Few questions about homebrew games.

[Mick.]

Is it possible to make your own homebrew games for the Dreamcast? I would like to give it a try :S Any advice\tips will be greatly appreciated.\


(first post, Hi everyone :))

[Christuserloeser]

Is it possible to make your own homebrew games for the Dreamcast? I would like to give it a try :S Any advice\tips will be greatly appreciated.\


(first post, Hi everyone :))

Hi there :)


Of course, it is possible to create your own Dreamcast game!

There are several ways to do so. You could start coding or porting your own game via KallistiOS:

Setting Up A Dev Enviroment (Win32):
http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=74329

Dev Links:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2834

Dev Forum:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=15


...or you could use one of the many existing game engines available for Dreamcast:

modding Quake allows Dreamcast-like graphics and high portability:

http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=870715#870715

Drawback: None of the current Quake ports is really perfekt... The best ones are 1. nxMakaqu (still WIP! but already the best port out there) and 2. QuakeDC/HexQuake (closed source, no more updates in the future).


FENIX (DIV) has a decent Dreamcast port (by Chui):

http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/fenix.html

It's a scripting language that doesn't require too much knowledge. Allows GBA/SNES like games !
Your game will be highly portable, as DIV/FENIX is available for several platforms.


Create a Beats of Rage mod:

http://borrevolution.vg-network.com/
http://www.openbor.bet/
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=18

Atm a BoR mod using the enhanced OpenBoR engine could either be a 1:1 vs fighter (like Street Fighter), platformer (like Battletoads) or your classic Final Fight-like brawler. The first two haven't been done yet (okay, there's a Battletoads demo which is a must-have!)

Again, your game will be compatible for many platforms: OpenBoR is available for Dreamcast, xBox, PSP, DOS, Win32 (buggy).


...or try creating a shump by modding HoR:

http://www.openbor.net/hor

There's a demo available, but no one ever attempted to create their own mod for this engine...


...or start creating themes for existing homebrew for Dreamcast. Great DC games that are themeable:

- Melchior (replace graphics, music and sound)
- Noiz2SA
- DCSquares
- Tetris 2
- Block Smash