Build Journal / Game Boy Color
Post Below is a Game Boy Color game about running the mail underground. It was renamed on day one, because a game called Mail Mole already exists. The first grey toy, one room and three letters, failed its own checks and had to be retuned before it was fun to dig through. Then it grew into 24 dispatches across three soils and shipped that same day. Updates since added a playable postal lesson, lighter soil you can actually read, and Rush Post, a rival courier who races you to the next letter. It is free to play in your browser now.
These updates come from the same feed as the shelf. The illustrated build history follows below.
· U4
Rush Post’s deliveries no longer make your mole stamp. Post Below U4 is available in your browser and as a Game Boy Color ROM.
· U3 release
Play the Game Boy Color cartridge right in your browser with a keyboard or the touch pad, or download the ROM for your favorite emulator or a flash cart. It's free to play, share and mod. Just don't sell it.
See this milestone in the journal →· U3
Clearer addresses, tunnel snakes, Swift and Ram Stamp caches, and a live score give all 24 dispatches a stronger route-choice game. Rush Post races for loose letters on eight routes.
See this milestone in the journal →· U2 menu polish
Framed menus give the choices and labels more room. The title courier now has a pointed snout, digging paw, and mail satchel.
See this milestone in the journal →· U2
Brighter soils, navy tunnels and a surface post office make the routes easier to scan. Local release checks and physical A on Thor passed.
See this milestone in the journal →· U1 candidate
The update adds a guided lesson alongside all 24 dispatches and preserves older saves.
See this milestone in the journal →
Nov 8 · U2Lighter soil and a post office at the surface
Nov 8 · U3Snakes, power-up rocks and a rival courier· G0 Plan
The six rules were written down and frozen: dig in four directions, rocks fall, the lantern shrinks, letters go to matching doors, beetles walk your tunnels, and deliver everything to clear a level. The plan scoped 24 dispatches in three soils. The game was renamed Post Below the same day, because Mail Mole is already a commercial game about a delivery mole.
· G1 toy, first tries
The first grey toy had one room, three letters and three hazards. Computer players found that 2 of 11 losses came with a warning shorter than 0.4 seconds, which is unfair, and only 2 of 9 sessions lasted a minute or more. The tuned second attempt had no short warnings among 17 losses. The first toy's misses turned out to come from how the checker sampled the screen, not only from the game.
Turning point
· G1 toy
The final toy was a single room: dig to a letter, carry it to its door, and watch the lantern shrink. The skilled computer player cleared it 3 of 3 times and the random one 0 of 3. All three beginner runs made their first delivery at 6.3 seconds and took 70 to 84 seconds. The outside reviewer timed out after 182 seconds, so that review is a recorded gap.
Turning point
· G2 Content
The full game arrived: 24 hand-made dispatches in three soils, a title, controls, pause, options, music and saved scores. One uninterrupted run delivered all 62 letters. A route called Switchback was too long, so a second safe crossing was added and its measured route dropped from 51 seconds to 13. Split Shift got a full beetle warning from the moment you spawn.
· G3 Polish
Loam, Clay and Shale got their own colors and textures, the mole got a real silhouette, and the lantern light shrinks in steps around you. A check found one crowded room dropped 5 of 600 frames; redrawing only the part of the screen that changed brought it to 600 of 600. Wobbling rocks and marked danger squares make hazards readable without relying on color.
Turning point
· G4 Ship
One recorded run cleared all 24 dispatches, delivered 62 letters and scored 6,200 in 273.7 seconds. All 15 deliberately broken versions of the cartridge were caught by the checks, and a 32 minute computer-played soak had no crash. A fresh-player review asked for clearer beetle cues and a clearer retry cost, which went into the handoff page. A first handheld test booted the game and delivered the first letter, using the on-screen touch pad.
· U1
Postmaster Burrows now teaches on a protected practice route: dig down to a letter, take it to door A, see a harmless rock fall, then use oil. A screen-only computer player finished the lesson in 8.4 seconds reading 37 words. One rule changed: lives refill to three when you enter Clay and Shale, so a learner who finished one soil meets the next with a full set. Loam beetles also announce moves for 42 frames instead of 30.
· U1 review fixes
A reviewer who had never seen the game noticed that a wobbling rock blended into the soil, so the warning came too late to read. They also saw a leftover piece of the route name on screen after a retry. The rock got a bright cream edge and the route banner now clears in one go. The reviewer checked both fixes and agreed.
Turning point
· U2
Loam turned moss green, Clay rose and terracotta, Shale slate and violet, with soft rims on the dark tunnels and a two-row sky and post office above. A reviewer first found oil and mail hard to tell apart and barriers that looked like dirt, so oil became a capped bottle, mail a wide folded envelope and barriers gray-blue blocks. The handheld test accepted a physical A press.
· U2 menu polish
Menus got frames and shorter labels with room to breathe. The title courier was redrawn with a pointed snout, a digging paw and a mail satchel. The handheld booted to the new title and a physical A press started the lesson.
Turning point
· U3
Tunnel snakes replaced beetles, and boulders now hide caches: Swift speeds you up for about three seconds and Ram Stamp breaks hardpan gates. A purple courier called Rush Post enters eight dispatches and races for the last letter. If it delivers first you still clear the route, but you lose the 100 delivery points and up to 40 more. A live score now shows on screen, and a fast last delivery earns 40 bonus points.
Turning point
· U3 release
The U3 cartridge went public on the Secondhand Saves site. You can play it in a browser with a keyboard or touch pad, or download the Game Boy Color file for an emulator or flash cart.