5 ms·

Publishing my first game using PICO-8

168 points by nalgeon 3y ago

oystermax 3y ago
It is a pretty fun game! It is also encouraging to read your sharing. Have been a game player since my childhood. Thinking about create my own games but haven't completed one yet, sinceI found it a bit overwhelming to architect all resources into a game. Creating the first game with constrains would help a lot to start. BTW really love pixel games!
felideon 3y ago
Very nice! Would love to find time to build a PICO-8 game some day. I’m a bit confused as to whether it took the OP 3 years or about a week to build the game, though: > September 18th 20203 - I think im actually going to commit...
- codezero 3y ago
  According to Twitter it was a week. https://x.com/boyter/status/1704999509183668656?s=46 https://x.com/boyter/status/1704999509183668656?s=46
  - dmitshur 3y ago
    Off-topic, but I can't help but wonder when x.com will start serving web pages instead of just redirecting to twitter.com. If ever.
    - codezero 3y ago
      yeah, I noticed that these x.com links don't even render a preview within actual tweets lol.
- MattPalmer1086 3y ago
  Its actually really easy to get into. I managed to make an asteroids like game in only a few hours.
montroser 3y ago
PICO-8 is a wonderful little thing. Kind of like a modern day Commodore 64 with a brilliantly intuitive IDE. My fourth grader has spent many a weekend tinkering with sound effects and sprites and animations and all the like. The whole space is nicely constrained (128x128px 4-bit color) while still being expressive enough to capture the imagination...
- MattPalmer1086 3y ago
  Yep. although my son isn't really into coding, PICO-8 was the only thing we tried where we actually made a mostly functional platform game. He got really into defining the sprites, levels and sounds, and that took him into coding movement and enemies and different bullets for the character.
- Dylan16807 3y ago
  > The whole space is nicely constrained (128x128px 4-bit color) while still being expressive enough to capture the imagination... It's pretty cool but I get overly annoyed that it has strict source code limits. Hopefully the token limit is what dominates coding most of the time, since it's significantly more realistic.
two_handfuls 3y ago
Nice game!
frenchie14 3y ago
PICO-8 is really fun! I've released two games with it and I'm working on my third. For the third one I'm trying to push the edge of what the limitations permit, which adds quite a bit of complexity to an otherwise straightforward engine. You are only allowed a certain amount of tokens (~2k lines of code), characters, and compressed cart space. Maximizing the use of these limits requires a lot of tricks!
jcmontx 3y ago
I played like 12 levels! Super fun. I can beat almost every wizard using lightning + acid combo
cableshaft 3y ago
Nice! One of these weekends I need to just sit down and finish my Pico-8 game. The gameplay is working fully (minus a couple nice to haves I wanted to add), I was just stuck on menu and logo design and sound/music when I drifted off. It's a pretty nice system and fun to play with. I recommend it.
noman-land 3y ago
This game is super fun! I've never really gotten into one of these games before but this one sucked me in. Made me want to get a handheld or something :). How do the different opponents work? Are they using some sort of known strategies? Seems like they would follow a pattern and once you figured it out you could defeat them. How far does it go?
- Tao3300 3y ago
  9 levels. Most of them have a simple pattern like "attack, shield, repeat with same attack" but some are more complex.
tmountain 3y ago
Game looks fun, I will give it a try. If anyone wants to try writing PICO-8 games in TypeScript instead of Lua, I made a project to make it easy to get started. https://github.com/tmountain/pico-8-typescript https://github.com/tmountain/pico-8-typescript Nothing against Lua, but it might be uncharted territory for some people.
tooltower 3y ago
Does anyone know of an open-source version of PICO-8? I don't even care about any of the features, as long as there's an active community around the project.
- zx90 3y ago
  To all the sibling repliers: PICO-8, TIC-80, Load81 and probably others are somewhat Lua oriented. What is it about Lua that makes it so popular in this area?
  - felideon 3y ago
    Its small footprint goes well with those kinds of platform constraints and it’s a pretty expressive language.
- re 3y ago
  TIC-80 is a (somewhat similar) fantasy console that is open-source. https://tic80.com/ https://tic80.com/
- buitreVirtual 3y ago
  An alternative open source fantasy console is TIC 80: https://tic80.com https://tic80.com
- Sheebeehs 3y ago
  [dead]
- TedDallas 3y ago
  Tic-80 is what you are looking for.
- katspaugh 3y ago
  You should checkout WASM4⁽¹⁾, an Open Source WebAssembly-based fantasy console with 4 colors and a 160x160 screen. One of its advantages over TIC-80 is that you can program games in any language that compiles to WebAssembly. The games are tiny pure Wasm "carts" that can run on any Wasm runtime, from the browser to Nintendo 3DS. [1] https://wasm4.org https://wasm4.org
jncfhnb 3y ago
> So can confirm basic sounds effects add a LOT to the experience. A lot more than I was expecting. Good insight. Some folks trip over themselves to say “you gotta prototype something to see if it’s fun” but the reality is that a lot of stuff is not fun without the juicy bits
- Scalene2 3y ago
  with some notable exceptions, a game that is not fun without sound is like a comedy that isn't funny without a laugh track.
  - skyyler 3y ago
    Audio cues can add a lot to a game. A different shooting noise to signify you’re out of ammo, for example.
  - jncfhnb 3y ago
    As someone who has prototyped games, no. This just isn’t true. When stuff happens without sound it feels plain and empty and lifeless and demotivating. Further, the “is it fun question” is honestly a nonsense question. That’s usually a question about the larger game loop. A lot of games’ gameplay that people like is in fact not actively “fun” but is perhaps engaging or immersive. Which is not something you deduce easily from barebones prototypes. This advice works ok if it’s just an arcade style game that you play and that’s it, but that’s not really common
  - gxnxcxcx 3y ago
    More like try watching a comedy where nobody cared about getting the room tone to blend things right, no foley and sound effects work was done, and there was no provision in the budget for fixing things in ADR. See if you make it through the first 10 minutes before feeling the full ticket price was a scam. Some kind of immersion is a prerequisite to a worthwhile experience. Sound is a pretty cheap and effective feedback medium for player actions, it quickly helps to define and telegraph changes in environments and settings (¿is this a safe encounter or the prelude to a boss fight?) and is crucial in helping to keep engagement during non-playable segments (in the earlier days, sometimes even printing dialogue text to screen was accompanied by sound effects to avoid alienating the player).
danparsonson 3y ago
Wonderful little game, congratulations on the release :-)

168 points by nalgeon 3y ago

It is a pretty fun game! It is also encouraging to read your sharing. Have been a game player since my childhood. Thinking about create my own games but haven't completed one yet, sinceI found it a bit overwhelming to architect all resources into a game. Creating the first game with constrains would help a lot to start. BTW really love pixel games!

felideon 3y ago

Very nice! Would love to find time to build a PICO-8 game some day. I’m a bit confused as to whether it took the OP 3 years or about a week to build the game, though: > September 18th 20203 - I think im actually going to commit...

codezero 3y ago
According to Twitter it was a week. https://x.com/boyter/status/1704999509183668656?s=46 https://x.com/boyter/status/1704999509183668656?s=46
- dmitshur 3y ago
  Off-topic, but I can't help but wonder when x.com will start serving web pages instead of just redirecting to twitter.com. If ever.
  - codezero 3y ago
    yeah, I noticed that these x.com links don't even render a preview within actual tweets lol.
MattPalmer1086 3y ago
Its actually really easy to get into. I managed to make an asteroids like game in only a few hours.

montroser 3y ago

PICO-8 is a wonderful little thing. Kind of like a modern day Commodore 64 with a brilliantly intuitive IDE. My fourth grader has spent many a weekend tinkering with sound effects and sprites and animations and all the like. The whole space is nicely constrained (128x128px 4-bit color) while still being expressive enough to capture the imagination...

MattPalmer1086 3y ago
Yep. although my son isn't really into coding, PICO-8 was the only thing we tried where we actually made a mostly functional platform game. He got really into defining the sprites, levels and sounds, and that took him into coding movement and enemies and different bullets for the character.
Dylan16807 3y ago
> The whole space is nicely constrained (128x128px 4-bit color) while still being expressive enough to capture the imagination... It's pretty cool but I get overly annoyed that it has strict source code limits. Hopefully the token limit is what dominates coding most of the time, since it's significantly more realistic.

two_handfuls 3y ago

Nice game!

frenchie14 3y ago

PICO-8 is really fun! I've released two games with it and I'm working on my third. For the third one I'm trying to push the edge of what the limitations permit, which adds quite a bit of complexity to an otherwise straightforward engine. You are only allowed a certain amount of tokens (~2k lines of code), characters, and compressed cart space. Maximizing the use of these limits requires a lot of tricks!

jcmontx 3y ago

I played like 12 levels! Super fun. I can beat almost every wizard using lightning + acid combo

cableshaft 3y ago

Nice! One of these weekends I need to just sit down and finish my Pico-8 game. The gameplay is working fully (minus a couple nice to haves I wanted to add), I was just stuck on menu and logo design and sound/music when I drifted off. It's a pretty nice system and fun to play with. I recommend it.

noman-land 3y ago

This game is super fun! I've never really gotten into one of these games before but this one sucked me in. Made me want to get a handheld or something :). How do the different opponents work? Are they using some sort of known strategies? Seems like they would follow a pattern and once you figured it out you could defeat them. How far does it go?

Tao3300 3y ago
9 levels. Most of them have a simple pattern like "attack, shield, repeat with same attack" but some are more complex.

tmountain 3y ago

Game looks fun, I will give it a try. If anyone wants to try writing PICO-8 games in TypeScript instead of Lua, I made a project to make it easy to get started. https://github.com/tmountain/pico-8-typescript https://github.com/tmountain/pico-8-typescript Nothing against Lua, but it might be uncharted territory for some people.

tooltower 3y ago

Does anyone know of an open-source version of PICO-8? I don't even care about any of the features, as long as there's an active community around the project.

zx90 3y ago
To all the sibling repliers: PICO-8, TIC-80, Load81 and probably others are somewhat Lua oriented. What is it about Lua that makes it so popular in this area?
- felideon 3y ago
  Its small footprint goes well with those kinds of platform constraints and it’s a pretty expressive language.
re 3y ago
TIC-80 is a (somewhat similar) fantasy console that is open-source. https://tic80.com/ https://tic80.com/
buitreVirtual 3y ago
An alternative open source fantasy console is TIC 80: https://tic80.com https://tic80.com
Sheebeehs 3y ago
[dead]
TedDallas 3y ago
Tic-80 is what you are looking for.
katspaugh 3y ago
You should checkout WASM4⁽¹⁾, an Open Source WebAssembly-based fantasy console with 4 colors and a 160x160 screen. One of its advantages over TIC-80 is that you can program games in any language that compiles to WebAssembly. The games are tiny pure Wasm "carts" that can run on any Wasm runtime, from the browser to Nintendo 3DS. [1] https://wasm4.org https://wasm4.org

jncfhnb 3y ago

> So can confirm basic sounds effects add a LOT to the experience. A lot more than I was expecting. Good insight. Some folks trip over themselves to say “you gotta prototype something to see if it’s fun” but the reality is that a lot of stuff is not fun without the juicy bits

Scalene2 3y ago
with some notable exceptions, a game that is not fun without sound is like a comedy that isn't funny without a laugh track.
- skyyler 3y ago
  Audio cues can add a lot to a game. A different shooting noise to signify you’re out of ammo, for example.
- jncfhnb 3y ago
  As someone who has prototyped games, no. This just isn’t true. When stuff happens without sound it feels plain and empty and lifeless and demotivating. Further, the “is it fun question” is honestly a nonsense question. That’s usually a question about the larger game loop. A lot of games’ gameplay that people like is in fact not actively “fun” but is perhaps engaging or immersive. Which is not something you deduce easily from barebones prototypes. This advice works ok if it’s just an arcade style game that you play and that’s it, but that’s not really common
- gxnxcxcx 3y ago
  More like try watching a comedy where nobody cared about getting the room tone to blend things right, no foley and sound effects work was done, and there was no provision in the budget for fixing things in ADR. See if you make it through the first 10 minutes before feeling the full ticket price was a scam. Some kind of immersion is a prerequisite to a worthwhile experience. Sound is a pretty cheap and effective feedback medium for player actions, it quickly helps to define and telegraph changes in environments and settings (¿is this a safe encounter or the prelude to a boss fight?) and is crucial in helping to keep engagement during non-playable segments (in the earlier days, sometimes even printing dialogue text to screen was accompanied by sound effects to avoid alienating the player).

danparsonson 3y ago

Wonderful little game, congratulations on the release :-)