Getting started

CGB3D is a 3D engine for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, with a browser editor to make games for them. Play the examples first, then make your first room.

What it is

The engine draws real 3D on a Game Boy Color: flat-shaded models, rotated and filled in software, frame by frame, with the console in double-speed mode. A game made in the editor runs on the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Pocket and the Super Game Boy too, from the same cart: at boot it sees which machine it is on and shows the game in colour or in four greys.

It does two things. It draws a 128 by 96 window of live 3D, as in the spinning cube and the walkable room. Or it puts a drawn 3D character in front of pre-rendered, fixed-camera rooms, in the style of the early Resident Evil games.

A game is data. You author rooms, screens, art, models and characters in the editor, and the engine plays what you export, music and sound effects included. The result is an ordinary Game Boy ROM.

Play an example

Three examples run in your browser, no install needed.

• Spinning cube: a flat-shaded model in full 3D.
• Walkable room: first-person movement through a 3D room.
• Dead Pixels: a small game with fixed-camera rooms, two playable characters, title and menu screens, doors that animate open, a pause on SELECT, a key that unlocks a door, an inventory on START, and music. It also plays on a Game Boy.

The 3D examples run at roughly 12 to 20 frames per second on a Game Boy Color, which is what the hardware allows. The in-browser player has no sound; the downloaded ROMs do.

Controls

On a phone, the play pages show an on-screen pad. If the keys do not respond, click the screen.

Run a ROM

Every example is a standard ROM file. Download the examples and open them in any accurate emulator, such as SameBoy, Emulicious or mGBA, or put them on a flash cart.

Each example has a .gbc file, which runs on every model, and a .gb file: the same game, marked as a Game Boy cart so that emulators open it in Game Boy mode. On a real Game Boy, either file works. On a Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket or Super Game Boy the examples run in four greys.

The download is coming

The editor and engine package is not released yet. When it is, it appears on the download page with a build for each system. Until then the examples above are the way to see what a CGB3D game looks like.

Your first room

Once you have the package, the outline is short. This is what it will let you do, in the order you do it.

1. Open the editor and make a new project.
2. Add a room, then place floor, walls and furniture from the library.
3. Place a camera and bake it. The preview shows exactly what the Game Boy will show.
4. Place a character and fix anything the checker reports.
5. Press ▶ to run the game in the editor, or download the ROM.

The editor guide covers each step. The engine limits say how much a game can hold.