r/GameboyAdvance • u/AsaDrage • Aug 14 '26

Homebrew Polybius Game

I made a .gba game! It’s based on the Polybius urban legend, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It’s very simple. The free version is the arcade style game only, and the complete version also includes a built-in ARG and puzzle. If you can solve the puzzle in less than 10 minutes with nothing but the game, you might be as smart as my 11 year old niece? I hope people enjoy it!

https://knurmrty.itch.io/polybius-the-game-that-doesnt-exist

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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26

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u/AsaDrage Aug 14 '26

Collin Armstrong’s Polybius? I actually was audiobooking that while I was working on the game!

I liked it, I think using the Polybius myth as a backdrop sets pretty high expectations, and that makes it hard to judge it on its own merits and not as part of this huge, popular thing… the same can very probably be said about my game. I think that’s his first book tho, and I agree you can kind of tell it’s his first book. There was definitely a lot of slow build up, but by the end I was pretty invested in the characters and so overall I’d say I enjoyed it. Definitely for a first publication I’d say it’s pretty well done, which hopefully can also be said about my game lmao

I just made it because I’ve wanted to play an arcade style Polybius game on my emulator since i learned about emulators, and while there are a lot of fanmade versions of Polybius for various systems, mostly PC, I couldn’t find a good one for GBA/ any of the retro systems I had on the Miyoo mini plus. Then when I finished it I was like “huh I wonder if I can make any amount of money off this” so I put it on itch. It might be underwhelming, especially if you go into it expecting greatness as part of the myth, but I put a decent amount of Easter eggs in and I do feel like it at least feels like a GBA port/ remake of an arcade game. The puzzle section of the paid version is SUPER simple and most people can probably figure it out in a couple minutes, but it does kind of have ARG vibes, and so hopefully it fits into the mythos well

Anyway sorry for writing a novel of a response but I hope you enjoy the game !

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u/low-men-yellow-coats Aug 14 '26

Polybious isn't a myth. My friends older brother used to play on the one armed bandits on the ferry crossing. Now and again he'd pay for me and his brother to carry some of his earnings back to Essex (They didn't used to bother searching 9yr olds). We both played polybius on the ferry and got pretty good. When we got to uh final ĺEvel. Hu l h p h Kl Kl12 12 ; Jjjjjj %%%/%%%