to sell a commercal game with this plugin? also would this work in gameboy color mode gbstudio has? thanks!
You can see the details of setting up the plugin and how the pieces work in the docs which are free to access. That will give you a better understanding of how it works and can help you decide if you want to purchase :)
Besides not distributing the source code, you can use the plugin for any project, commercial or otherwise. Credit is appreciated but also not required.
sounds great thanks. For a suggestion what about an inventory panel (showing collected loot and what not?!) ok thanks!
Inventory screens and whatnot are no small task in GB Studio and definitely goes outside the scope of what I can provide here.
As a suggestion, in Abducted I simply used a dialog box with inline variables for items. For a new project I’m replacing unused characters from the font file with item icons and using those for key items.
Just note that the graphics for rendering the view uses most of the tiles allocated in GB Studio so you’ll need to account for that if you plan on incorporating such a thing into the background tiles.
Also to answer an earlier question, GB Color mode is not supported by the plugin. You could maybe use a single palette for the view without trouble but that’s only a guess and not tested.
wow! this would be awesome for making a “backrooms” inspired artcart…
Oh, very cool idea!
This is exactly the sort of thing I'd been hoping for in gb studio!! So excited to buy this and give it a try!! I'll be sure to credit you!
Thanks so much! Credit is not required but appreciated. I’d love to see what you make :)
Of course! Fingers crossed you don't mind the sort of games I make at times :) Is your user and a link to here good for crediting or would you like a link to your socials?
Here is just fine :)
Express yourself!