Hi folks! If you were eagerly anticipating the Advent Calendar's return this year, do not fret! The shadowy cabal behind the calendar has not forgotten.
We've decided to release a slimmed-down calendar this year, with twelve entries for the 12 days of Christmas. Check back starting on December 14th for the usual daily installment of holiday cheer.
Happy Holidays from the Pico-8 Advent Calendar Team!
Game Threads:
Totally Accurate Holiday Bowling by @freds72: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=45701
Mitt's Marble Adventure by @TheTomster: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=45710
Winter Wars by @2Tie
2018 Throwback - Secret Santa by @Liquidream: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=59306
2019 Throwback - Toboggoban by @2darray
2020 Throwback - Xmas RPG by @BoneVolt
Spirit Solstice by @Jusiv: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=45795
Courier & Ives by @beepyeah: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=45805
Present Pop DX by @MarkGamed7794
E.L.F. 1978 by Squirrel Eiserloh
Holiday Jumper by @zep: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=45856
Yule log features particle wizardry by FredS and art by Jusiv :-)
Calendar menu by johanp with modifications by MarkGamed


How foolish of me not to link to previous years' calendars! If you can't wait for the holiday cheer to start, dig into previous editions!
2018: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=32388
2019: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=36076
2020: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=40701


Our first release for the year is Totally Accurate Holiday Bowling, by local 3D graphics wizard @freds72!
Check back daily as we continue releasing games! I'll be manually updating the calendar to unlock new dates. I'll try to update them around midnight but for some of the dates it might be during the day Eastern Time.


«bang for buck» doesn’t apply when you’re not paying anything!
We’re all busy / tired / depressed, we’re also a small community, there’s no reason to expect 24 games that are good for your personal taste every year. We can be grateful for getting 12 games, or if you don’t like them, you can say nothing and play other games!


prismo18 read my mind! We have a few slots we're using to throw back to top games from the previous three calendars... and today's entry is Secret Santa!
If you haven't played through previous years' calendars I definitely recommend checking them out... there are plenty of great games in every year's edition. And more great games to come this year as our contributors frantically work on finishing things up!


Unfortunately the game for the 20th is behind schedule... I'll update the cart as soon as it's ready! :-[


The game for the 21st should be up later today, and we're expecting the game for the 20th to be up tomorrow... Sorry about the scheduling issues! Every year we say we're going to get the games done way ahead of time and then we still end up scrambling to finish the games at the last minute, hehe.


@TheTomster, In the future, maybe you can deal with your production issue by broadening the talent pool. One idea would be to include games that have been uploaded to the BBS in prior years and tagged #christmas. You would still curate for quality, etc., but you would have a larger pool to draw from and could probably fill out the 25 days quite easily.


@bikibird Pulling back the curtain a bit here - yeah we've actually been discussing expanding it, it just worked out this year that everyone was so busy with life stuff that no one really stepped up to actually tackle the process of doing that (because organizing something like that takes time too). We ended up missing the window it would have made sense in, and ultimately took a vote and settled on the 12 Days approach. But as always, fingers crossed for next year :P


You're welcome to use Fit Santa in the future if it makes the grade, FWIW.
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=45667


The calendar is fully updated through the 24th! Enjoy!
Fit Santa looks great! If anyone wants to get involved next year feel free to join the PICO-8 Discord and reach out to me. I'll get you added to the calendar dev server. We'd love to get more folks involved next year!


Be aware if you comment here it doesn't go specifically to the game you selected.
This cart by @TheTomster loads that game but doesn't load the actual original post where you can comment straight on the author's thread. You may have to invoke SEARCH to find the game or use the links above if you want to comment specifically on it.
Nonetheless a good menu selector.


I had some fun playing these games. Out of the games I played, I really liked Spirit Solstice.
Also, @TheTomster, I modded the Advent Calendar cartridge, and I found this:

Can you explain this?
Edit: For anyone who's wondering what the full thing looks, here are all of the locked presents you never got to see!
The placeholder description says, "Try to eat the fish without hitting the dog with the apple"


@evman2k That's the placeholder data for cards that don't have a description filled in. Johanp did most of the work on the calendar cartridge all the way back in January or February last year, and filled in the menus with placeholder text and sprites.
As we wrapped up games and added them to the calendar we replaced that data with real descriptions... but somehow you have gotten it to display some blank entries!
I am not sure why the dog does not like apples though...
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