Artemisia's Quest

As part of my second year 'Native Programming and Compilation' module, I was required to create a game designed for a console from before 2004. The caveat for this assignment was that we were required to use the native programming language for that console and the development packages used by actual developers of games for these consoles. This narrowed down the options we could choose from as a lot of these packages are not made available to the public.

After some research, I decided to create a game for the Gameboy Colour using C. This was the first time I had used C, and one of the first games I had created without an engine that I was proud of.

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I created a simple 3-level long platformer to fulfil these requirements. Due to limitations of the hardware I was creating the game for, my own knowledge and the time I had to complete the project, the game I created was more simplistic than I had originally planned. Hitting spikes resets the character to the beginning of the level, losing all 3 hearts will cause a game over and the player will be required to start from the first level again.

I implemented a feature to allow the player to gain more hearts, by completing the levels a single heart is recovered until the player has a full 3 hearts again. Originally I had planned for more levels and therefore a system which could grant extra hearts that weren't permanent, similar to in games like 'Enter the Gungeon' and 'The Binding of Isaac' which grant extra health bonuses that do not replenish like normal health.

The game itself runs properly on an emulator and, given the resources, could easily be expanded to feature more mechanics and levels. The game would also likely work on actual hardware if put onto a cartridge.

I am extremely proud of what I was able to create and have ideas on how it could be expanded and turned into a full product using modern hardware and techniques.