The Year After
An emotional Gameboy experience about an invisible stranger, a family and a brutal winter. Walk through time. Seasons pass. Characters age.
Playable in half an hour. Mostly linear with a few secrets.
⇧SHIFT = Português/Français/Español/Türkçe
Translation Credits
French: Marianne J, Spanish: Alejandro Aguilar, Turkish: Naamk
Interested in translating? Email me "hadrian lin games at gmail" (No spaces)
Art, music and code by Hadrian Lin.
Made with GB Studio and Javascript hacks for sound and color overlays. (Thanks to Ben Grabau for technical help accessing Gameboy memory)
This is an authentic Gameboy game that runs in the browser, with an emulator or on original hardware.
CONTROLS
- Arrow Keys / WASD to move
- Z / J / ALT to interact
- SHIFT for language select 🌐
WANT TO PLAY ANOTHER GAME?
THE YEAR AFTER - CARTRIDGE VERSION (GB / GBC with Sound)
Pre-order a physical collector's edition, published by Incube8 games !
It is upgraded from the beta ROM and has:
- Chiptunes
- Color
- Diagonal movement
- High-quality mp3 sound by connecting Gameboy audio out to mic line-in of a computer or smartphone. (Experimental feature)
Get the cart here.
Get the full ROM here.
Follow on Itch , Twitter, or instagram for the latest or sign up for email updates updates
Devlog: Why go 8-bit low-res?
GET YOUR OWN PIXEL PORTRAIT
If you feel like dropping a donation to help me make more stuff please click the donate button under the game or down below.
Donate more than $9 and I will make a pixel portrait of you (16x16px 4-color) and post it here. Sorry, not doing portraits at this moment! Please check back in the future. I may do some more intermittently.
Support this game
Check out my next game
DOWNLOAD PRESS KIT
ADDITIONAL SOUND CREDITS
- Additional sound effects and music from Freesound.org:
- InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk):
- Ambience, Wind Chimes, A.wav
- Ambience, Peaceful Synth.wav
- Bell, Candle Damper, A (H1).wav
- Johnny Holiday: Dark ambience.wav
- Erokia/Jordan Powell: Ambient Wave 3 (Harmonics)
- eric5335: meadow ambience.wav
- be-steele: Malamute Dinner Music > Igor3B.wav
- GoodListener: Stable Noises- Birds and Horses Neighing.wav
- Additional sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.com
Development log
- Evolution of the StoryApr 30, 2022
- Move MeDec 23, 2021
- Taipei Indie Game Award Finalist for NarrationDec 15, 2021
- A Love Letter to GB Studio and Rapid IterationSep 18, 2021
- Say it with ObjectsSep 13, 2021
- Collector's Edition Published by Incube8 GamesSep 10, 2021
Comments
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I know I'm like the billionth person to comment this but, that experience was amazing. I just finished playing and the torrent of emotions I experienced will not be something I soon forget. I love "walking simulator" and narrative games. Especially ones with twists like this. Outstanding.
Thank you! I appreciate every single comment
our teacher make us play this game in class lolololol
I can't believe it! Those rascally teachers!
What a lovely game. Genuinely made me emotional in a way I can't explain....
I can barely spew out words. This was truly an emotional ride... I really don't know what to say. This is a game I'm never bound to forget. I was on the verge of tears and I felt so many things all at once. This was a wonderful game. Thank you for this.
that was an absolute gut punch. currently sobbing.
small warning for a bit of personal stuff - my mom died four months ago, extremely unexpectedly. no lead up, nothing. just immediate. today is my 22nd birthday. the first without her. this struck so many important chords in me. thank you for making this.
I'm sorry about your loss. I'm glad the game can mean something to you. Thanks for playing and sharing this.
Whyyy 😭😭😭 does it end at the waterfall??
What a great experience! I love how the progression is executed. And the emotional impact of the story is all the more impressive when you consider how simply and efficiently it was told.
Ahhh, the feels!!! Truly thank you for making this game.
i really liked this game a lot, extremely thoughtful and well done. had me emotional. fantastic!!
A fine piece of storytelling, I was expecting something straight to the point until the mid-point of the game. Included at 41:44
Thanks for making this! Sorry there's no sound on the Beta ROM, if that's what you used. The digital edition ROM from Incube8 has chiptune sound. If you play it in the browser there should be color and mp3 sound also.
Such a wonderful narrative. This is both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.. Loved this so much
When I read what this game was about, I bought it sight unseen on incube8. I was not disappointed. Absolutely beautiful and well made. Can't wait to see what comes next for this creator. Fantastic job.
One of the best experiences I've had with a gameboy game. From the way the passing of time is conveyed, the changes in scenery, the music, and the well written dialogue.
A beautiful and emotional experience all the way through!
i want to cry bro it was so beautiful
It was beautiful :')
Beautiful game, excellent level design, bittersweet story.
5/5
Here's hoping that you'll keep developing and that your next game will come out soon.
Can the full rom be bought somewhere? Would happily pay for the full game in rom form
Hello, yes you can get it here:
https://incube8games.com/collections/digital-editions/products/the-year-after-gb...
Beautiful
loved playing this game... even if it was just for fun... I had a blast :) excellent story, intricate level design and all the feels :)
lovely little game, the sound design was incredible!
Esto fue hermoso, que historia más profunda... :')
This was beautiful.
Hello,
With the newly released Analogue Pocket, and the newest update for GB Studios, are you planning to publish the .pocket version of this game? I’d love to be able to play this on my Pocket, so I hope so!
I'll see what I can do!
Such a beautiful game Hadrian! I would really love to find out more about the sound & colour hacking - I'm about to start a project of my own and I'm trying to see if it's possible. Would you mind if I dropped you an email at your address above?
I sent you a message through your site. It's kind of tricky and you're going to need to roll up your sleeves with Javascript...
A lovely little game, and the music and sounds were integral to the experience. Could you please share how you achieved this with me as well? My email is massivesilence@gmail.com. Thank you!
This game made my heart flutter, the setting, the graphics, the sounds and the few dialogues are quite worked and moved me in the short duration of the game. Excellent job!
I dont know if its supposed to end at the mountain waterfall with a squirrel rushing to the right of the screen or I did something wrong either way such a great and emotional story <3
Yep that's the end. Thanks for playing! Glad you like it.
luv the game, story telling, and art. made me cry. also made me want to reflect on life. well done!
Played through twice on the ds lite on a flashcart and on the browser so I could experience the sound. Beautiful more art than game, I liked the music and sound effects also (when the cow mooed made me smile). Bittersweet made me cry (games are not meant to do that)
This game had me crying! It was such a great way to tell a story! It's so well done!
I absolutely loved this game! I was in tears by the end! Beautiful story with such emotion, with characters that feel alive. I can't wait for the GB version to come out, and I hope that it will feature color on the GBC (which I own). This is without doubt the best game I have ever played. 5 Stars
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yes, the cart version will be color. I'm hoping to finish it up this spring or summer. It's taking a bit longer than anticipated to convert to color version, add music, iron out bugs and add French translation. If you feel like it and want to be notified when it's done please follow me on Itch or Twitter.
This game was impressive I like the art style and the story it offered here and it later on got me emotional thanks for making this game. I played this on a random games.
Thank you for doing a video!
wow, very well done keep up the good work!
great little game, loved it a lot.
Wow, i'm totally impressed! Very, very emotional! I almost cried. Thank you for making this gem!
how the heck did you get midi music/sounds working?
getting non harsh sounds through using a tracker has been my main concern in making a GB Studio game
It was a bit tricky. There's Javascript that hooks onto the Gameboy memory and that triggers mp3 sound sprites.
this was not the game i thought i'd be playing when I started... a ride from start to finish. truely one of those hidden gems that will stick with me for a while.
very good game. when they say "you didn't know you were choosing" sums it all up pretty well. Incredible game with an amazing message. Thank you.
I really admire the "show, don't tell" aspect of this game and how its shown in many different ways.
Throughout half the game I thought I was a ninja and that was why they couldn't see me, I understand now I was mistaken. Cute game, it made me sad.
It's hard for me to describe this game without spoiling it, so I won't go into the story or the gameplay too terribly much! Spoiler-free, though, gameplay is really enjoyable - smooth and responsive, like any good retro-inspired game should be!
TYA was more emotional than I really expected it to be, and I really enjoyed that! The way that the game deals with time is also extremely interesting, something that I'd love to see implemented in other games! Visually it's stunning, and the little secrets to find were really cute~!
All-in-all, you should play this game. It's a one-and-done game and you'll have a great time with it! Kudos to ANV - this one's a gem~!