8SH – A tiny precision platformer adventure
Hello everyone,
I'm happy to share my latest project: 8SH, a small adventure platformer made in Pico-8.
It features smooth movement and tight, responsive controls, with short levels that focus on timing, flow, and precision.
Inspired by The End is Nigh by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, I aimed to capture that same snappy feel in a more compact format.
This is a personal Pico-8 release, and I’d love to hear what you think — feedback is always welcome!
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Tough but fair. I appreciate that the checkpoints still feel sensibly placed if I died in one of the multi-room areas where there's a key to pick up.
The variable jump height feels really natural. The interactivity on the title screen is a neat touch.
Statistics from my first attempt:
Statistics from my third attempt:
Wow, those stats don’t lie!
And here I was thinking I had made the game too hard :)
Might have to crank it up another notch next time!
Thanks so much for checking it out, much appreciated!
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I liked it, however it really bummed me when I had gotten the second key, got right next to the door, only to have hit the longer ledge above and fallen into the lava, making me have to get the key all over again. Lava was also weird because it could kill you by just standing on an edge over it instead of actually falling in. I died to the boss a lot from it spawning projectiles while I was attacking, but I think that's just a skill problem on my part. I liked the movement system and the art style a lot, though.
Appreciate you checking it out — and cool to hear your thoughts! That part near the second key is definitely one of the toughest in the game, so respect for powering through! 🔥 Glad you enjoyed the movement and art style!
This is great so far, I'll have to come back and play some more. Controls feel great, challenge level is tricky but still inviting early on, though I imagine it will get harder. Haven't played The End is Nigh but I can see the Edmund McMillan influence. Good stuff, I will have to jump on this with a gamepad at some point!
Really glad you’re enjoying it !
Definitely recommend checking out The End is Nigh — great game.
Using a gamepad is a great idea too, I’ve been playing most of my Pico-8 stuff on an RGB30, love that thing!
What a great cart. Love the art-style and the animation on the main character. I found it tough and it was about at the limit of my abilities. That second key was nasty. If you hadn't said it was short I would have given up before the boss.
I am nowhere near as good as @Cowirrie and my stats are a measly:
Big respect for sticking with it :) and super happy you liked it!
That second key is a mean one, haha — props for pushing through!
And hey, your stats are far from measly — finishing the game is already a win in my book 💪
(Cowirrie is just built different 😄)
I don't normally have the persistence for speedrunning, but when each run takes under two minutes I found 8SH fun to practice. Speedrun in 1:03:
It's great how momentum persists between screens, it makes some very fast moves possible. I'm sure I'm still pausing in a few places I don't have to, and died once at 0:41. Is it possible in under 60 seconds?
@furious Thanks! Very happy to hear that, it was a fun one to put together :)
@Cowirrie That looks like a pretty optimal run!

Maybe it's possible to shave off another second or two, but I think the fastest possible time is probably around the 1:00 mark.
You waited a bit at the blade screen, you can actually squeeze through on the first cycle.
And the section right above that can be done without those little pauses.
And yeah, the death at 0:41 does cost a tiny bit...
That said, I’d personally consider this a perfect run!
Your boss fight was super clean. Really impressive stuff.
So yeah, sub 1:00 might be technically possible, but I’d say this run is already gold-tier :)
I have encountered one glitch in 8SH after choosing "Reset Run" many times over. The left conveyor turns into green squares that the protagonist falls through. This has happened to me twice.
Once it happens, this persists through both "Reset Run" and "Reset Cart". The latter not fixing it suggests to me this may be an error in the web player, not in the cart.
If this has any affect on speedrun times it will make them a few frames slower, so I don't thing this is an exploit, even if I could work out how to make it happen again.
@Cowirrie Thanks a lot for spotting that!
It wasn't clear to me what caused it, but I was able to reproduce it.
I eventually decided to rebuild that part of the map exactly the same — and now it works without issues.
Cart's updated — really appreciate your help!
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