this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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What are your thoughts on Pico-8? (lemmy.world)
submitted 18 hours ago by Zombiepirate@lemmy.world to c/games@sh.itjust.works
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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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[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 9 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

IIRC Tic-80 is the open-source version.

[–] missingno@fedia.io 5 points 14 hours ago

TIC-80 Is a different fantasy console, not compatible for Pico-8. There are open source Pico-8 emulators though, including a libretro core.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 4 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

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.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 8 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] nao@sh.itjust.works 4 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

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)

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 4 points 15 hours ago

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#

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago

i don't think they embedded pico 8 in the celsete, but rather made a pico8 clone. of the original prototype

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 4 points 17 hours ago

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.

[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago

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.