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Cart #pico_ru8ik-4 | 2025-06-08 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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This is my Rubik's cube implementation in PICO-8 fantasy console. Back in 2023/2024 I did a Rubik cube in OpenGL but in November of 2024 I decided to learn about PICO-8 and practice about my 3D computer graphics skills, so I came up with this type of game again hahah.

After a quick search, I founded that many people already did a Rubik's Cube, but always for 3x3x3 dimensions. The same thing applied for having textures in the pieces.

In PICO RU8IK you can solve from a 1x1x1 cube up to 10x10x10 Rubik' cube. Also it's very customizable and CPU efficient!

HOW DO I SOLVE THE CUBE?

The main goal is solve the cube. This means that every face has only one colour. If you don't know how to solve the cube, try following the beginner's solution.

HOW TO PLAY

  • PRESS P TO PAUSE THE GAME and see other options like go back to the main menu, save the state of the game or even reset the cube.

  • Select layer: (↑) (↓)
  • Change axis: (←) (→)
  • Move around: (X) + (↑)(↓)(←)(→)
  • Type A controls (DEFAULT):
    • Rotate face 180º: (O) + (↑)(↓)
    • Rotate face (-)counter/(+)clockwise: (O)+(←) / (O)+(→)
  • Change cube pieces: (O) + (X) + (→)
  • Change background: (O) + (X) + (←)

  • Zoom in / Zoom out: (O) + (X) + (↑) / (O) + (X) + (↓)

  • Type B controls:

    • Rotate face (-)counter clockwise: (O) + (↑)(↓)
    • Rotate face (+)clockwise: (O) + (←)(→)
  • YOU CAN'T MOVE THE PIECES OF THE CUBE in the direction you want IF THE ICON APPEARS on the screen. This happens because the game needs to see some face of the cube in order to rotate the pieces in the desired direction. TIP: put the camera where you can see three faces each time to avoid this problem

UP TO 25 DIFFERENT PIECES

You can even make your own 8x8 or 16x16 textures if you edit the spritesheet correctly!

CHANGELOGS

V 1.3

  • Included a boost performance on solid colors that improves CPU usage. This is preferred option if you need a low CPU usage.
  • You can zoom in even more on a 9x9x9. The same applies but just a bit on a 10x10x10
  • Refactorization for the shadow
  • Some saved tokens

V 1.2

  • Added arrows and their moving pieces direction's in the UI when pressing (O) and the camera is on a valid position and angle
  • The position of the camera now changes when the player is in a forbidden angle to move the pieces. This reposition of the camera happens automatically when the eye icon appears. You can cancel this at any time pressing the (X) button to rotate the camera again.
  • Bugfix: Now you can load your previous cube state as many times as you want. Not only once
  • How to play instructions now are more detailed on the main menu option

V 1.1

After posting the game, Freds72 told me to change the texture rasterizer for an improved one that he made, so I changed it for the better ^^

Also, I noticed that people can struggle with the face rotations because the 👁️ eye icon was on the right-top corner. Now is on the center of the screen just to avoid this.

CREDITS

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I can not understand the controls, it's extremely intuitive, and I can't tell what piece I'm even selecting to begin with, so I'm just pressing random keys hoping it's on the piece I actually want to turn. And even when I'm on the right piece, It seems to turn in every way except the one direction I want it to turn.

@SwordF the selected pieces are those with the moving pattern on top, so those pieces looks dimmer than the others.

And the rotation of the cube is always the same: It goes counter clockwise or clockwise depending on if you have pressed left or right.

Please, check that you have the ? icon on the right corner before moving anything.

If you can't see the direction of rotation it will appear a closed eye instead of a ? in the corner. I hope this helps :)
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Ok I think I got it now, thx.
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Pretty nice!!

The era of playing Rubik's Cube with Pico8 has arrived!
It's also great to view it as a tiled texture viewer.

As mentioned in the previous comment, I understand that the reason there are angles at which the pieces cannot be rotated is because the three faces to be rotated must be visible (facing up).

People who don't understand this may get confused trying to find the angle at which to rotate the piece, even when the non-rotation icon is displayed.

I don't see a clear solution, but I think confusion could be prevented if there was a guide that automatically rotates the view until it reaches a rotatable angle. (For example, free rotation while the button is pressed.)
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Bravo!
Its very clean, so much better than mine in every way.
I didn't know what a matrix was when i tried to make my Rubik's so i'm very much jealous of the free rotation you got on your cube.
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I will update the game to avoid confusion as @Shiftallow suggested, plus some bug fixes with the load and save cube states.

Also, I'm very happy with the game, the feedback that I'm receiving from the community and, last but not least, that it's entertaining and fun. Seriously, I'm really thankful of your comments :)

The change texture button didn’t change the texture. Bug?

@deimos_314 Try to use your numeric pad instead of the arrows of your keyboard. I don't know why but PICO-8 doesn't detect more than 3 inputs at once with the arrows but that doesn't happen with the numpad.

Try that and if that still happens post an image or GIF please!
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@eterdev That's likely a problem with your physical keyboard, as the key matrix means you would get "ghosting" if too many keys are pressed. This would differ depending on the layout and number of rows/columns of the matrix.

Thanks @Soupster. I suppose that this happens for my Spanish laptop layout or my keyboard and it's not a problem from my code hahah



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