Making the Game (lost build of cancelled Game Boy Color game; 2000-2001)

Mock up box art of the game.

Status: Lost

Making The Game was the codename of a cancelled Game Boy Color title developed by a group referring to themselves as Savage Pixel between 2000 and 2001. The game was produced by IGN editor Craig Harris, who also wrote a series of eponymous articles documenting the game's development.

Development

The first Making The Game article was released on September 25, 2000, and featured Craig Harris describing his idea of building a Game Boy Color game from scratch, and documenting the entire process through various articles.^[1] This was followed up by a second article the next day in which Craig attempted to look for a Game Boy Color programmer and artist to work on the title.^[2] The people who would be working on the title was then revealed on November 6th, 2000, consisting of Craig, programmer Bob Koon, and artist Keith Erickson.^[3] The new development team then held a poll to decide their name, which was revealed as being Savage Pixel on November 20th, 2000, with this same announcement also revealing the premise of the game. The game would have revolved around giant monsters rampaging around a bustling metropolis destroying everything in their path,^[4] and featured three playable characters; a giant raccoon, a giant bunny rabbit, and a giant wolf. Readers were asked to send in their suggestions for names for the characters, but no names were ever revealed.^[5]

The game is known to have gotten quite far into development, with numerous different sprites and animations being created for each of the characters, ^[6]^[7] and a rough demo of the game being created in which you could slide the raccoon around the field in front of and behind the wolf, pedestrian and vehicle sprites.^[8]

On March 5th, 2001, it was announced that the game had been cancelled due to its budget being frozen and the dwindling interest in the Game Boy Color market as a whole.^[9] However, it was later announced on April 4th of the same year that development of the game would continue on a much smaller scale, with what work that had been done being used to create a minigame version of the project that would be released through other means as opposed to a physical release. Bob Koon had left the project by this point to do programming work on a Game Boy Advance game, so he was replaced by hobbyist programmer Randy Mongenel.^[10]

Ironically, this announcement of the continuation of the game's development was the last piece of information related to it to be shared online, with no release of the game being known, and the game itself not resurfacing online in any form as of 2019.

Savage Pixel Development Team

Craig Harris - Producer, Lead Designer, Making the Game Writer.
Bob Koon - Programmer (November 2000 - March 2001).
Randy Mongenel - Programmer (April 2001).
Keith Erickson - Art Director, Artist, Animator.

Gallery

Screenshot from a rough demo of the game.
Sprite of the wolf character being edited in Deluxe Paint Animation.
Rough draft of a sprite of the wolf character.
Improved draft of a sprite of the wolf character.
Sprite of the wolf character.
Walking animation for the wolf character.
Jumping animation for the wolf character.
Standing animation for the wolf character.
Idle animation for the wolf character.
Punching animation for the wolf character.
Running animation for the wolf character.
Sprites for the raccoon character and a pedestrian, showcasing the size limitation of Game Boy Color sprites.
Collection of pedestrian sprites, showcasing the sprite per line limitation of the Game Boy Color.
Yet more pedestrian sprites, showcasing the color limitations of Game Boy Color sprites.
Mock up of what the final game could have looked like.
Model sheet for the raccoon character.
Model sheet for the bunny rabbit character.
Model sheet for the wolf character.
Concept art of the game.
Concept art of the game.
Concept art of the raccoon character.
Concept art of the raccoon character.
Concept art of the raccoon character.
Concept art of the raccoon character.
Rough concept art of the wolf character.
Concept art of the wolf character.
Concept art of the wolf character.
Concept art of the bunny rabbit character.
Concept art of an unused armadillo character.
Concept art of an unused bear character.
Concept art of an unused beaver character.
Concept art of an unused fox character.
Concept art of an unused fox character.
Concept art of an unused rat character.
Concept art of an unused skunk character.
Concept art of an unused turtle character.
Concept art of an unused cat character.
Concept art of an unused duck character.
Concept art of an unused goat character.
Concept art of a hypothetical skateboarding game featuring the game's characters.
Concept art of a hypothetical golf game featuring the game's characters.
Concept art of a hypothetical artillery game featuring the game's characters.
Concept art of a hypothetical capture the flag game featuring the game's characters.
Concept art of a hypothetical wrestling game featuring the game's characters.
Concept art of a hypothetical stealth game featuring the game's characters.
Desktop image featuring characters from the game.
Desktop image featuring characters from the game.
Desktop image featuring characters from the game.