Casual SNES development

[SNES AYE]

Hi again,

Following up on my previous posts, I’ve been thinking more about modern game creation tools for other retro consoles. As I’ve mentioned, these tools tend to be very accessible and user-friendly. Spending a little time with them can give someone a real feel for the general approach and what makes them effective. They’re easy to find online, simple to install, and can produce working examples that run on emulators. Many also allow developers to explore the code if and when they choose.

At this point, I believe there are enough modern game creation tools for other retro consoles that they can serve as useful examples of what I’m trying to articulate here. Specifically, I’m talking about the value of a genuinely accessible and user-friendly tool in the SNES development scene, and the general form such a tool might take. I’ll provide a few links so anyone interested can explore these examples directly:

GB Studio

NESmaker

MD Engine

Game Maker 8.1 Lite

And on a related note, here’s an example of an emulator that I think nails accessibility, usability, and UI better than most—there’s a lot that I think could potentially be learned from it and applied to any high-quality SNES development tool.

OpenEmu

I’m not suggesting that this will automatically or immediately lead to a similar tool for the SNES, but I do think these examples show what’s possible. Seeing them in action and using them first-hand conveys more than words alone ever could, and I believe something similar could be a real benefit to the SNES development community. I also recognize that the SNES has its own particular characteristics, and there may be reasons why tools like this don’t yet exist for it. I’m not looking to debate that—I’m simply trying to clarify my own thinking and consider what might be achievable.

If one day a development tool like this were created for the SNES, I believe it could be a meaningful step forward for the entire community. I fully respect that creating such tools requires specialized skills and resources, and it’s not something I could make happen myself. My goal here is simply to share my thoughts and provide examples of the kind of tool I’m imagining. What happens beyond that is entirely up to those with the skills and interest.

I also realize I might not be posting in the ideal place for this discussion. Does anyone have suggestions for where I could connect with developers who are genuinely interested in exploring the creation of a SNES tool like this? I think the most important first step is bringing together a group of people who are curious, motivated, and serious about experimenting in this very specific area.

Thanks again for reading and for any guidance you might have!

[Myself086]

I also realize I might not be posting in the ideal place for this discussion. Does anyone have suggestions for where I could connect with developers who are genuinely interested in exploring the creation of a SNES tool like this? I think the most important first step is bringing together a group of people who are curious, motivated, and serious about experimenting in this very specific area.

I may look into Nova's approach to make something similar after I'm done remaking my assembler.

You can contact me on Discord for details.

[NovaSquirrel]

I may look into Nova's approach to make something similar after I'm done remaking my assembler.

On a high level, my idea was to try and copy the model that Clickteam's game creation tools use (like Clickteam Fusion, and older tools like The Games Factory), because it provides a lot of flexibility to actually make an arbitrary game (instead of just being a level editor) while reducing the complexity of what the tool needs to do. If the engine brings the concept of a level/map, and the concept of an entity system, then you can provide a bunch of built-in pieces of behaviors written in assembly (and have the user focus on conditions and responses to those conditions), and the actual generated code doesn't need to be great since it's glue. This kind of approach does work a lot better for action/arcade games than other genres, but that invites creative solutions, and providing behaviors that might be useful for making things like puzzle games can help.