Introducing SeaTropilis
Here’s some exciting news, we at RGN are developing a homebrew game for the Game Boy Color. I’ve been working on this for a few months now but I didn’t want to announce it until I had developed it to the point where it gives people a good indication of what the game will be like when complete. It has just reached that point at version 0.016 which the equivalent to being 1.6% complete and it was a lot of work just to get it to that point. As of yet there are no battle encounters as the introductory story is still being established, but it’s nearly at the point where the player has the first battle encounter. This game has a very unique setting and storyline which is a major departure from the usual fantasy and swords and sorcery theme which saturates the RPG genre. I wanted the game to be unique and exciting yet be believable as a real life story. So I chose a theme that involves modern technology and exploration of an unknown environment. If you ever heard the term or saying that the ocean is the final unexplored frontier on Earth then you probably know that only about 1% of the ocean has been explored. Of course you can’t explore very much of the ocean when our physiological limitations only allow us to SCUBA dive for 30-40 minutes at a time. The premise behind the game is that the player’s character after graduating from University, begins work at an underwater research facility as a field marine biologist. This gives him the opportunity to experience saturation diving allowing him to be able to SCUBA dive for many hours at time. This opens up exploration opportunities in the undersea world.
The SeaTropilis Story Line
The beginning of the story follows Leo right before he is due to depart to the undersea base that he will be living and working in known as SeaTropilis. He receives a phone call from the employer asking him to buy some SCUBA gear so that he can get straight into field work when he arrives at the base. This is because his custom fitted Oceanagraphica Scientifica branded diving gear is not ready yet. So he is given $5000 to spend and told to go to the local dive shop and get some diving gear. The shop is informed by the boss who makes arrangements to have the gear delivered to the base, all Leo has to do is choose what he needs. As a recent graduate in Marine Biology he is knowledgable about SCUBA gear and knows about all the equipment required to be able to dive. So he makes his way over to the shop and talks to one of the clerks and purchases every element necessary for SCUBA. He also purchases a dive knife which will be needed for combat later, this is given to him straight away and you can see it in the inventory screen. Leo has ofcourse been SCUBA diving before and has recently passed the course required for a commercial dive license. The other clerk gives him his license which also doubles as a traditional RPG stat screen. After that he comes home he talks to his mom and dad who wish him luck and tell him to go to bed early so he won’t miss his flight. Leo writes in his diary to save the game and then goes to bed, getting ready for his early flight the following morning.
The next scene illustrates his journey via airplane travelling from Krakow, Poland to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After spending some time in Rio he continues his journey, catching another airplane and travelling to the capitol of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. From there Leo undertakes the third leg of his journey in which he travels by submarine as he needs to dock at the SeaTropilis undersea base. The submarine docks at the moon pool and that’s as far as I’ve programmed so far. It simply shows a picture of the exterior of SeaTropilis and describes his arrival in a series of several dialogue boxes. In the next scene I will have to come up with some pixel art showing the interior of the base: the moon pool where the submarine docks. I’ll show Leo exiting the submarine and talking to the person who greets him which will probably be his boss Captain Murphy. From there he will be given the tour by an assistant of some sort who will show Leo (and the player) around the various parts of the base which will include the cafeteria, where Leo can interact with other employee NPC’s, the marine biology laboratory, where Leo will report to for orders that explain his missions and objectives, the hydroponic farm where the food is produced, the infirmary where the doctor can heal his injuries sustained during battle and his living quarters which contain his bed, diary, computer and personal belongings. There will also be some outside parts of the base that Leo will see later such as the kelp forest farm, lobster ranch, minerals mine and combat training ground. All these areas will be a lot of work to design and turn into decent looking pixel art to incorporate into the game. Hopefully that sounds exciting but that is just the beginning as it’s only the base areas. There will be many more areas that Leo has to explore which will be very wonderful and mysterious.
Help Support this Game to get Published
That’s about all I can reveal about the game for now. I have created an itch.io page where the current prototype build v.0.016 can be downloaded for play for a donation of $1.00. The money will be used to further develop the game so it can hopefully make it to the end of the development process and get published. Making this game is incredibly time consuming and since time is money any money that I can raise will help me be able to complete this game. I’ve got lots of great ideas and I’m confident that this will be excellent and unique RPG that will be a great addition to the Game Boy Colors homebrew game library. The game was actually initially intended to be a DMG game however the text limitations is what made me have to switch to Color. So it’s not going to take full advantage of the GBC’s extended range of colors, it will be more like a DMG game with enhanced colors. I’m planning to make this the first of many games that I’m going to develop for the Game Boy Color under the Retro Game Industries label. There’s also a Spectrum Next game in the pipelines too. However this all depends on how much support I get from the community and how much demand I get when it comes to sale time. If you would like to support this project then please donate if you are able to. There are two main ways to donate, the first is via the purple coffee button in the corner of this site and the second is via the itch.io page (linked below) which gives you the opportunity to donate when you download the prototype version. The other way to support production of this game is to visit this website regularly, comment and share the articles on social media. Another way to support us is to purchase a retro game product from our webstore and finally you can also support us by watching the RGN youtube channel and liking, commenting and subscribing.
Relevant Links
- SeaTropilis itch.io webpage [https://x-avy.itch.io/seatropilis] Download the proto version for a $1.00 donation.
- Retro Game News YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@retrogame.news-channel] Please visit our channel, watch and share our videos and comment, like and subscribe.
- Retro Game News webstore [https://retrogame.news/shop/] Support us by purchasing a quality retro gaming product.
- RGN Admin Gravatar webpage [https://gravatar.com/wanderlustboldlyf386ed096f] See all my content and donate via this portal.
