4 Sample Games for Beginners
I used to teach a class in PICO-8 at NYU from 2017 to 2021 or so. I found the existing carts on the BBS tended to be a bit too expert for people who needed to learn both Lua and Pico-8 in a couple weeks, and so I set out to make a few samples that use very small amounts of code, to show off a few different ways that the system can be used to make different types of games.
They are all under 300 lines of code, including extensive (but terse) comments, and they all use way less than 64 sprites. In my class the students had to make a game every week, starting from zero, so I needed to prove to them that a game could be made of very small easy-to-understand parts.
I've been meaning to post these online for ages but kept forgetting. I hope they're of use to someone! Feel free to take and adapt for your own teaching or learning purposes, I don't assert any particular rights over them. I also don't assert that the code is good or represents good Lua practice (it was a design class, and I am not a programmer), so feel free to improve upon them and repost if that seems worthwhile.
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Made this small game in honor of the ice cream truck that continually circles my house in summer.
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