You can make your visuals with your favorite 2D graphics editor (from Photoshop to GIMP and Asesprite) and they’ll be converted automatically as long as you respect the hardware limitations (more on that later). SGDK also comes with several tools to facilitate the creation of graphics and sounds. It’s way easier and faster to learn than the Assembly language that was mandatory in the 90’s.
It's a framework allowing you to code for this machine in the C language. But fear not, there is another tool that is as useful as those popular modern engines, while being tailored for Mega Drive / Genesis: SGDK. Well, I’m sorry to say that, sadly, those engines can not export games to the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis (yet?). It comes with a beautiful plastic box like the actual vintages games, and a series of bonus postcards. These 3 games are now available in a cartridge published by Cote Gamers: Since then, I've also created two (small) arcade games for the console: In this game, you play as a SEGA evangelist who must convince players to leave their NES and SNES because the Genesis has better games! The game was released freely online on the 30th birthday of the console, and can be played here: Last year, to celebrate the 30th birthday of the Genesis / Mega Drive, I created a game titled "30 Years of Nintendon't." It's an obvious tribute to the best games of the console and to the aggressive marketing that SEGA used at the time (e.g. For example, I even managed to make a (very basic) game in 60 minutes, and it does run on the console! The games This is arguably the easiest machine to develop an homebrew game for, thanks to the powerful tools we have now.
Today, I'll share my experience of making 3 games for the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis home console.
Last year, I wrote an article about making a Game Boy game.