Code	damnian2508
Graphics	damnian2508
Music	Nikku4211
Sound Design	Nikku4211
Original MS-DOS Game	Eugene Alemzhin

Preface

Kuli (Кулі) means marbles in Ukrainian. This is a direct analogy to the original MS-DOS game Шарики (which also means marbles, only in Russian).

久利 means long time in Japanese. This is a close approximation pronounciation-wise (due to the L sound missing in Japanese).

All game graphics have been hand-MSPainted. All game music has been composed using hUGETracker. No humans have been harmed during the development of this game due to absolutely zero involvement of so-called AI of any kind, shape or form.

How to Play

• D-pad moves the cursor.
  • Hexagonal mode offers an innovative control method
    • Supports optional D-pad combinations.
• A + D-pad swaps the selected emoji with its neighbour.
• START pauses the game and displays the in-game menu.
  • Pressing START when paused resumes the game.

Emoji Types

• <3 Heart Eyes
• B) Sunglasses
• :P Tongue Out
• :D Grinning Face
• :') Tears of Joy
• :O Wow Face
• :S Nauseated Face

Note: :S is replaced with >( Angry Face on SGB; see Super Game Boy below.

Platform-Specific Features

Although the game offers the best experience on Game Boy Colour (and compatibles), it plays nicely with all known Game Boy models. In fact, it is quite playable on monochrome models due to the emoji types having been carefully crafted with clearly discernible features.

Game Boy Colour

If GBC is detectected, the following additional features become available:

• Emojis are coloured according to their type (with an additional palette for the frame).
• Double speed is enabled.
• Anti-aliasing is applied by default in hexagonal mode.
  • This option is configurable via the Edge setting.

Game Boy Advance

If GBA is detected, the following additional features become available:

•  A palette fix is applied by default.
  • This option is configurable via the Palette setting.

Super Game Boy

If SGB is detected, the following additional features become available:

• Multiplayer using the additional SNES remote(s).
  • The captions at the bottom of the screen are colourised to match the cursor colours.
• Customised emojis:
  • Nauseated Face is replaced with Angry Face so that it is rendered optimally using the SGB palette.
  • Dithering is used for Tongue Out so that it is rendered optimally using the SGB palette.
  • Angry Face in Square mode is modified to match the SGB tile grid.
• An NTSC aspect ratio fix is applied by default in hexagonal mode, affecting the emojis, the frame, the labels and the progress bars.
  • This option is configurable via the Ratio Fix setting.

Early Original Model

If DMG0 is detected,  ® is omitted from the game's intro sequence.

Limitations

Due to the tight schedule of GB Compo 2025, the following features have been left for a future release:

• Scoring and leveling
• Interactive progress bars
• Game statistics
• Hint
• Multiplayer
• In-game sound effects
  
• SGB emoji and cursor colourisation
• SGB border
• Additional animations
• Advanced settings
• Bugfixes

Known Issues

Due to the tight schedule of GB Compo 2025, the following issues are known to exist in this release:

• A known hUGETracker bug causes an issue in the music playback.
• SGB players 2-4 inputs are ignored.
• Time is not updated with SGB Ratio Fix enabled.
• Final scores are only visible on GBC.

If you encounter any additional issues, please let us know in the comments.

Accessibility

The game has been designed with accessibility in mind. Blue has been chosen as the colour of the second cursor for the benefit of the colour-blind player.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the following (in no particular order):

• sklanna for making us stronger
  
• Gumpy Function for being an absolute legend
• Pearacidic for lending a legend a helping hand
• RGBDS devs and maintainers (especially Rangi42) for getting us started
• Dave vanEe for getting us up and running
• SuperDisk for being a hUGE mensch
• beware for clearing up some caveats
• The entire GBdev community for their awesomeness
• avivace and bbbbbr for organising GB Compo 2025
• itch.io for hosting the event
• the judges for their hard work