Hey folks, after a bit of a wait production on the GBPS has resumed. Here's a bit of an explanation as to what caused the delay, and the next steps on the production timeline. Covid + New Job In late 2021 while I was finishing up my college diploma in computer programming here in Toronto covid really messed things up! The switch to online learning had a massive negative impact on the quality of education I was getting, had me working from home all the time in my basement apartment, and just over all sapped the amount of productive time I had to invest in the project. That sucks! Eventually I wrapped up school which was great, and I got a wonderful job offer in programming 3 weeks before finishing my school, also great, but then on the first day of my new job (January 3rd 2022) the government of Ontario began another lockdown, not great! Because of how poorly living at home alone had gone the 8 months prior I moved in with my family in a near by city, which was great, but then I was adjusting to a new job and a new home at the same time. That also cut into productive time, sucks! All things combined I would estimate that I lost just over 2 months of development time. Now I'm settled into my new job and my new home and so I'm back in action. I know no one likes delays but I'm really greatful that the GBPS community has been so patient and kind to me. Good things are in store! Production Resumes
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Hello all from GBPS development land, it's been a minute so I thought I would update everyone quickly on what progress I've made and what my next steps will be. 3D PrintingI've made a large amount of progress on the production of the physical elements of the GBPS. The biggest effort here was just getting the printer set up, a task that took probably a full day and a half of work to go from in box to set up and properly calibrated. The printer I went with was the Prusa Mini+, it suits my needs well as its print area is large for its price point, has a reputation for high quality results and reliable operation, and there are companies local to me who can service the printer should I experience any break downs. Here's a little video detailing my current configuration of the printer in my workplace. I've set up a livestream for the printer, mostly to make babysitting it easier, but you're welcome to take a look if it suits you. In the future I'll be upgrading this space to display more info about the progress of production. Moreover here's some of the results already coming off the print bed. I'm very happy with the dust cover which I think is close to what will be its final form. The cartridge case stills needs some work, mostly in the are of the document clips, but I'm sure with a little trail and error I'll get something that's both robust and functional. I'm looking forward to finalizing the designs and switching over to a higher quality printing material as well as a finer nozzle to give the finished results and high quality surface. Graphics Workflow I have finalized my workflow for producing graphics for the Game Boy. The system I've come up with, in the proud tradition of software development, smashes together a bunch of unrelated tools to accomplish some task they were never intended to. This new process will shave somewhere in the ball park of 600 hours off of development time across the whole suite when compared to what I was doing before. In time as promised I'll provide a detailed explanation and a step by step guide so you can follow in my footsteps, but for now here's a short overview. 1. Draw the art in Aseprite and export it as a 4 colour png. 2. Covert the png into a tile-set using TileMap Studio. Export the tile map and the tile set. 3. Covert the tile-set into a GBDK compatible include file using GameBoyPngConverter. 4. Run the program I wrote, GBC2A, to convert GBDK graphics file to an ASM graphics file. 5. Success! Misc. Updates Background Map Switching
This is not really that complicated of a task, but I have a set of methods that generalize this task reliably now. It's not fancy but it's part of the glue that hold a software project together. It's one less technical barrier between today and shipping software to users, and that's worth celebrating. Winding Down Prior Commitments 6 more weeks until I'm a full-time Game Boy Developer! Hello everyone, today's dev log will be wide in scope but shallow in depth. At the moment I am mostly solving logistical and supply chain issues to make sure that the project is getting kicked off on a solid footing. Because there are so many moving parts here and details can change quickly when you're working with various partners and providers I don't want to make too many bold claims before components and the like are actually in hand, but I'll share the broad strokes of what's been filling my time so you're up to speed. $10,000 |
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January 2022
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