Neon Nova
My entry for
Game Boy Competition 2025
(music category)
Listen to an 8-bit song
while driving in neon-lit streets.
The driving is basically just for the vibes. But it's something I wanted to try to create for a long time. And this was my chance 😊
From Tech Demo to an Actual Game?
I think it might be fun to turn this into a rhythm racing game with colored orbs that come towards the player to the rhythm of the music and have to be collected while matching the orbs' color with the car by pressing A and B.
Neon Nova would be one of the playable songs. Each song would have its own racing track.
Would you play a game like that? I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback 🩷
Credits
- Built in GB Studio by Chris Maltby
- Submapping EX Plugin by Mico27
- Edit Actor Active Index Plugin by Mico27
Colors of the car can be changed by pressing A & B on Game Boy Color and with J & K in the web player.
If the web player does not react to your inputs, click into it.
The ROM can be played on all GBC-compatible devices 🌟
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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Congrats on winning, you deserved it!
Thanks so much! 🙏
You're an absolute legend 🧡
Great song. Would you mind if i used it as background music in a game boy-related youtube video?
Glad you like it. I wouldn't mind. Feel free to use it. But thanks for asking 😊
Thank you :)
loved this
🧡
I have added this to my #ArtCart collection. Such a great vibe. I would love to see how this is done, so smooth and the car is convincingly 3D. Would love to see a speed up/slow down feature. The idea of a rhythm game makes sense. Congratulations.
Thanks so much 🧡
Submapping for the buildings, palette swapping for the street and the oncean and an animated actor for lamps / palm trees. That's the essence of how it's down. Acceleration / deceleration is not really possible to implement because of that as that could only be achieved by changing the animation framerate, making the animation look choppy at lower speeds.
please make the game :-)
Already working on a prototype 😁
But I have to see whether the performance is still acceptable with the game mechanics implemented. So, I don't want to promise anything yet 😅
that's so awesome!
Thanks 🧡🧡🧡
I’d love a rhythm driving game, this demo is impressively pretty
Love the vibes and great music! The whole thing is just put together so well!
Thanks a lot 🙏😊
This is excellent! The music is so good. I am glad I skipped music category this year because I totally would have lost to you!
Haha, I probably wouldn't have joined in the music category if I hadn't known that you were making a game this year 😄
Thanks so much. That means a lot coming from a legend 🧡🙏
Bon son et superbe graphisme, Bravo !
Merci beaucoup 🧡
As someone who has attempted to make a droving game in GB Studio i am blown away with how smooth this is. What on the screen is actors and what are tile swaps? I tried simulating motion with background tile swaps but felt like i was eventually running into performance issues
Tile swapping requires setting too many tiles separately. That's likely what's dragging down the performance for you.
I instead use submapping for the houses, an animated actor for the lights and trees and palette swapping for the street and the water.
Can we have a sneak peak at other games ur working on?.? Plssssssssss
Sometimes I post some fun little experiments on Bluesky. But I'm not allowed to share anything about the big game I have been working on for the past months yet. But it should get announced soon 😊
Okkkkk I’m excited
I wish there was a green car
Sorry, this car only has CMYK colors 😅
this is a mournful day for all whose favorite colour is green and also really likes this game (it's just me, I am sadge)
Stealth K only car? :)
Would look cool. But I'm actually taking out yellow, too, for the protoype of the actual game. Wanted to have the player switch between 3 colors to collect orbs of the respective color. But 3 just gets way too hectic.
Wow, the looks of this reminds me of Rad Racer, and you got the steering down to a science. You totally need to make a game out of this, and a rhythm racing game would be very unique!
Had a look at Rad Racer. Looks like an amazing game. Now I wish I had a NES 😅
Glad you like the game. I don't want to promise anything but if I find the time, I'm at least going to try to implement the rhythm game mechanics and see if they would work withouth completely crashing the game's performance 😄
If you need any help with the rhythm game dynamics just let me know. I made the Game Boy Hero games so have a pretty solid grasp on how to make them. But assuming you’re animation is done thru tile swapping it could be difficult due to lag.
Thanks a lot for the offer. But I think I already know how I would implement the rhythm game system (music routines that fire projectiles). I know that I might have to scale back the current amount of stuff going on in the background. The animation uses a combination of submapping, actor animation and palette swapping. Tile swapping would really tank the performance.
love the vibes
😊
It's very impressive, the music is beautiful
Thanks a lot 😊
I wish this was a game! It's beautiful! I love the weight of the car, it feels so satisfying!
Thanks! Maybe I'll actually turn it into a full game, once I'm done with some other bigger projects that I need to prioritize at the moment 😊
This is amazing
Thanks, buddy 😊
Yup
I would definitely play a fully fledged rhythm game like this. I think that is a great idea!
Thanks for the feedback! I'll consider it, once I'm done with some other projects that need to get finished first 😊
This is so amazing! Great song! Love the art also!
Thanks so much! 🧡
TOTALLY RAD!!! The song goes hard and is rich, and diverse. Has a great retro outrun style and is well made and well polished. Lots of fun. The music player is sick! The vaporwave style, smooth frame rate and color changing car are awesome. Well done. I’d definitely play a rhythm driving game based on this as a prototype. I am a UGE musician if you’d want to collab or accept a musical submission for such a project. Anyways, I really enjoyed this.
Thanks a lot! 🙏
I had actually thought about featuring music from different artists if I turn this into a full game. But that's a big if at the moment because I need to prioritize other projects at the moment. I'll let you know if I keep working on this. Can I find you on the GB Studio Discord server? 😊
I’m on the gbstudio discord :)