VIA TRIUMPHALIS retro Game Boy cartridge adventure make100

📍 Sasso Marconi, Italy (IT)

🏷️ Video Games

Alright people: you trusted me at first on my past Kickstarter projects - now it is time for me to trust you.
This game is 90% developed! So I run this campaign just for the game to get on the real cartridge! 

on itch.io you can download and play the free demo of this videogame. Downloadables are:
- .zip Windows standalone application: it's an emulator starting fullscreen as CGB (Game Boy Color). Just right click everywhere to see the menu and configure all you need to;
- .gbc rom file: put the rom file everywhere: emulators, everdrives, analogue, chromatic, etc...

The art you will find by scrolling the campaign page has been dran by Alice aka Crimson: follow her on Instagram!

18 B.C. - ROME
Emperor Julius Caesar Augustus needed more than soldiers - he needed shadows.
He chose Marcus, a fearless charioteer to be his secret agent.
No one would suspect a mere racer carrying imperial secrets. Marcus' missions went beyond delivering messages. He infiltrated rebel camps, spied on conspirators, and sabotaged enemies of Rome.
Posing as a simple courier, he uncofvered a Gallic uprising before it began, exposed a senator's betrayal and travelled all his way to Egypt... His golden chariot became a legend, appearing and vanishing like a ghost. Augustus trusted Marcus above all: he was Rome's first covert operative the Empire's unseen dagger, ensuring its dominion and safety of its people from the shadows.

October, 2023 - BUDAPEST
I am on a vacation with my nerd friends, in Budapest. It is morning and we are on a bus going to Bagni Széchenyi Baths: just watching the streets from the bus' window, and something pops in my mind. "What about a videogame on driving a chariot?" - yeah, just like that. "well, the idea is good. It's something original for sure: I mean I know no games nor retrogames with such a gameplay... the Ancient Rome would be cool to draw, the driving mechanics could simulate the whip used (back then) as acceleration; the directionals to be pushed could simulate the reins-pulling actions, changing the current direction, I mean for turning operations..." you know - designer stuff rolling out.
Bus stops! It's our stop, we must descend. So we do, walking to the Baths.
There's a big garden to pass through: nice! We walk for a while, then a huge building is visible: light marble, high columns... oh! there's something up above that column! I wonder what it can be...

Rising up my sight, this is what I see. Oh come on!! We are in Budapest! How on earth can such a big chariot statue be up there?! Coincidence? Conviction? Makes no difference: at this point - this game must be done.

Now, do you remember Driver for the PSX? I know you do, that garage tutorial still haunts our dreams... Via Triumphalis clearly got inspired by Driver's gameplay. Learning curve is logarithmic: firstly you need to understand the driving balance with all the controls involved. For this reason there's an initial tutorial level of 12 maps/mini-missions to practice with.

My goal is to make this Game Boy adventure accessible to as many fans as possible, especially those who might find a full English experience a barrier to enjoyment.

Though adding languages to a Game Boy ROM is a challenge due to hardware memory constraints. Reaching the 30% goal for these add-ons ensures we can prioritize and fund the technical implementation and professional review for specific idioms.

Euphoria: Stamina is like your speed: it decreases naturally. By hitting the Whip button stamina increases a bit. Your speed will be at its maximum when Stamina level is inside the Euphoria interval. Take a look at what happens when Stamina goes higher than Euphoria Maximum limit:

Golden Items: Yes, there are upgrades for your chariot driving experience and control! Those can be found around, and you should search for them all for the best driving performance. 

Spoiler Alert: first golden item is in the very first map!

Attack Weapons: you can equip gladio, lance or fire flask. All of them must be activated to be used. Remember Marcus is right handed, so the Gladio will pop above the chariot when going left and below the chariot when going right. Lance will go straight horizontally in the direction (left/right) you are going to. Fire Flask will be left behind you and will instantly explode in flames.

Defense Weapons: equipped shield, elm and cape are automatically used and consumed if the hit is from a compatible attack. Shield covers from long distance attacks; Elm covers from short distance attacks; Cape covers from flames.

Firing Up! if you have no cape equipped - stay away from flames! Flames get the horse freaked out for a period of time, and stamina goes up to maximum euphoria without decreasing! Its going to be very hard to control your driving in such a case...

Stealth & Breakthrough: some missions require you to hear things from the shadow without been noticed. Some other mission require you to breakthrough enemy lines with all of your strength (aka euphoria-max!) to push obstacles away.

A few more environmental details:

• Puddles of water and rough terrains will slow you down;
• Stones can be thrown from the mountains down your path, you'd better dodge them or find a shield to cover yourself;
• Killers from the shadows can throw you knives and disappear right after;

Night Mode: some stages have to be played during the night time. So I coded the Night Mode! By obscuring shadows, lightening shapes and darkening the environment: driving your chariot during nights will be more challenging... and funny!

The boxed version of Via Triumphalis contains:

• a red cartridged videogame placed in the classic white cardboard tray
• an instruction booklet
• a cotton paper insert printed in black ink: it contains four maps indicating the golden items locations!! Digital and solo-cartridge versions are not going to have this!

My passion for video games and retro gaming leads me to read books. The latest was “Rabdomantica Game Culture” - a title by Ludenz that brought me a revelation. 

In modern gaming, the actions performed by the player are often recorded on the game servers, too often NOT for the purpose of improving the product from an artistic and communicative point of view, but a lot more for the purpose of improving the product from a capitalistic point of view. Video games thus lose their nature as usable art objects and become products that must generate money and wealth for those who own them. And no, in those cases you are not the owner, you are just a user.

There is only one way to combat this decline: eradicate it.

Purchasing a product, taking physical possession of it, and finally experiencing offline gaming are the right methods to fight this battle.

Pledge Over Time is active!

Yeah, RED cartridge! Too much time has passed since the last good red-cartridged Game Boy videogame, hasn't it?

I'm totally in love with color-compatible Game Boy videogames. Color-compatible means that putting the cartridge on a Color/Advance Game Boy, the console reads the colors we developers have put on the inside and you will see customized colors on screen. As a general rule: this peculiarity is implied by the non-grey color of the cartridge itself. 

Games such as Flying Arrows (saga) and Orpheus used to have it black, because they are cool looking. This time I decided for a red one because it calls better for Ancient Rome vibes.

This videogame will be delivered to you in two copies: a digital and a physical.

The digital will be provided to you via email as soon as the videogame is completely developed, tested and ready for shipment. You are going to receive a GoogleDrive link where you'll find: the instruction booklet in .pdf format, the cover HD picture in .png format, the rom file in .gbc format.

The physical will be shipped to you in the form of a regular Game Boy boxed videogame or solo cartridge if you choose that. The software flashed on that cartridge will be exactly the same of the digital copy. A few weeks before the shipping operations get started you will receive a push notification (or email) from Kickstarter suggesting  you to provide your shipping address as soon as possible.

Did I convince you? Back this campaign for this game to be on a Game Boy real & red cartridge!

I imagine you've wondered why the prices are higher than average. You should know that the average includes software created with drag-and-drop tools/engines, assets purchased elsewhere, or rather poor music. In this project, the engine used is ZGB and it allows development exclusively through C code: everything is under the control of the code that I write myself on my keyboard. The art is completely original, pixel by pixel and the music is commissioned externally from one of the top chiptuners currently around: Sloopygoop. The effort put into completing the video game has been truly immense!

The most expansive reward for this campaign contains the boxed versions of two more videogames I did in the past: Flying Arrows and Flying Arrows 2: the Healer's Journey. All the three of them are playable from the Game Boy DMG to the Advance SP - custom color palettes and custom super game boy borders: Full Studio Loading' Style!

All of them: English Language.

Take a look at my past campaigns! Always developed & always delivered.

2025 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/studioloading/orpheus-to-hell-and-back-game-boy-cartridge-retrogame

2023 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/studioloading/flying-arrows-2-gameboy-game-save-bolognanerd

2021 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/studioloading/flying-arrows-gameboy-cartridge-videogame

Feel free to UpVote the subReddit about for the project to be noticed!