# chrismaltby/gb-studio

A quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for your favourite handheld video game system

Repository: https://github.com/chrismaltby/gb-studio
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/gb-studio
Homepage: https://www.gbstudio.dev
Language: TypeScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-26T13:15:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 96/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 89, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2695, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 72, "gap_med": 8.0, "n_releases_24m": 9}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 9385, forks 570 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:30.947704+00:00)

## What it is
GB Studio is a drag-and-drop visual game creator for making Game Boy games without programming knowledge, built as an Electron desktop app with a C-based GBVM game engine. It exports real ROM files playable on emulators or real hardware, web builds, and Analogue Pocket files, with a companion CLI for automation.

## Use cases
- make a game boy game without coding
- build retro game roms
- create drag and drop 2d games
- export game boy game to web
- write chiptune music for game boy games
- make games for analogue pocket
- teach kids game development

## When to choose
- you want to make Game Boy or retro handheld games with no programming experience
- you need to export playable ROMs, web builds, or Pocket files
- you want visual scripting with an escape hatch into C/assembly via GBVM and plugins

## When to avoid
- you need modern high-resolution or 3D game engines
- you target platforms other than Game Boy/Pocket/web
- you require a fully code-first engine workflow without visual scripting

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: game-engine, gui, cli, audio-processing, build-tool
- domain: gaming-tools, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli
- tags: game-boy, retro-gaming, visual-scripting, rom-builder, drag-and-drop, no-code, gbvm, gbdk, pixel-art, music-editor, game-development, macos, linux, electron, desktop, web-server

## Member repositories
- chrismaltby/gb-studio (main) score 96

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:30.947704+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:22:20.878480+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/chrismaltby/gb-studio (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:30.947704+00:00, sha 92a306670f29)
  - homepage: https://www.gbstudio.dev (fetched 2026-08-29T08:22:38.464566+00:00, sha f81d5d6e9d26)
  - site_page: https://www.gbstudio.dev/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:22:38.473343+00:00, sha d47cfe48f33b)
  - site_page: https://www.gbstudio.dev/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:22:38.475011+00:00, sha 4cd75faa256d)
  - site_page: https://www.gbstudio.dev/docs/installation (fetched 2026-08-29T08:22:38.477095+00:00, sha eb3a57b8cc28)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.