# How To Homebrew Game Boy Games

## Overview

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/133/602/medium800/hacks_gbgames.jpg?1731521772)

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/133/515/medium800/gaming_dorkyscreen_5.58.24%E2%80%AFPM.jpg?1730931193)

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/133/599/medium800thumb/gaming_dorkydemo.jpg?1731470490)

Creating your own Game Boy games and playing them on real hardware has never been easier. This guide will show you what you need get started creating games with GB Studio.

You can export game ROM files to play in an emulator, on the web, or even better, flash your own Game Boy cartridge to play on a Game Boy, Game Boy Color, or Game Boy Advance!

If you want to try it out, here's a link to the playable game on itch.io: _**[Dorky Demustard](https://itch.io/embed-upload/11974727?color=333333)**_.

https://youtu.be/fT6WPcIi1Fc

Primary: This guide was inspired by the Green Day Dookie Demastered project, which re-imagined the album for obsolete/inconvenient playback methods. But since they only made 25 copies of the Game Boy cartridge with Welcome to Paradise on it, we decided to build our own take on it.

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/133/544/medium800/gaming_gddd.jpg?1731104934)

## Game Authoring Tools
## GB Studio

You'll need to download and install **[GB Studio](https://www.gbstudio.dev/)**, the free, open source Game Boy development application for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

![gaming_icon_white.png](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/133/305/medium640/gaming_icon_white.png?1730136694)

## Pixel Editors

You will probably want to use a pixel art program such as [Aseprite](https://www.aseprite.org/) (or [Libresprite](https://libresprite.github.io/#!/), an open source fork) for editing sprites and backgrounds. 

For more advanced backgrounds, the [Tiled](https://www.mapeditor.org/) map editor is indispensable.

##  
![gaming_sp.jpeg](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/133/545/medium640/gaming_sp.jpeg?1731105120)

![gaming_tiled-logo-header.png](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/133/546/medium640/gaming_tiled-logo-header.png?1731105357)

- [Next Page](https://learn.adafruit.com/homebrew-game-boy-games/gb-studio.md)

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