Homebrew is a fascinating world of part-time projects and lone programmers creating games for fun. The Nintendo DS has gained a large homebrew scene, with the advanced features such as the touch-screen and WiFi providing good opportunities for a creative coder. Console Obsession’s Andrew Fisher interviewed Sander Stolk about his game AmplituDS and his plans for more projects.

CO: How long have you been programming homebrew?

S: I've been developing homebrew games since late 2005, early 2006.

CO: AmplituDS is based on the PS2 rhythm action game Amplitude – how close to the original game is it?

S: It's pretty close. The scoring system is slightly different and there is also no "energy bar" present which would let the player be game over if it runs out. And of course, visually it's a lot toned down due to the strength of the DS and the lack of spare time to work on that aspect.

CO: The current download comes with five tunes (including a very nice Super Mario Brothers remix, and a tune from Turrican 2 by Chris Huelsbeck) – can players add more to the game?

S: Most certainly. It's relatively easy to add a new stage but it does take a day or two to take a music file and see where all the targets would need to go for it to be a good stage in AmplituDS. Both the targets and the music file itself are read in from the media card you use.

CO: What was the most difficult part of creating the game?

S: Letting the music play properly and synchronising the music with the targets were the hardest parts to overcome. The music player is quite demanding when it comes to the processing time it needs.

CO: What tools and hardware did you use to create it?

S: A tool called devkitpro, which is an executable which installs all you need to develop homebrew on the Nintendo DS. For people who are interested, check out www.devkitpro.org. It can also be used for other platforms too, like the GameCube. For the Nintendo DS it includes a text editor suited for programming, libnds (a library with basic functions for the Nintendo DS), a compiler and a few really basic example programs to get you started.

CO: How easy was it to implement touch-screen controls?

S: Pretty easy, as touch-screen controls can be checked with an X and Y co-ordinate on the screen and is pretty accurate.

CO: Have you had any legal problems with the game?

S: No. As far as I know, it's not illegal to create similar gameplay of an existing game.

CO: There is a downloadable "cover" for AmplituDS on the website – would you like to see your creation on sale as a commercial title, or would it require a lot of work to do so?

S: I looked into this, and releasing it myself with an actual box (and media card) and shipping it to people would cost too much and I would not make any profit, I might even lose money over it. So unless a company is interested in publishing it for me, I'm not endeavouring into that venture myself.

CO: Any plans to create more DS homebrew/games?

S: Most certainly. I'm busy with creating an RTS engine for the DS. It's quite advanced already and reads in entire RTS’s from the media card: the graphics and how every building and unit acts. It currently uses ripped Dune 2 graphics to test out the engine, but those won't be released to the public when the engine is finished. It's only used for private testing. Someone is working on an all-new RTS (new graphics) and I'll be releasing that alongside the RTS engine instead. People will be able to create new RTS’s by just creating new graphics, editing text files to create levels and mention a unit's properties, and then just putting it in on the media card. Hopefully I can get this project completed within a few more months.

CO: What’s your favourite other DS homebrew? And your favourite commercial DS games?

S: ScummVM DS (the emulator for point & click adventures) is my favourite DS homebrew. And as for commercial game, I'd say that's Another Code.

Thanks to Sander for taking part in this interview.
Check out AmplituDS and Sander’s other projects at: http://amplituds.drunkencoders.com/