GB Studio is a gift that keeps on giving with the current variety of homebrew games. This set focuses extensively on adventure games, some of which are experimental projects by the developers.

The Mayor of Sanctuary

The Mayor of Sanctuary was created by Nara Makes Games, the gamedev handle of Anthony Wallace. Wallace is a former Retro Dodo contributor turned travel photographer, and noted that The Mayor of Sanctuary was his first attempt to develop a commercial game. Wallace also developed Hippo & Buttercup, a platformer video game adaptation of an indie coming-of-age film. The game’s soundtrack was composed by Joseph Tomkins, a UK-based chiptune composer. The Mayor of Sanctuary is about an elderly man named Yuu, the former mayor of the town of Anzen. One evening, Yuu wakes to find strange happenings occurring in the surrounding forests of Sanctuary. Hostile nature spirits are running amuck and the town’s current mayor is nowhere to be seen. Yuu must traverse the forests and help the town’s locals in order to uncover the forces behind the town’s mysterious events.

The Mayor of Sanctuary is an adventure game with some light puzzles and minigames. The crux of the game is centered around Yuu having to assist the denizens of Anzen with various tasks in exchange for their keys so he can gain access into the mayor’s mansion. These favors range from helping a local chef bake his signature cupcakes, solving a hedge maze, and acting as a spotter for a local mage-in-training to hit a moving target. There’s a dreamlike quality to Mayor of Sanctuary, with its relaxed nighttime light-blue color palette and interactions with various NPC’s in Anzen. For a simplistic game, Wallace also included a lot of care to the game’s overall setting and fantasy lore, basing these elements on his own travel experiences in Thailand and Japan as well as his love of animals. These elements are reflected in the Japanese setting of the game and the focus on nature. The Mayor of Sanctuary is a very unique and polished take on GB studio adventure games.

The Mayor of Sanctuary can be downloaded from Wallace’s itch.io page. Wallace has noted that he published the game’s physical release through Incube8 games, but did not receive agreed payments, and has asked that people not purchase his game through Incube8. Going further, this author will no longer note GB Studio releases associated with Incube8. 

Crystal Depths

Crystal Depths is an adventure game by quackdev, a chiptune artist who also goes by the handle Naftwo7. Self-described as a school project, the game follows Dash, a young girl who ends up in another world while trying to enter her new house’s basement. After befriending another lost girl named Ashley, the two must work together to escape the dreamy otherworld and find a way back home.

Unlike many of the GB Studio adventure games I’ve previously played, Crystal Depths implements a simplistic turn-based battle system. The player simply has to input the correct directions/keys as the prompts come up to attack or dodge, which is surprisingly challenging, especially when later enemies require you to hit the opposite buttons. There’s no leveling up in the game, but it was interesting to see a battle system with random encounters to give the game a more distinctive flair. While short, the game has a unique theme around minerals, down to having a puzzle involving the Mohs scale of hardness. I especially enjoyed the cutesy animal village at the end of the game, and was a bit sad that the game doesn’t have more NPCs to interact with. Despite its length, Crystal Depths shows creative ideas, and am eager to see the dev continue to work within GB Studio.

Crystal Depths can be downloaded from quackdev’s itch.io page. 

Karpe Diem: Pokemon Fishing Contest

Karpe Diem is a fishing adventure game by birdup, who also created MMO Healing Simulator and a very detailed fansite for people interested in the Magical Drop series. As the title implies, Karpe Diem is also a Pokemon fan game. As noted in my ROM hacks article, Pokemon fan games are typically made in the RPG Maker engine, but this might be the first one made in GB Studio. Karpe Diem takes place in the Joisey region, with the protagonist being a frumpy middle-aged fisherman participating in the annual Karpe Diem tournament. Participants simply need to catch all the available Pokemon in a given area to earn stamps, with the first person to reach completion being deemed the winner. Also, there’s an obnoxious rival to beat and fun people to talk to.

The fishing in Karpe Diem uses a simplistic ‘press the button at the right time on this colored gauge’ variety, and it’s pretty easy to catch ‘em all, since only a few Pokemon are available in the major areas. The best element of Karpe Diem is being able to experience the world of Pokemon from a different perspective. Trainers are battling and catching Pokemon in the background, but your main focus is to go fishing. NPCs reference the progress of children being able to take down criminal teams and you can even converse with the cashier of the local Pokemart. Hilariously, there’s an extended sequence wherein the fisherman protagonist struggles to log into a public computer to check his email and has to deal with a captcha that tests general Pokemon type knowledge. Karpe Diem is a creative take on a Pokemon fan game with a fun sense of humor, and I can see the potential for shorter-form games in a similar style and setup.

Karpe Diem can be downloaded from birdup’s itch.io page.

Princess Poffin and the Spider Invasion

Princess Poffin is an adventure game by Nami, aka NomnomNami. Nami has previously worked on a variety of short visual novels and RPG Maker adventure games, including Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet and Lonely Wolf Treat. The game was Nami’s first attempt at using GB Studio and was made for an itch.io game jam. Princess Poffin concerns the eponymous moth princess, who has decided to investigate the infestation of spider webs in the moth kingdom’s land (which is located in an attic, incidentally) on behalf of her parents in exchange for socks to eat. Poffin, who speaks with the Royal We, can interact with her bratty younger brother and the new, suspicious servant in order to uncover the culprit behind the spider webs.

As someone who enjoyed a few of Nami’s games, the appeal of Princess Poffin is primarily in the mix of cute character designs, funny dialogue, and lesbians. Despite being short, the game delivers very well on all of these elements. Since my previous experiences with Nami’s games were her visual novels, it was interesting to see her branch out into something that was more wholly an adventure game and working within the limitations of GB Studio. Hopefully Nami returns to GB Studio in the future or even the world of Princess Poffin in itself, as she has some unique ideas to expand upon.

Princess Poffin can be downloaded from NomnomNami’s itch.io page.

There’s Nothing To Do In This Town

Nothing to Do is an adventure game by donotrunwithpixels, a UK-based chiptune artist. The developer also worked on Alone Among the Stars, a GB Studio adaptation of a solo TTRPG, and a dexterity dropper platformer called The Toast That Died And Went To Heaven. There’s Nothing To Do In This Town is about an unnamed young and broke protagonist scrounging around an anonymous town looking for something to do. After picking up some money off the ground, the protagonist can purchase some breakfast, help a local beggar, and purchase albums from the local record store that really, really likes Rage Against The Machine. So much so that they’re the only albums in stock. Oh, and (literal and figurative) zombies work at the local office building, and the barista at the coffee shop is a former zombie hunter.

On the itch.io page, the dev mentions the game was inspired by his own depression and was created during the 2020 pandemic, which feels reflected in the game’s overall tone of dreary boredom. This does not mean the game itself is boring, however. Nothing to Do has a quirky tone to its simplistic concept, somewhat reminiscent of a less edgy flash game. If anything, Nothing to Do feels oddly comfy, confining the player to a small town and forcing them to examine and interact with everything. The dry humor, from the local kid who thinks you’re bullying him, to the unhinged record store clerk, gives the game a unique identity. I’m eager to see if the dev will make a similar game in the future.

There’s Nothing To Do In This Town can be downloaded from donotrunwithpixels’s itch.io page.