It’s been a little quiet on the GBC front from Shane McCafferty (EGVroom) for the past few months, leaving the community wondering what he’s been cooking up. Well, the wait is over. His latest project is why Shane has been so quiet: Roguecraft GB, a full Game Boy Color port of the modern indie classic Roguecraft DX.
Known for turning ambitious ideas into finished games with remarkable speed, Shane has once again pushed the limits of what the GBC can do, blending clever technical tricks, crisp visuals and smooth gameplay into a package that feels surprisingly close to the original.
The History of Roguecraft
The Roguecraft saga started with Rogue64 on the Commodore 64 (which was also based on an even earlier game called Rogue4k), defining the elements of what we classify as a Roguelike today: procedurally generated dungeon crawling, turn-based combat, grid-based movement and permadeath.
From there, Roguecraft (for the Amiga) took the formula further, adding richer graphics, more strategic combat and deeper dungeons while keeping that addictive grid- and turn-based gameplay at its heart. It won the Retro World Award at the 2025 Debug Indie Game Awards.
The series peaked with Roguecraft DX for the Evercade, introducing more polished pixel art, smarter enemies, expanded loot systems and finely tuned mechanics that made it another standout indie classic.
What Is Roguecraft DX?
You are Zendar, a fighter, mage or rogue. You must fight your way through ten levels of the dungeons of Mordecoom and defeat the “tentacle-toting” final boss to beat the game.
Roguecraft DX is a tightly designed turn-based dungeon crawler built around a deceptively simple structure: a grid-based, 10×10 room layout where every move matters. Player movement, enemy behavior, combat resolution, item usage and environmental interactions all operate within this strict grid system, creating a game that is easy to read visually but surprisingly deep under the hood.
Each run is procedurally generated, assembling large dungeon maps from interconnected rooms populated with monsters, traps and lots of loot! Enemies have distinct behaviors and attack patterns, meaning combat isn’t about reaction speed, but about reading the room and thinking several moves ahead.
We caught up with Shane to talk about how Roguecraft DX made the leap to the Game Boy Color, the creative solutions he used to fit such a complex game onto 8-bit hardware and what it’s like to work at the speed and quality his fans have come to expect. Here’s our deep dive into the making of Roguecraft GB.
GB Studio Central: What was the story that led you to bring Roguecraft DX to the Game Boy Color?
Shane: This was a fun one! Last year, I decided to give Roguecraft on the Amiga a try via MiSTer FPGA. Like Roguecraft, my games are published by Thalamus, and I was curious about how big a hit it had been on the Amiga. I thought it would be a quick look, as I don’t usually enjoy Roguelikes or RPG games in general.
Holy crap, was I wrong! I got completely lost in it, and it was very easily my game of the year in 2025.
Once OutRun GB was complete, I fancied something different and wondered if I could bring Roguecraft to Game Boy Color. I wondered if it would be possible to pack it all in and do it justice. It’s a big old game, and the Game Boy’s tile-based rendering doesn’t lend itself to isometric OR 10×10 grids that aren’t too tiny. So I did some quick demos and figured it could be done.
The next step was to ask Badger Punch (the original developers of Roguecraft) if they’d even let me do a Game Boy port. Luckily, once I asked, I found out they were about to ask me too. It was meant to be, I guess!
I was chatting to Thalamus Digital (publisher of Roguecraft DX) about the idea and wondering if they’d let me port it. They laughed out loud and said that the next thing on their list was “Ask Shane to port Rogue64 to Game Boy!”
Rogue64 is a cut-down older version of Roguecraft, so I said, “Forget that! Let’s port the real game!” Since then, it’s been months of heads-down coding and art.
GBSC: Roguecraft DX is a pretty complex game. What were the biggest hurdles in bringing it to the Game Boy Color?
Shane: Roguecraft is a complex game – that’s very true, and there were a lot of technical things that made the port interesting and fun. With technical hurdles, you can either get past them or design around them, so I don’t usually get too concerned about those.
What was a hurdle, and the most important thing in my opinion, is that the port has to ‘feel’ like the original game. Roguecraft is great because it all comes together into a wonderful, unique experience. Capturing this was imperative. That feeling is the result of many things… pace, graphics, sound, gameplay, etc. It all has to come together. That’s the magic sauce.
GBSC: Can you walk us through your porting process?
Shane: The porting process is different every time. This time, I had access to the original code and the original development team. This was very unusual for me and tremendous help/fun!
The code was all Amiga ASM, so I had to recreate it all in C (GBDK2020) for the Game Boy port. This was made easier, however, as I could just chat to Ricki (the original developer) whenever I needed. He was a brilliant help. I learned a lot from Ricki.
As I had the original code, I also had access to a lot of important things, like the stats each hero or monster uses, the map-generation algorithms (I just needed to recreate these in C), the monster and loot tables for each level, etc.
GBSC: Were there any techniques you were particularly proud of?
Shane: Sure, the first experiment I did, before even asking to port the game, was to see if I could make a 10×10 grid work on the Game Boy’s 8×8-px tile-based screen.
The Game Boy screen is made of 8×8-pixel tiles, with 20 across and 18 down. We could place a 10×10 grid of 8x8px tiles in the middle of the screen, but that would be too small, while a 10×10 grid of 16x16px tiles would be too large to fit. So, I needed to figure out a way around this.
What I ended up building was a 10×10 grid of 16×13-px tiles. This meant that we could have a nice, large grid that filled the screen. But the Game Boy’s 4 colour background palettes are also constrained by the 8x8px grid.
The game background layer actually uses a 10×10 grid of 16×16-px tiles, but the code’s scan line interrupts tell the Game Boy to skip over some lines which squishes the grid nicely onto the smaller screen. If we interrupt the background as it renders the screen and tell it to skip 3 lines after every 13, we can squish in our 16×13 grid AND also force our color palettes to 16×13 too.
The game also uses procedural level generation, which was a lot of fun to set up. I’ve used this before in Cave Dave, but that used an entirely different approach (the Spelunky method).
This time around, I ported the Amiga algorithm to C and tried my best to fit all the room types into the Game Boy’s memory. There’s a huge amount of data to juggle in Roguecraft, certainly more than anything I’ve previously done. Ten procedurally generated levels, each with a 5×5 room map, lots of monsters and loot scattered throughout that all remembers its state, i.e., monsters should stay dead, loot should stay collected. It was a fun challenge. The game is huge!
GBSC: How did you approach the graphics and visual style?
Shane: For the sprites and in-game art, I recreated the Amiga art for Game Boy. This was a process of scaling each monster/hero and its animations down to work within the Game Boy’s palette and VRAM limits.
Game Boy limitations meant recreating Henning’s (the original artist for Roguecraft) amazing Amiga sprites would be a real challenge. I ended up using layered sprites and adding 1% cute!
Player models converted into GB Studio-compatible layered sprites
Henning also helped out by providing me with versions of the original, larger pieces of art, like the title screen, that worked within Game Boy limitations. It needed to look like Roguecraft and also like a Game Boy game.
GBSC: How did you approach the music, audio and SFX given the limited four-channel audio chip and low-quality sampling capabilities of the GBC?
Shane: The music was ported over from the Amiga by Sloopygoop (the same hero who ported the OutRun music for OutRun GB). The SFX, bar some original samples I managed to squeeze in, are just some SFX from a Beatscribe pack I purchased a long time ago.
GBSC: How did you use GB Studio with the project, and how did it help or limit you during development?
Shane: For every game I make, it goes like this:
- Open a new GBStudio project
- Export Engine
- Begin
GB Studio is used to string together all the scenes, manage all the art and SFX and compile the builds etc. Wherever something isn’t available via GB Studio, that’s when the exported engine comes into play. All my games have lots of additional bits and pieces added to the engine.
It’s very game-specific. For example, Roguecraft needed additional scan-line interrupt code and additional code to manage level generation and data handling. Roguecraft contains a huge amount of extra code.
I will also go through the engine code and remove or bypass any parts that I won’t be using for a particular game. For example, if my game doesn’t use triggers, I’ll make sure that code isn’t being called in the core engine loop. Or if my game doesn’t have animated projectiles, I’ll make sure to bypass the code that updates these in the core projectile loop. These are tiny things, but they can add up to better performance.
GBSC: What advice would you give to GB Studio developers attempting ambitious Game Boy projects?
Shane: Go for it! Start with something small and achievable. Don’t try to eject the engine your first time. Finish a simple game. This “Finish” is important here. Finish that first game, and along the way, gradually spread your wings out into the engine. Snoop through the engine files, try to work out how all the parts work. It’s really, really good code.
Starseed was how I started. That was my first Game Boy game. It was 100% GB Studio and started my journey.
Also, remember everyone is different. You’ll receive lots of conflicting advice from all sorts of people, including me! There is no correct way to make a game. Just make sure you’re still having fun and making progress. Making games is the greatest game of all.
GBSC: What’s the ROM size for the final game?
Shane: The final ROM size is around 524 kb.
GBSC: What’s next for you and for Roguecraft GB? Is there a physical release coming?
Shane: Yes! Pre-orders for a physical version start on March 2. For me, after a brief dalliance with some demo scene techniques, I’ve found myself back working on a new entry in the Starseed series. You can follow the development on my (EGVroom) socials.
Roguecraft GB: 100% Achievements Cheat Sheet
Use the following cheat sheet to help you master every room, conquer every challenge and unlock everything the game has to offer.
- Potion Quaffer: Drink a potion.
- Silent Death: Kill a monster while time is frozen.
- Wall Knocker: Find a secret room.
- Hoarder: Attempt to pick up a key when your inventory is full.
- True Seer: Discover all secret rooms across every level.
- True Warrior: Complete the game as a Warrior.
- True Rogue: Complete the game as a Rogue.
- True Wizard: Complete the game as a Wizard.
- Dungeoneer: Complete at least six levels.
- Chesty: Open all chests in every level.
- Completionist: Visit every room in all levels.
- Pacifist Run: Finish the game with fewer than six monster kills.
- Dungeon Master: Beat the game.
- Explorer: Visit all rooms on any single level.
- Dry Run: Complete the game without drinking a potion.
- Knives Out: Kill a monster with a backstab.
Tip for completionists: Keep an eye out for hidden passages and unique interactions. They often hold the key to secret achievements and hitting that 100% goal!
Roguecraft GB is more than a straight port. It’s a masterclass in how far the Game Boy Color can still be pushed nearly three decades since its release. By carefully re-engineering Roguecraft DX’s systems, visuals and pacing for 8-bit hardware, Shane delivered a version that doesn’t just resemble the original but feels like it too.
It’s a reminder that technical limits don’t have to be barriers, and that thoughtful design, deep understanding of the hardware and a willingness to experiment can still produce something genuinely special on the retro platform.
Roguecraft GB stands proudly alongside Shane’s growing catalogue of GBC classics, and sets a new benchmark for what’s possible with GB Studio and the Game Boy Color.
If you’re interested, you can purchase the digital ROM on Shane’s Itch page. Or, if physical media is more your speed, preorders for a cartridge release open up on March 2 via the Thalamus shop.
A.k.a. ChunkySteveo – A retro Nintendo enthusiast, Gameboy fan and GB homebrew developer. Lover of all things tech, code and science. Proud husband and father to four!
