World’s Top 10 Nintendo DS Homebrew Revealed!
<<< Top 20-11 Nintendo DS Homebrew
Hundreds of votes from Nintendo DS homebrew fans from around the world. Now it’s time to reveal who everyone has been voting for and get a snapshot of the world’s favourite DS Homebrew. You can see all the votes cast by checking the comments on the DS Homebrew voting post, or just check the results below along with interviews with the developers of all the most popular Nintendo DS homebrew.
10. Remote Touch DS
Why do you think Remote Touch DS is so popular?
One of the main reasons, I think, is that there really isn’t any real alternative to Remote Touch DS right now. I also did a lot of work on bug fixing and took wishes from users very early in development, and I still do this.
How long did it take you to make?
It started as a “demo” application in doing my degree in Computer Science and then it evolved, and still does. Current I am very busy
with completing my degree – but I will never abandon Remote Touch DS. I would say the project has taken some weeks to put together, but it is hard to say and I find it hard to put an exact number on.
What projects are you working on now?
Finishing my Computer Science degree.
Do you have plans to take Remote Touch DS any further?
Yes, indeed I have, I will begin begin putting more work in Remote Touch DS again when I finish my degree in Computer Science. You can read about all the upcoming features in the 0.3 release of Remote Touch DS – which will be big – over at gbatemp: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=159746
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
I have always been deeply fascinated by the stuff of InfantileParalyzer – the guy who did Moonshell and other fascinating homebrew. I remember how his Moonshell homebrew really set the scene when it had its first release. I have great respect of this guy!
What are you going to do with your prize?
I will use them to keep my tight budget clean and in good state 
Finally, thanks to all the people using my homebrew, and all other homebrew, for the Nintendo DS scene. You people, are the ones who keep us running with your great feedback and dedication! Stay tuned for the next Remote Touch DS version – it will rock your socks off! 
9. Glubies Planet DS
Why do you think Glubies Planet DS is so popular?
Glubies planet is designed to be played during short and long period of time. So you can play it in the bus while going to work or at home. It’s a important point for a nds game.
How long did it take you to make?
What projects are you working on now?
Do you have plans to take Glubies Planet DS any further?
In the begining glubies planet is a school project. We made it in 6 months. We are still working on it, adding news features, items and levels, but our job doesn’t let us much time.
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
It’s not really a homebrew, it’s an inde game but I loved to make Braid. I liked so much playing this game, the level design is so great!
What are you going to do with your prize?
I think we are going to buy Microsoft or Google with this prize! ^^
Any other news or anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for everyone who vote for glubies planet and congratulations to every participants!
8. Pocket Physics
Why do you think Pocket physics is so popular?
Pocket Physics is a mashup of The Incredible Machine, Crayon Physics and Line Rider. When playing these games I usually end up not playing the levels but just tinkering around and building things. So I decided to make a game that only has this tinkering mode, and it turns out people don’t miss “story mode” too much
How long did it take you to make?
I finished the first playable and polished version after three months of spare time coding and I’ve been coding on the game on and off since then.
What projects are you working on now?
[See NitroTracker interview (it's made by the same person)]
Do you have plans to take Pocket physics any further?
Yes! Many players have given me excellent ideas for new features and improvements and I hope to be able to implement them.
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
[See NitroTracker interview (it's made by the same person)]
What are you going to do with your prize?
[see above]
Any other news or anything else you’d like to add?
I would like to thank Erin Catto for the great Box2D Physics Engine, Robert Kavaler for all the help with hacking Box2D, Petri Purho for
the very inspiring crayon physics game and Kevin Ryan and Jeff Tunnel for The Incredible Machine, one of my all time favorite games! Finally, a big thank you to everyone who voted for Pocket Physics!
7. Video Games Hero
Why do you think Video Games Hero is so popular?
Rhythm games are a very popular genre!
How long did it take you to make?
It was done in the evenings/weekends over about a 6 month period. I did the programming and SpriteAttack did the graphics.
What projects are you working on now?
I’ve switched over to iPhone/iPod touch development. The DS Homebrew scene is cool, but now that Apple and Microsoft are allowing everyone to publish on their platforms – its hard to ignore. Our first iphone game is called Anomaly and its available right now!
Do you have plans to take Video Games Hero any further?
I’d say probably not. In theory – it should be easy for me to add some additional songs – but I just haven’t been able to find the time and its been a long time since I had my hands in that code.
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
Still Alive DS…. but I don’t think I could top the job that T4ils did – its truly outstanding!
What are you going to do with your prize?
Buy a teddy bear for my baby girl
Any other news or anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks again!
6. Still Alive DS
Why do you think StillAliveDS is so popular?
I think SaDS is popular because it’s a game based on the highly praised “Portal” by Valve software. Working on a homebrew based on a very popular game make it easier to attract people. However, making a game using Portal mechanics is not enough, I had to offer new features to keep players on my game. So I decided to include community features, such as map sharing or high-scores upload, which was later revealed as a very good idea : a lot of map have been uploaded on the server and nowadays, you can download up to 900 different maps, which represent a huge amount of playtime.
So to summarize, SaDS is popular because it’s based on Portal and because it contains a huge community aspect which allows people to create and get new content for the game.
How long did it take you to make?
It took me something like 3 or 4 months to create the first version of the game from scratch. Then, it took me 2 more months to add new features people wanted in the game.
What projects are you working on now?
Right now I just finished to port SaDS to the Wii (SaWii). It features a 2-player coop mode which is very fun to play with ^^ Also, I worked on some NDS project that I put aside for the moment.
Do you have plans to take StillAliveDS any further?
As far as I know, SaDS is not planned to be updated any time soon. If I’m updating anything one day, don’t expect big changes, just some bug fixes and stuffs.
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
Tough question … As a huge fan of rythm games, I think Video Game Hero comes first in my mind. I like to recreate games I love and the work done by sumiguchi is great on this one. Otherwise, some killer apps like Moonshell or Colors ^^
What are you going to do with your prize?
I don’t know yet, I made some big expenses recently, It will help to fill the hole ^^
Any other news or anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks to everybody who appreciate SaDS and/or my other games, thanks to people who tried my games at least one time and thanks to r4 revolution for creating this compo
Thanks also to the dev-fr.org community, great guys with great skills: French spirit at its best ^^
5. Warcraft: Tower Defence
Warcraft: Tower Defence Website
Why do you think Warcraft: Tower Defence is so popular?
I can’t deny the fact that doing a remake of popular mod of a classic pc game attract people, but it was also one of the first game of this kind on the DS. In addition, the level editor provided since the first release of the game helped building a great community.
How long did it take you to make?
It took make about a month to build the first version of the game engine, and 4 months to create the game graphics. Even though you might think they are quick rips from warcraft 3, you’re wrong. The menus, towers and land graphics were remade pixel by pixel, based on warcraft 3 level editor screenshots. The graphics of monsters were extracted for warcraft 2, scaled, and reworked pixel by pixel to look nicer at this small size. That was a huge work, and took me most of the time I’ve worked on this game! The first release was made about 5 month after I started working on it. Then I’ve improved the game during more than year, developing it sporadicly.
What projects are you working on now?
As I’m now a professional developer, I don’t have many time left to make homebrews at home. I’ve now almost left the DS scene, and I’m going towards iPhone/iPod touch development, as I’m working on those machines at work.
Do you have plans to take Warcraft: Tower Defence any further?
Unfortunately, I’ve stopped working on it since I started working. The sources are quite messy, as it’s my first real game I ever made on a game console, but are still available if anyone is interested to continue the project.
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
StillAliveDS is one the most amazing homebrew the DS has ever saw. I followed T4ils when the development started, and had the idea to reuse the 3D engine of marble to do a DS version of portal some time before, but I dropped it.
What are you going to do with your prize?
I honestly don’t know, maybe pick up some gadgets on a chinese website
4. NitroTracker
Why do you think NitroTracker is so popular?
Making music is a great pastime if you are on the train, on the bus or wherever. I think it’s nice to have a small recording studio in your pocket at these times, so you can quickly put together songs whenever you get the inspiration for it.
How long did it take you to make?
I started off in the fall of 2005 and worked on it in my spare time in the evening after university. The first version was ready after about 4 months. I’ve been working on it on and off since then, so I have no idea how many hours I spent developing it in total, but it was really quite a lot of work.
What projects are you working on now?
I’m trying to get my MIDI keyboard talk to DSMI. Also, a rewrite of the NitroTracker GUI is in progress.
Do you have plans to take NitroTracker any further?
Absolutely! There’s going to be support for the XM effects, the PSG (programmable sound generator) and sample drawing coming up sooner or later.
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
Probably an animation tool like Animantee, FlickBook, or FlipNote for DSi, which I can all recommend to check out. I loved making flip-books when I was young and I think it would have been fun to write a tool do create them on the DS, if there weren’t too many already
What are you going to do with your prize?
I’ll spend it on hardware for homebrew development. Probably I’ll save it for the first real (DSi-mode) DSi flashcard.
Any other news or anything else you’d like to add?
I would like to thank Vogue and Mr.H / Triton for the countless fun hours I spent composing horrible music in Fasttracker II, the NT beta testers, everyone who provided me with comments and ideas. Finally, a big thank you goes to to everyone who voted for NitroTracker!
3. Warhawk DS
Why do you think Warhawk DS is so popular?
I think people like a bit of old school gaming now and again, and this was one of our goals in creating Warhawk DS. We wanted to bring a classic game up to date, but also retain the feel of the original game.
How long did it take you to make?
We spent around 7 months working on the game on and off. A lot of the early time was spent modifying the DS development libraries so that Warhawk DS could be coded in ASM. This was another one of our goals in the development of the game – keeping it as close to the original C64 game from 1986 (which Flash was quite adamant about because he wrote the original game).
What projects are you working on now?
RetroBytesPortal is covering the development of 2 new games from us at the moment. The first is a remake and expansion of the Commodore 64 title ‘The Detective Game’ (in ‘C’) which HeadKaze has wanted to remake for a while now. And the second is a platform game (this time again in ASM) called ‘Manic Miner the Lost Levels’ which Flash is leading the development of. This is based on a set of 20 levels compiled from other versions of Manic Miner by Stuart Campbell. We’re not working as closley on these projects as we did for Warhawk but we do plan to work on future games together. We are very fortunate to have Lobo (graphics) and Space Fractal (music) working with us again and eventually want to move into commercial iPhone development.
Do you have plans to take Warhawk DS any further?
There are no plans at the moment, though thoughts perhaps on a Warhawk II DS have been mooted and also an iPhone version has been mentioned.
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
I think we’re already making the games we want to right now and we plan on remaking some of Flash’s old classics from the Psion to the iPhone since they are well suited to that platform.
What are you going to do with your prize?
Headkaze is going to buy a flying car, and Flash wants to build an underwater norman castle. Seriously though we have no idea although we were talking about getting Space Fractal an R4 card because he’s only just bought a DS and has no way to run homebrew yet.
Any other news or anything else you’d like to add?
The only news we have is mentioned above on the two current projects. More info can be found at retrobytesportal.com
2. Mario Paint Composer: Paratroopa Release
Why do you think Mario Paint Composer is so popular?
I have no exact idea why it might be so popular, I guess it just offers an easy way for people to create funny sounds while still being fun. When I entered it in the Neoflash comepetition, some people commented on why it wasn’t entered in the games category rather than applications due to it being so fun. A reason it might popular is due to the PC version’s success. People see it on the computer and want a portable version, well now they have one.
How long did it take you to make?
The idea of the program only took me about 2 days to get working. Then after that I’ve been adding and improving various things in it over the year.
Here is a video of the program from the second day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAcTddXecPk
and here is a recent video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veJnXPeZu3w
Lot’s of differences.
What projects are you working on now?
I am working on a few projects now. My main project is ‘The Legend of Zelda: The Shards of Light’ which is a remake of the original Zelda from the nes. Another, but less prioritized, project of mine in UA Paint which is just a pixel art tool for the DS.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/BassAceGold/prioritystuff.png
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/BassAceGold/filledcircle.png
Do you have plans to take Mario Paint Composer any further?
If I had any ideas on what to do, I certainly would. However, in the DS scene feedback is not common, and it is hard to make improvements or to fix any glitches if no one speaks out. I’m not the only one affected, there are plenty of developer’s who feel the same way. So next time you download a homebrew, please give some feedback whether it’s good or bad, it’s still better than none.
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
Probably a decent guitar tab reader that auto scrolls and spans both screens in book mode. Looks like I might have an idea for my next project
What are you going to do with your prize?
Not sure yet, didn’t really expect to win with all the other great homebrew competing. I’ll probably use it to feed my caffeine addiction, buy a better working flashcard and what ever else comes to mind.
Any other news or anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for putting on such an event. I find that these events are crucial to the state of homebrew in that they bring attention to the lesser known brews. When I go to places like GBATemp, the homebrew section on the forum is littered with questions on moonshell and ipod clones etc. Their top homebrew lists include emulators and media players, hardly anything else. It’s really a shame that no one is finding their own brew anymore, they just get the recycled same brew over and over again. Soon everyone gets the idea the rest of the brew is bad and it leaves developers who are looking to make improvements in the dark due to lack of feedback.
Thanks to everyone who voted for me! I will do my best to ensure my other brew achieves similar or even better quality then that of Mario Paint Composer.
1. Colors!
Colors! Website
Why do you think Colors is so popular?
Colors! popularity is really thanks to all the users. As I enjoy developing things rather than talking about them, it’s really user-to-user interactions that has spread the word, and for that I’m very grateful. The gallery (http://colors.collectingsmiles.com) works to really showcase all the amazing pieces of art that the community develops and hopefully it also keeps the interest of the program alive.
How long did it take you to make?
That’s a difficult question. The first version I released probably took one or two weeks of solid work to put together, and that was all that was needed to get things started. That was in summer 2007, and I’ve been tinkering with it ever since. I’m not sure how much time I’ve spent on it in total. Perhaps a three-four months or so, and that probably includes the time spent by the other talented individuals that are helping out as well. The gallery is a different beast however, and jetboy (the creator of the gallery) has probably spent as much time on that as I have on the application.
What projects are you working on now?
I’m working towards an updated version of Colors!. It’s been almost 2 years since the last update for the DS, and that is mostly due to me focusing on the DS version and then me moving to San Francisco to work at LucasArts.
Do you have plans to take Colors any further?
Absolutely! The new version of Colors! for the DS will be awesome!
Which homebrew would you most like to have made?
Hehe. Not sure. I’m pretty proud of Colors!.
How many Colors pictures get submitted to your website in an average week?
Recently we get 200 to 400 pictures per week.
We have over 23 000 pictures online. In total there were almost 30 000 pictures posted, some of which were deleted being erroneous uploads, duplicates, or were removed by their authors. There are about 15 000 registered users on gallery. Of course not all of them paint, but despite that some are taking active part in community “only” by giving stars and leaving comments. The community is great, and it is very inspiring to wake up and see some new mansterpieces posted when visiting gallery each morning. We also had some painting contests and are running weekly challenges.
Colors! also inspired some great artist to create webistes and exhibitions of art made with Colors! Just take a look at http://www.99ds.net/ or http://www.deadlysleds.com/
How has the iPhone version been received?
It has been received great as well. I was a bit worried that the lack of pressure sensitivity would make it hard to create great paintings on it, but the community has proven that that is absolutely not the case.
What are you going to do with your prize?
This money is going right back to Colors! development.
Any other news or anything else you’d like to add?
I’d like to thank everyone who voted for Colors!. Over and over again you guys make it worth all the time invested in the program. Keep an eye out for the new update soon!
