From the Wiki:
PICO-8 is a virtual machine and game engine created by Lexaloffle Games. It is a fantasy video game console that mimics the limited audio-visual capabilities of 8-bit systems from the 1980s to encourage creativity and ingenuity in producing games without being overwhelmed with the many possibilities of modern tools and machines. Such limitations also give PICO-8 games a particular look and feel.
Coding on the PICO-8 is accomplished through a Lua-based environment, in which users can create music, sound effects, sprites, maps, and games.
Users are able to export their games as HTML5 web games or upload their creations to Lexaloffle’s official BBS where other users are able to play the games in a web browser, and view the source code. PICO-8 games can also be exported as executable programs, which will run on Windows, macOS, or Linux.
Do you have a favorite game on Pico-8? Have you ever tried to make one yourself? Do you like the idea of a fantasy console?
Do you have any tips?
I just started playing around with it myself, and one thing I like about it is that you can immediately jump to various editors for anything you play on it. It seems like an interesting way to make a small game.
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IIRC Tic-80 is the open-source version.
TIC-80 Is a different fantasy console, not compatible for Pico-8. There are open source Pico-8 emulators though, including a libretro core.
love it, wish there were ports in main consoles to share games.
it’s fun to make them there, and some people make amazing ganes for it
You can play the OG celeste for pico-8 in the full game, which is available on many platforms. I wonder if they ported pico-8 for that, then you’d have several ports out there already (even though you can only play one game)
Yeah. Celeste classic was made in pico 8 and is still available in the original forum (still very fun).
More info on the differences: https://celestegame.fandom.com/wiki/Celeste_Classic There are multiple versions but they all point to lua and later c#
i don’t think they embedded pico 8 in the celsete, but rather made a pico8 clone. of the original prototype
I didn’t know of the PICO-8, it looks really cool!
I really love the idea, because my current project is surprisingly similar.
I made a physiotherapy game console for kids that can be controlled using the touchscreen and inhalation / PEP physiotherapy devices and it too uses a Lua game engine.
It’s got slightly more screen real estate (240x320px), but runs on ESP32-S3, which does limit the performance somewhat. It has much more RAM, but the bandwidth to the screen is quite limited.
But it feels like a very similar kind of platform.
I’ve made a couple of games. Its great!
I play on the miyoo mini plus and steam deck from time to time. Just FYI you can play in the browser too.
It’s good fun! I’ve played around with it a fair bit and I enjoy the constraints (although I do wish there were some standard/official function libraries for common stuff like collision detection).
My only real complaint is that the built in code editor is shit, but it’s easy enough to open the cartridge file in a proper editor and work that way.
