Introduction
Welcome to Retro Puzzle Maker!

This is a tool meant to help you create new puzzle games you can play on an NES! You can download a rom, or play using the built-in emulator. You can also share your game publicly with a share link!

After creating your first game, a menu of options will appear to the left. A good first place to explore may be the Level Designer.

Your Games
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Current Game
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Latest News
Shared Rom Bugfix

1.5.0 • Sep 22, 2024

This is just a quick note to share that I was recently alerted that older games shared from the tool had their share pages broken with the 1.5 release.

I released a small web-only fix to this bug today. It has no impact on any other part of the application, so no new version is needed.

Thank you for your patience, and I hope you keep making cool things with the tool!


Major Feature Update 1.5

1.5.0 • Sep 14, 2024

Hello, and thank you for checking out this little tool. It's been two years since the last update, and it's high time for some new features, don't you think? This release adds some big changes I've been hoping to add for a long time, and a few smaller treats as well. I hope this release allows you to customize your game more than ever!

Features

  • Doubled the number of available map tiles from 16 to 32
  • Added built-in font customization
  • Added support for custom sound effects
  • Added new graphic packs, and updated existing ones with additional tiles
  • Added a new tile type: Level End (unlocked) - when this is present, we will switch regular end tiles to this tile when the win condition for the level is met.
  • Added new Switch tile that can be activated with the A button. If two tiles are provided, they will flip when pushed.
  • Added two new Switchable Block tiles that will change places with eachother when a switch is pressed
  • Added box push animation (Configure from the Other Settings page)
  • Added support for undo and redo (ctrl+z/y) to the level, hud and various screen editors.
  • Added an option to disable the stats screen (Configure from the Other Settings page)
  • Download ready-to-compile code for your game, with instructions!

Bugfixes and other changes

  • Breaking Change: Layout for graphics changed - sprites are now in their own bank, allowing for more tiles. This may break some static screens, credits, and title pages.
  • Breaking Change: small (64kb) rom support was removed. (See note below)
  • In-game undo button now preserves player direction
  • Homepage game list now scrolls if you have many games
  • Link added to the original NES version of the editor in the Old versions dialog
  • Close buttons on many dialogs have been fixed
  • Text fields on game settings page updated to give proper feedback
  • Sliding on ice stops player animation
  • Tweaks to make the tool behave better on mobile
  • Fixed a few bugs where patchable_data.asm would be inconsistant with generated roms (resulting in wasted rom space)
  • Updated a lot of documentation around the code to be more understandable.
  • Added Community section with links to the (now official) discord, plus about and showcase pages.
  • Removed Beta Tag

Note on rom size

With version 1.5, the tool no longer supports the small rom (64kb) feature. This means that games created will be 128kb, with no option to change it. If you wish to make a smaller rom, you will need to edit the game's source code to make it fit. This also means you are no longer able to make games for the nesdev coding competition without editing the source code.

This decision was made to enable more complicated features. This feature was costing a lot of development time, hindering features like sound effects, and didn't provide enough value to warrant keeping it.

If you need this feature, please download version 1.4.4 and continue using it on your own machine. You can export your game using the "Export" button next to your game on the homepage. To find version 1.4.4, click the older versions link on the right of the homepage. You will also be prompted before a project is upgraded to the 1.5 format.


Another smaller update

1.4.2 • Oct 20, 2022

Hello, and thank you for checking out this little tool. This is another minor update to the tool after the 1.4 release.

The application had a few more pretty important bugs, so this release exists to fix them.

If you run into issues like these, please do let me know! I try very hard to catch these by testing every situation prior to release, but I'm one person and this thing has a very large number of different cases now. I'm always open via email, discord, or anywhere else you see me.

I hope to continue to improve the quality of this little app, and hopefully have less "oh no I broke it" releases like this in the future. Thanks for reading, and I hope you build some cool stuff!

Bugfixes

  • Major: The home page did not work if you had never visited it before
  • Undo history in the game could corrupt if you stepped on a level end tile without being able to end the level
  • The downloadable application's built-in emulator no longer requires internet access to work


Downloadable Version
Developer Tools

Load a game, and developer tools will appear here.