I released a playable portfolio as a Game Boy game for my website

Yep, I created a physical limited edition of my Game Boy game that I created in 2022 as part of my website portfolio martingauer.com.
(you can still get some of the 40 limited editions on my Etsy store. They’re handcrafted by me, with much love and passion!)

But let’s start at the beginning.

I needed a new portfolio website

It’s the end of 2021, I’m making money by flying FPV drones for commercials, music videos and similar topics for brands like Nike, Audi and other well known companies.

I’m also doing other things, like voice overs for a YouTube channel, running a newsletter about Android development with two friends, and I’ve just started building physical products and playing around with the idea of checking how to sell things through Etsy.

But I feel like I should add another thing to the “things-I-earn-money-with” list, just to be extra sure if something goes south. And since I started with frontend development in 2010, with some short breaks in between, I figured, I could just go freelancing and put frontend development on the list yet again.

Hadn’t done frontend development for a good year to this point, because I was busy with FPV drone filming:

Although times were fine and money were good, I felt like the world economy went upwards for far too long, and the pandemic wouldn’t go away without taking something with it. To me it felt like something were around the corner which would change all that upwards trend. And I had to prepare for it.

But when I wanted to start with web frontend development again, I would have to show the world what I’m capable of, so I thought. I’ve won several website awards in the past, like back in 2011 and 2012. But that’s like … yeah .. “back then”. So a new portfolio website was needed. And it should win some new awards, because that’s certainly one easy way to bring myself back on the table.

Game Boy!

I had created a Game Boy out of purely HTML and CSS back in … *checks Git repo* … somewhere in 2017!

And since my latest physical product was an LED smart frame with a Game Boy shell in it, it was clear to me: I want to create my new portfolio around this CSS made Game Boy!

My idea was to create a CSS made Game Boy game cartridge for every topic of “what I do”. So one for frontend development, one for FPV drone flights and so on.

I designed the covers using Photoshop and coded the CSS cartridge.

It was cool, and the rotating cartridge made with pure, handmade CSS without any JS libraries was quite an achievement. So I continued to think about how I could put it all around the Game Boy.

Then 2022 came along and with it, fortunately, some freelancing frontend development projects, which kept me busy, together with all the other jobs I did.

Some months went by and I knew I would need to continue to work on that idea with the Game Boy.

My first try was to put all the informations, like texts and small images and videos, inside the Game Boy screen. I would just zoom it in a little, so that people can actually see something in it.
But that didn’t turned out to look cool. It actually looked quite boring, and the idea itself, to just put all the texts in that tiny screen crumbled.
It just wasn’t as cool as I wanted it to be.

I had a bit of a lack of inspirations, and wasn’t sure how to put that all together into a cool package. Then I even got distracted by diving into VR, while the project itself went nowhere.

I was in need of a very cool idea for the website, or else I would abandon it.

A real Game Boy game?

One of my habits is to scroll through YouTube and lookout for new things that might could interest me and that I can dive into and learn about.

An idea I had were to learn a bit of pixel art. Maybe that would bring up some better ideas for my website.
As I were scanning YouTube videos for pixel art tutorials, I came across the channel of “Pixel Pete”, who had several videos about doing and learning pixel art. Though, he also had some videos about how to make Game Boy games.

Making Game Boy games? Wait, what? I mean, it surely involves using core programming languages like C, and I don’t even want to begin to tell you how much I’m not interested into “real” programming. I’m more the “I have an idea, and I learn everything to make it real” type of guy. And I’m also a very visual type of person, thus learning the C programming language just to create a Game Boy game seemed off the charts.

But as I scanned his videos, I learned that there is a pretty “easy” way of creating Game Boy games nowadays! It’s called “GB Studio” which is kind of a drag and drop, minimalistic programming open source software that enables you to create real Game Boy games.

And so it began!

I very quickly learned, that it’s not “that” easy. You have to know the bits and bites, the limitations of the Game Boy itself, how to make pixel art, how to turn that into usable components by GB Studio and what is and isn’t possible.

So although GB Studio gives you easy access into making your first Game Boy game, and has many features out of the box, regarding controls, handling actions and stuff, you still need to learn many things about the software itself, of course.

But as soon as I started, I felt like this is the missing piece of my website. Hell yeah! That’s what I’m gonna do. I’ll create a playable portfolio, were people play the game and learn things about myself in the same run.

Weeks went by, and progress was made. And one thing became very clear to me: creating a game is hard work. Even with tools and softwares that make the technical part easier.

I don’t think the technical things are hard nowadays. You can find tutorials for pretty much everything programming related, and most of it was made so easy throughout the years, that everyone can start creating things with several softwares. But the pure amount of skills and things you need to tackle and learn add up very quickly. It’s like building a house, alone, with your bare hands. Everyone physically capable of can do it. But it needs time if you do it completely alone.

After diving into it and putting hours of work into learning pixel art, how to use GB Studio, the limitations of the Game Boy system, making sounds with a music tracker, and how to put it all together, I was able to build the foundation of my game in about a month after I first discovered the software.
Of course I used some already established graphics and music assets that were free to use along the way, either as they are or as a guideline to create my own ones (all were credited in the credits scene. Also the ones who stated that there is no need to credit them).

So the game was short before being finished, but now I had a new problem.

The game was cool, and it delivered all the informations about me, the way I wanted it to do. But the flat looking CSS made Game Boy didn’t lived up to either the more 3D looking CSS made cartridge, nor the game itself.

It was clear, I had to put in more effort into the CSS Game Boy, to make the overall experience fit together. And so I went another extra mile to make it look a bit more realistic. All in pure CSS of course!

And after some more weeks, I was done! The Game Boy looked cool now and I wired the Javascript functionality of the export script from GB Studio to the real buttons of my CSS Game Boy.

Of course I had to do some extra work and create a website >around< the Game Boy. While I certainly hoped that people going to play my game, doing so, just to get all the informations about myself, wasn’t going to be the best way to deliver those informations for everyone.

I had to put real texts and some images on the website, for people to read and click, and for SEO bots to scan. Which took me some more weeks of work.

But eventually, I released it into the wild, and submitted it to some website award sites to be judged.

More than I’ve hoped for

Remember. The reason for me creating this website and making it as awesome as I could, was to get attention through website awards.

Winning at least one of the famous ones (Awwwards or TheFWA) would be have been the key here!

What I didn’t had in mind was the power of people sharing things they like. And so I was a bit overwhelmed when I casually posted my website release to LinkedIn and it blew up with 395 THOUSAND impressions, and hundreds of comments and new connections!

I reached my goal, before I could reach my goal. And I was blown away!

Which only got topped by actually winning the FWA some days after, and some honorable mentions from other website award sites.

Physical release, please

I had some new frontend development gigs and were on the table of plenty new people. And that was much needed, because my gut feeling was right and the world economy went south throughout the year of 2022, rendering two of my three main income streams, FPV drone filming and my Android development newsletter, more or less to a side project type of income, which I were not longer able to live from alone.

So, it all went well, having prepared for this exact moment (and also lowering my costs of living. They weren’t that high to begin with.)

I could have stopped right there, but I wasn’t able to.
My interest in learning new things was too high and I wanted to go the whole way with my game. Thus starting to design a limited edition physical release of it felt natural.

There were only some small things to buy and learn. Like new printers, tons of printer ink, various size of paper and holographic vinyl, a cutting plotter, some other office hardware things, extra software for the plotter, empty cartridge PCBs, a reader and writer for Game Boy game cartridges, packaging components, a laminator, learning how to create laminated high quality stickers aaaaaand some more things. You only need several weeks of time, some hundred bucks and absolutely no other hobbies or things to do. Easy!

Though, the result was all worth it.

I quickly sold half of the 40 made copies of the limited edition, and people were really happy with the quality and the overall package. But some stated that they were missing a manual, as it is kind of a standard for a Game Boy game.

I initially skipped the manual, because it would’ve involved buying yet another office hardware (long stapler), designing and printing the manual and putting it together as well. But after some days I figured it would round up the package very nicely, and decided to create a manual for those 40 copies, and also send them to everyone who already bought a copy, for free of course.

The limited edition release didn’t really brought money into my bank account. I think I was barely able to pay all the hardware I bought to create it in the first place. If you would count all the hours of work I put into it and all failed prints and assembling attempts, then, just from money perspective, this thing wasn’t worth it.

BUT! For me personally it was. Not only have I learned a ton of new skills along the way, I also created something I’m really proud of and I can very confidently call myself an indie game developer now, which feels quite nice.

I’ll continue to create Game Boy games as a hobby side project, and I think I will create a limited handmade edition for every release, although it’s so much work. Because that’s what I enjoy, and life should be about things you enjoy doing!