New Cartridge Game ‘The Shapeshifter’ – 2021

Story

Hello!

I’m Dana, a solo game dev from Barcelona, and I run Greenboy games with all my passion. For those who do not know me, you can check the Interview , interview, interview in German, Interview in Spanish, article, and greenboy games.

You can follow me on Twitter – Instagram – Youtube – Twitch – Greenboy Games

Please, you can check the FAQ section here.

After several cartridge video games developed on GreenBoy games studio – greenboygames.com (‘Where is my body?’, ‘Micro Doctor’, ‘Lunar Journey’, ‘Submarine 9’, ‘Leo Legend’), I would like to start a New Game: “The Shapeshifter – Become the animal you touch“. All my previous games are sold and distributed mostly in physical cartridge (not ROM) since the main idea is to keep alive the spirit and gameplay of this legendary console.

My games are exclusively for handheld consoles.

The games have been mentioned in more than 100 websites:

‘The Shapeshifter‘ will be my MOST AMBITIOUS GAME by far: A fantasy world in a real universe.

One of my challenges is to improve in every game I develop, and for this game, the main idea of the game, the graphics, the dialogues, the music, and everything related to packaging, I consider that they have been substantially improved.

note that the instruction booklet is not designed yet

I will make a limited edition units only, with a unique number and signature. This version cannot be purchased in store, and will be exclusive for Kickstarter and Indiegogo backers.

The Game – “Become the animal you touch!”

Let’s talk about the game. …. You are Elliot, an ordinary person who is going to spend the weekend in the mountains with some friends.

All of you have fallen asleep in the open air, near a campfire, but the cold of the night wakes you up …or maybe it was a cry for help there in the distance… who knows..

Elliot meets a little elf who is asking you for help: Save the elves world from the wizard’s spell!!

To do this, the elf gives you a great power: You will become the animal you touch, but remember that the power will fade at dawn. Hurry up! We do not have much time!!

Once you cross through the hole in the centennial broccoli tree, you will immerse yourself in the elves world.

Things that you thought were simpler get complicated with every step you take. Nothing is what it seems in this fantasy world, and you won’t think that the best of powers is sometimes hard to handle.

I can’t reveal much more for you to discover for yourself, but you will put yourself in the shoes of various animals. Land, sea and air. Choose the animal that best suits each of the environments.

An adventure full of humor and mystery.

Please note that the game is in the early stages of development, and some aspects of the game presented above may change.

7 Chapters

‘The Shapeshifter’ is a much longer game than my previous games and can exceed 3 hours:

Chapter 1: The uncertain mountain

Chapter 2: The calm river

Chapter 3: The gold mine

Chapter 4: The Ice World

Chapter 5: The Rockfall

Chapter 6: Undersea world

Chapter 7: Cableway

I’ll start sending the game on June 2021.

Major improvements:

For this game, I will make substantial improvements in reference to the previous games:

You can save and load your game: The ability to start where you left off has been added.
Longest game: you can enjoy more than 3 hours of gameplay.
More animated graphics.
Improve cartridge quality: The quality of the cartridge has been improved considerably.
Improve the cardboard box and the instruction booklet: Higher quality.
Improve the music: Much more integrated into the game
Improve the package of physical shipments: Higher quality to better protect the game during shipments.

The Music

For this new game I have two excellent music composers.

Cesc Mozota and Oscar Latorre are the composers of the music and sounds FX of the game “Where is my body?”. They were classmates at EUMES, a music school in Girona, in the Advanced Music and Sound degree. Cesc Mozota, with a more orchestral background, facing productions for audiovisuals and video games, while his partner, Oscar Latorre comes from more electronic roots, and dominates the technical part and the sound design.

Cesc Mozota – Oscar Latorre

They are the founders of the studio www.articsmusic.com,

Limitations

cartridge games have quite a few limitations. I share with you some of the Requirements:

Screen resolution: 160×144 pixels
The VRAM is limited to 8KB.
The whole game weights from 32kb to 1MB. This game will size 512MB.
Console powered by a 4MHz CPU, but despite the 4Mhz speed, games are displayed in constant 60fps.
Limitation a maximum on 40 sprites on screen.
Cannot display more than 10 sprites on the same line.
Only 4 colors! I can only use 4 colors to draw all the scenarios.
Only 3 colors in characters !! … and all the images are built by assembling loads of “tiles”, in this game 8×8 pixels squares (this technique is designed to reduce the amount of video RAM needed to display images)

Note to previous backers – (Where is my body?)

If you backed the previous KS campaign (Where is my body?) and you received a defective box or manual, do not hesitate to contact me and I will send you one at no cost. Deliveries have taken longer than usual, and in some cases it has been able to affect the good condition of the package.

Previous games

For those who want to know more about the previous games, you can see the demos through this link. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY7L-HM5LxogoA…

You can see a lot of screenshots on the webpage www.greenboygames.com

The Impact

Developing for old consoles is almost obsolete, but there are a lot of people that still use this old systems and have another perspective of the history of video games and old tech.

Being alone in this whole process, I need support and resources to help me during development.

My mission is keeping alive the origin of portable video games:

This project brings innovation and new fun to the first extended portable system.

Currently there are not many other projects developing for this console.

To protect the continuity of new video games for old handheld consoles.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you share the spirit of keeping a legendary console alive, you can visit my page www.greenboygames.com . You can buy me a coffee!

Long life to the cartridge!

Note

You can play the game in Analogue Pocket (https://www.analogue.co/pocket), Game Boy®, Game Boy Color®, Game Boy Advance®, Super Game Boy®, and other consoles compatible with this type of cartridge.

Please note that ‘Game Boy®’ is named to illustrate compatibility with the game. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This is not an official Nintendo® or Game Boy® game.

Risks and challenges

It is always a challenge to develop a project entirely by one person. Developing cartridge video games can be quite slow. I need to spend time on the idea, game concept, design, programming, music, assembly, and finish mounting the ROM to the cartridge. After this, Instruction booklet, cardboard boxes, printing, etc. until the last phase of distribution and order shipment. Well… it takes time.