GameBoy – Knox Game Design, October 2026

October 30, 2026Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

How to create a game for the GameBoy using RGBDS in assembly and with the graphical GB Studio.

GameBoy background and specifications
RGBDS Z80 assembly
Tools and building
Tiles and graphics, YY-CHR
Issues when not using 2BPP GB and tile data file size
Running on various emulators
Running on hardware (Everdrive GB X7, original GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, Analogue Pocket)
Changing palette
Tile map in memory
Updating tile map in assembly
Making a two digit counter
Emulator frame blending
VBlank
Number guessing game
Photo graphics
GB Sutdio, simple shooter demo

gameboy Download

Demo Source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/gameboy

Microprocessors – Knox Game Design, September 2026

September 20, 2026Links & Notes, Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

A look at microprocessors used in video game consoles for each console generation.

microprocessors Download

Atari 2600 – Knox Game Design, August 2026

August 29, 2026Links & Notes, Podcast, Presentations6502 assembly, atari, atari 2600, z26Knox Game Design

Overview of processor, assembler, and emulators for the Atari 2600. Creating Atari 2600 game files from 6502 assembly with DASM. Running created games using the Z26 Atari emulator. Example of displaying KNOX in Morse Code on the Atari 2600. How to use an Asymmetric playfield to display KNOX graphically on the screen. Helper tool for converting text file into byte data included with the assembly code. Byte format and order in playfield strips. Running created Atari binary files on the GameStation Go hardware.

atari_2600 Download

NES 6502 Basics – Knox Game Design, July 2026

July 27, 2026Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Review of 6502 assembly and how to create a simple number guessing game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

nes_6502_basics Download

NES Photo Graphics – Knox Game Design, June 2026

June 22, 2026Links & Notes, Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

How convert a photo image data to be used in an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) game. Tools used: Gimp, NESASM, YY-CHR, FCEUX. Review of background tile, palette, and attribute data for assembly code. How to prepare the image in Gimp to used indexed palette. Copying image data to YY-CHR. Running the game file with FCEUX. Touching up the image and how to use Gimp to lay out image. Limitations of NES texture data. Demos with PowerPak, EverDrive, and Analogue Pocket.

nes_photo_graphics Download

Game Passwords – Knox Game Design, May 2026

May 24, 2026Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

History of game passwords for the 8-bit NES video game system console from the 1980’s. Pros and Cons for password systems. Design considerations for a password system. How passwords are generated in Mega Man 2. Method for generating passwords in Metroid. How powerups, boss status, game time, and starting position is converted from bits and bytes into a password. Demonstration of program that provides an API to generating passwords for multiple NES games. A look at characters and spaces for various other NES games. Explanation of combinatorics terms and how those apply to game passwords.

passwords Download

Knox Game Jam 2026 – Knox Game Design, April 2026

April 19, 2026Game Competition Entries, Meetings, PodcastKnox Game Design

Check out the great games that were created for Knox Game Jam 2026! Thanks to everyone who came out for the kickoff event and created a game!

Finding Dave by Ashton and Robert

You must escape the cave! Click in the direction you want to go with left-click and release at the charge amount you’d like. Be careful, you only have a limited amount of battery. Collect more batteries to charge yours back up!

Don’t Look Away by Aspen

Easter Egg Crash by Levi

In this puzzle game, colored eggs (red, green, yellow blue) fall in pairs. You must crash the easter eggs using gems of the same color. Crash the number of eggs specified in the goals to move to the next level.

Knox Game Jam 2026 – Kickoff

April 3, 2026MeetingsKnox Game Design

Theme

The theme for Knox Game Jam 2026 is “Limited Resources“. Submissions close at 2026-04-05 at 9pm EDT (UTC-4). Good luck to everyone making a game!

Submissions

Join and submit your games at https://itch.io/jam/knox-game-jam-2026

Kickoff Meeting

When: Friday April 3, 2026 at 7pm (EDT / UTC-4)

Where (kickoff meeting): Panera Bread on N. Peters Rd, Knoxville, Tennessee

Kickoff for ideas, brainstorming, and game development discussion

Goal: Make a game in 48 hours
Use any game engine or library
Unity, Godot, Unreal, GameMaker, MonoGame, SDL, Allegro, etc
Your game is your prize

Theme

Here are some suggested themes. Make a game based on one of the following themes, or make something completely different!

Illusions
Alone In The World
Generation
Colonize
Stronger Together
Survive
Roads
Explore The Universe
Don’t Stop Moving
Limited Resources

During the kickoff meeting, we will put the themes on a virtual gameshow wheel. The theme will be selected by spinning the wheel. The theme is completely optional.

All are welcome to attend, even if you don’t plan on making a game. Any show and tell for game development projects in progress is also welcome.

Note – There will not be space for developing games at the kickoff event. However, forming teams at the event is welcome and encouraged.

We have announcement cards for Knox Game Jam 2026. If you want one, let me know your mailing address and I will send it in the mail as a post card (USA addresses only, while supplies last). We should have some to give away at the kickoff meeting as well.

N64 Development – Knox Game Design, March 2026

March 28, 2026Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Explanation of how to create a game for N64. Overview of the N64 architecture. Development environment with Pyrite64, MSYS2, libdragon, and Tiny3D. How to install and setup development environment. Creating a new project. Navigating the editor. Adding a simple object and creating a build. Building and running a test project. Creating a model in Blender with Fast3D and exporting to glb format to be imported into development environment. Texture mapping for models. Code for moving and rotating objects. API documentation. Creating multiple instances with Prefabs. Simple collision for objects. Playing your game on real N64 hardware with the Everdrive64 X5 and Evergenesis 64.

n64dev Download

Snake Game – Knox Game Design, February 2026

February 23, 2026Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Explanation of recreating the classic snake game for QBasic called Nibbles in MonoGame.
Steps: Moving blocks. Add snake body. Limit snake length. Adding collectibles. Adding levels, Game States. Sound Effects. Title Screen, Options, Pause.

snake Download