Secret Santa Draw - Game Boy Color

Because why just draw names when you can do it on a 90s handheld?

Every year I over-engineer our family's Secret Santa allocation. This year I'd already built Secret Santa Draw Arcade, but with my recent interest in Game Boy development (building PHPBoy) I got a little carried away and ended up making a second one. I thought it would be interesting to explore building a basic GBC ROM.

Tech Stack: C, GBDK-2020

Requirements

• GBDK-2020 - Game Boy Development Kit
• GNU Make
• A Game Boy Color emulator (e.g., BGB, SameBoy, Emulicious) or real hardware with a flash cart

Features

• Support for up to 20 participants
• Name entry with on-screen keyboard
• Exclusion rules (e.g., prevent couples from drawing each other)
• Animated draw sequence with festive effects
• Individual reveal mode - each person sees only their assignment
• Christmas-themed visuals with snow particles
• Sound effects and Jingle Bells background music

Getting Started

# Set your GBDK path (or export GBDK_HOME)
export GBDK_HOME=~/gbdk

# Build the ROM
make

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

The compiled ROM will be output to build/secret_santa.gbc. Run it in your favourite GBC emulator (BGB, SameBoy, Emulicious) or on real hardware with a flash cart.

How to Play

1. Press START to begin	2. Add participants	3. Enter names with on-screen keyboard
4. Set exclusions (optional)	5. Each person reveals their assignment	6. Merry Christmas!

Previous Years

This is part of my annual tradition of over-engineering Secret Santa:

• 2020 - Clojure Secret Santa
• 2021 - Pico Secret Santa
• 2022 - Step Function Secret Santa
• 2023 - Secret Santa PWA
• 2024 - Secret Santa Draw
• 2025 - Secret Santa Draw Arcade | Secret Santa Draw GBC ⭐

License

MIT