Here's an unavoidable fact: the original Nintendo Game Boy is reaching middle age. The world may have moved on to sleeker, less bulky technology since Nintendo's first portable landed in shopping malls and mom-and-pop electronics stores back in 1989. But a number of developers are returning to the green hue of Nintendo's flagship handheld to explore new ideas for the platform, using the classics as a template.
"Pokémon and Zelda are obvious, really surface level," Izma, creator of new Game Boy game Deadeus, says of his inspirations. "But then there's some that I would say are a little deeper. Lisa: The Painful, the vibe and tone of that game heavily influenced [Deadeus]. Things like Tower of Heaven, a flash Game Boy-style game—the narrative's not the emphasis of the game, but there are certain beats that I tried to match here."
Currently a full-time UI artist at Coatsink games, Izma began making Deadeus during a game jam with some friends from Magic Leap Studios. They used GB Studio, a free engine for building games to the specifications of a standard Game Boy. Izma had been toying with the Game Boy's art style in GameMaker and found using GB Studio to be compelling enough to flesh out a fuller version of what he'd started.
Centered around a young boy trying to avoid a catastrophic event over the course of three days, Deadeus is a tad higher concept than your average Game Boy thriller. It may borrow the trappings of Pokémon Red and Blue, but this strange adventure is more Donnie Darko than Link's Awakening, featuring multiple paths to its 11 different endings.
Izma believes some of that childlike, Game Boy lightheartedness still slipped in, though. "I spent a lot of time looking at the back catalogue of the Game Boy games when I was making it," he said. "A lot of it [is what] I've called in the past 'Halloween horror'—like horror-themed rather than meant to scare. Which is 100 percent understandable with it being a handheld game and the target audience, but I think a little bit of that's in there as well."