My name is Anthony Wallace and I am a professional video game developer.
I have always wanted to say that, and now it’s true!
I have been working on my game, The Mayor of Sanctuary, for about a year and a half now.
TMOS is a full adventure game being developed for the Nintendo Game Boy Color.
That’s right, there are still new games being developed for the Game Boy in 2022!
Today marks the official announcement of my game coming to Incube8 Games, a publisher for original Game Boy titles.
For those who have not followed my story, it might be good to give you the short version of how I got here:
Table of Contents
How it all started
My journey into video game development began in 2020 while I was living in Japan.
Some weird stuff was going on in the world at that time (Google it if you don’t know about what was happening in 2020).
And like pretty much everybody, I was in a state of existential crisis.
Photography had been my passion and art of choice for over 20 years. But that passion had been wavering for a while, and the pandemic was pretty much the nail in the coffin.
Japan was lonely for a solo traveler during a pandemic when nobody was looking to make new friends. So I was in need of things to keep me busy.
Gaming had always been a refuge for me, and I did have my Nintendo Switch with me. So I put many hours into my number one game: The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild.
I also did quite a lot of walking, and those walks often led me into some awesome retro game stores in Osaka.
I had always wanted to make video games, and repeat visits to the Game Boy isle of those stores in Japan eventually solidified the idea in my mind that video games would be my new passion.
It didn’t take long for the idea for Nara Makes Games (my one-man game studio) and The Mayor of Sanctuary to form.
And by the end of October 2020, I had a logo, a youtube channel, and had began the early development of my game.
How it is going
So here I am, almost two years later. It is absolutely insane how things have fallen into place.
I am announcing the publishing deal for my very first Game Boy title, The Mayor of Sanctuary, with the absolute best publisher in the niche, Incube8 Games.
And I am the new freelance writer for RetroDodo, the number one resource I turned to when I began focusing my passion back into retro gaming.
The way things are going is really best-case scenario with how I had hoped things would go, two years ago.
The Future
So like I mentioned.. my game is officially coming to Incube8 Games.
Incube8 is the absolute best when it comes to Game Boy publishing. They have a long history in the market with their parent company being Retro Modding (who specializes in replacement parts for retro consoles like the Game Boy).
There is no release date planned yet for my game. There is still a lot of work to do, but things are really coming along.
The best way to keep up with progress on the game is to check me out on Instagram @NaraMakesGames. I will be posting images and video from the game, and any news about when you can actually order it.
Follow the @Incube8Games instagram while you are at it. They have a bunch of awesome games coming out.. some of them available right now!
I am very happy to be a part of both the RetroDodo and Incube8 teams. Both have shown real support of my dream to be a fulltime game developer.
Now… making games is my job. Writing about games is my job. Which is precisely what I asked for two years ago when I came up with this crazy idea of Nara Makes Games and decided to go 100% into the world of video games.
Things couldn’t have gone any better for me. Thank you universe.
Get Caught Up
Got an hour to spare?
Binge watch all of my youtube videos to get caught up on how I got to here!
Anthony has been a video game lover ever since he can remember. He became a fulltime nomad in 2018, living throughout most of Asia. He focused his passion in retro gaming and began creating a game for the Game Boy Color while living in Nara, Japan during the 2020 pandemic. He is now in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he spends most of his time gaming, going on long walks and meeting as many stray dogs as possible.
