Game Designer. Co-founded id, ION Storm, Monkeystone. Did Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, Rise of the Triad, Anachronox, DASH games. VR/AR/Photography/puns/Switch!
TOY BOX JAM is a yearly jam where I give you all the graphics, sounds, and music, and you have to make a game with just those assets! TOY BOX JAM 2025 was the biggest ever, peaking at 901 Jammers! We got 94 game submitted. (Plus many spam games, but tried to handle those.)
Big thanks to @MaxOsirus who helped wrangle Pico-8 developers, organize the titles, and fix up the Launcher. Kudos to you! And others for encouragement to make it happen. Thanks!
The Launcher Cart's label is a chicken, because the Jammers made a lot of chicken games, and then we added more chicken graphics to support their craziness!
Thanks to @Doriencey for her great 16x16 spritesheet and overtime on chicken duty, and all the people that helped test the ARG Mystery and Jam, and thanks last to all the Jammers! You made this amazing, big, chickentastic, and fun!
HOW TO USE THE LAUNCHER
Use the left and right arrows to move between games.
Pressing X will either launch Pico-8 games, or it will copy the URL of the non-Pico-8 game into the clipboard. Just open a new browser tab, paste it in there, and hit Enter/Return to go play it. (These games won't return to the Launcher, but you can just go back to that Browser Tab.
Pico-8 games: Press Return to get the Pause Menu, then choose "Back to Launcher".
Have fun!
THE GAMES
Here are all games -- try them out!
ninjado - narcolepticfrog
seadogs - morganquirk
sally's star racers - paloblancogames
pig farm - kittenm4ster
the tower - blues_driven
free range - monkey burner
hello galaxy - squishyam
chicketron - deus tex
charon's gold - brytergames
that's not a chicken! - oldillusion
ninjoe and the reflex maze - maxosirus
critter combo - dual shocked music
robo rundown - slamb036
safety ship - jose perez
swap-geon - bluetiecasual
raz reductions - coconutmunky
books - mindlessturtle
shmup wannabe - showner
catch that chicken! - stargazersees
gravity chicken - sho nakano
30 seconds to live - dpsa_264940
batty piglet - foppygames
ninja speed runner - external
reach the star - torshi88
feed the king - domi from futurerebels
dimond hunter - mohaa07
find the gems - 31math62
turned based gumber thinker - adamavramov
star collector - desistdawdling
terminal - alejandro ciuba
wendyl's wizarding adventure - bitbionic
escape - tim-vh
ninja volley - samu1407
chicken scratch - houndfire
rozie saga - was a bee
swim_bomber - aji creators
chicky's adventure - isaac estudillo
how many? - onetruemmo
backstab - zepphireos
chik n rail - ulinsoft
chicken survivors - octoan
chicken rush - prismaticdaze
cluck rush - tai
the many adventures of mudball - upset_eastern
chicks and me - jmtu
alien shooter - dz373
chicken troubles - etfaison
for the coop & glory - murraybot
azuremission - federov
brick kick - spicem
alien invasion - w2w2w2w2
poultry party! - dumub cyberlaelaps burritobrawler
ahoy adventure! - lucasshadow1
pizak - kc00l
grand theft chicken - ruben tipparach
fishing bloke - robthedudeyo
spixeon - mega animation
the eternal spring - happy-ferret
pixelated maze - symsq
gravity girl - ronbeehive
munchling - sinnon
feathered revolution - paulinskyrulez
spike escape - andrebubniak
snakes on a plain - lusid games
chicken platformer - bluecrafter
gauntlet swipe: the lost relics - zemane
capetown caves - jazzydingo
henball - rdhagan
the haunted village - bau
don't fall rollerskating! - aufox
endure the dungeon! - siddharthabertelsie
situation normal: all clucked up! - ai864
chicken apocalypse - drazengames
game - iamdoingstuff
alien invaders - evans555666
spelunker cave jumper - philnemba
subject 886 - salmino
the medieval trader - happymao
omnidroid survivors - stranded cosmonaut
topanga quest - marcim3b
help alien - artharva_1535
bomb castle - daon_game
on borrowed time - rizv13
thin walls - vaszed877
rogue ranger rendezvous - scarlettoivr
subject: b10661 - esclate96
chicken vs alien - joe ritson
monster survival - aidan157
remold - doomboxofficial
3 comments
So if you use the Numpad on a cart from the Desktop app, PC or Mac, it eats the "8" key.
Works fine on webpage.
Example:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=153492
Download cart MAD SCIENTIST. Run.
If you type to type 8 on the numpad, doesn't work. For multiple folks (me, Bikibird). NumLock didn't solve the problem.
Doriencey reports 2 4 6 and 8 didn't work on AZERTY keyboard.
Can send un-Shrunken code if you need it. I get the keys with:
_key=stat(31)
If that matters....
5 comments
THE MISSING SCIENTIST
A brilliant scientist working in a remote location, conducting a top secret experiment for the Futurion Corporation, started sending more frantic and more unhinged messages. Then suddenly, he stopped communicating.
Codenamed Project Glow Worm, his work was at the edge of science. Futurion got backing by various governments on thought-exercise projects related to hyperdrive, time travel, advanced weaponry, and other concepts. All concluded and results secretive. But this new work was not theoretical -- they BUILT something.
YOUR JOB
5 comments
Rudolph got stir-crazy waiting for Christmas Eve, so he took a bag of Santa's stuff and started flying around erratically, dropping it in the local river!
Santa can grab the stuff and save Christmas! Just use left and right arrows to guide Santa's hand into the five dropping channels. Catch your stuff! It will fly to your magic sack of goodies!
BUT WATCH OUT! Don't catch coal or any of the other dangerous things. If they hit your mitten, you lose a Heart! Lose THREE Hearts and Santa is too depressed to deliver gifts! It'll be...
GAME OVER, SAN! GAME OVER!
<-- Hand Left
--> Hand Right
Z/O Hand All the Way Left
.X. Hand All the Way Right
Good luck, Santa, it's DANGEROUS out there!
This little game is part of the PICO-8 ADVENT CALENDAR 2024! Check all the games out! There's a new one each day!
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=145806
WORLD RECORD: 12345, Level 9 -- NarcolepticFrog. (Yes, it is a real score.)
Thanks to NarcolepticFrog for testing upper levels,
Bikibird for hosting the jam and feedback and gingerbread suggestion,
and the Holiday Jammers for testing and feedback.
And Shadowphiar for finding a MUSIC bug. :O
8 comments
For TweetTweet Jam (or Toot Jam) 2024 - CODE MUST FIT IN 500 CHARACTERS! [expertly minified by PANCELOR - tiny version in jam entry] NOTE: This cart isn't minified completely and has sounds/restart for fun.
=== INSTRUCTIONS ===
Shoot the Space Faces as fast as you can!
Get get more points for shooting a space face faster!
Go for record time AND score!
Mouse to aim, mouse button to fire space lasers.
Press Z/X to play again.
WORLD RECORDS SO FAR:
Record Time: 3.8883s, Solitalker.
(Former Record Time: 5.8667s, John Romero.)
Score: 8200, George Broussard. (Tie: Solitalker.)
0 comments
Here's a thread to tutorialize how to do the most common Pico-8 commands in Picotron. Show how they are the same, or how they may be slightly different.
So:
--spr
--sspr
--sfx
--music
--rects, circs, lines
--pset, pget?
--mset, mget?
--fget, fset?
--math stuffs
--etc.
Please note if a) the command is part of the list of Picotron commands and b) if it currently works (or may just not be implemented yet).
Picotron API functions: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=143245#p
Please no questions, only answers here. Thanks!
2 comments
It's out! We're all stoked, it looks great. We're all excited to explore its possibilities.
But we are also PICOTRON PIONEERS...
So post your bugs here!
471 comments
It's just before Christmas, and Santa needs to know...
WHO TOOK THE BOOKS?
This is the sequel game to WHO STOLE THE COAL? - a Pico-8 holiday game from Dec 2020.
A LONG LOST, UNRELEASED GAME!
There was a video game crash, with tons of unsold/unreleased cartridges for the ATOMI 3600 console being buried in the desert in 1983.
Years later in 2014, they were excavated. Amongst the cartridges was a finished sequel to WHO STOLE THE COAL?, which was the original immensely popular game when released. But by the time WHO TOOK THE BOOKS? was finished, the market has collapsed, and it never saw the light of day.
But ATOMI rose from the ashes, recently releasing the ATOMI 3600+, and on it, WHO TOOK THE BOOKS? finally got released to the public. Game players and historians rejoiced!
53 comments
WHO STOLE THE COAL?
A Personal Story and a Game
In 1977, I got an amazing gift from my parents...an Atari 2600. This game shares that story. (Company name changed for parody purposes.) It was one of the moments that changed the course of my life forever. Run the game to see that moment...
As for the game:
WHO STOLE THE COAL?
Santa got home and found no coal for his furnace! His house is cold. He hear whispers that the Abominable Snowbeast took all nine of his coal chunks, along with nine of his elves, and SIXTY of his cookies! Fortunately, the Abominable Snowbeast sleeps at sunset, so Santa can sneak in and get his coal back!
5 comments
Since Pico-8 will import a graphic and adapt it to the default palette, seems like if someone has done poke(0x5f2e,1), it could simply adapt to the current palette? An external tool could be made, but it seems like it would be replicating what Pico-8 could probably do with little effort?
Hidden Palette people would really appreciate it!
Also, pretty please with sugar on top.
3 comments
Here's SPY'S DEMISE (an old Apple ][ game) in a TweetTweetCart!
CONTROLS: Arrows right and left. Avoid RedFaces, climb ladders to get to Star!
Once you start moving, you can't stop until the edge, so keep steering to avoid RedFaces!
WORLD RECORD: @Tleprie on Itch.io, 41.66!
Have fun!
(Added a restart for un-minified cart!)
4 comments
RNDGAME
It's a random arcade game name generator -- press RIGHT ARROW to generate a new one! (LEFT ARROW goes back to previously created names.)
HISTORY
So in the game Anachronox, there was an arcade on the planet Hephaestus. I made a random arcade game name generator (for a sign in an arcade). It announced new games coming to the arcade, but just made up random silly ones. Every time you clicked on the sign, it made up a new one, just or silly fun.
Hope you enjoy it! Let me know if there are any (family-friendly) words you want added!
Updated: May 13, 2020 with typo fix.
37 comments
.png)
SPRITE FONT PRINTING!
This cart -- all it does -- is provide a sprite font and routines to print to the screen.
All the routines print either a colorized font, or a colorized font on a color background (if provided). If the first color is black, it prints in black, assuming the background to be transparent (say, if you were printing on a white background).
The three print functions do the following:
- SPRINT. Prints on 8x8 boundaries
- SPRINTC. Prints centered in X, but on a Y at pixel resolution.
- SPRINTXY. Prints at an X,Y at pixel resolution
The two SPRITE FONTS match the Pico-8 font, including the glyphs. (It doesn't contain Kana characters).
1 comment
Maybe the BBS code parsing is lagging behind the Pico-8 release?
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=74848
Downloaded Code shows fine in pico8 app.
In Code tab that cartridges listing, it just says:
0001
2 comments
WELCOME TO PICO ARCADE!
Pico Arcade is a game launcher that launches 36 arcade-style games from great cartmakers!
Use left and right arrows to go through the carts.
Press X to launch the cart!
You can get back to the Arcade from the Pause Menu.
Have fun!
MUSIC: Gruber
P.S. If you have other favorite high-quality, arcade-style Pico-8 games, let me know! I can publish another showcase in the future.
64 comments
This is the DEMO CART for Toy Box Jam 2019.
https://itch.io/jam/toy-box-jam-2019
The code is mostly atrocious, but on purpose -- it shows what sprite numbers to use and colors to change to make the most out of a limited number of sprites.
Enjoy the fine music by Gruber!
0 comments
TOY BOX JAM LAUNCHER
Here is the launcher for TOY BOX JAM!
All the games are here! Choose your cart with arrows then press X to launch it.
You can get back to the Launcher by pressing RETURN (Pause Menu) and choosing "Back to Launcher".
SHOUT OUT TO ZEP! His last minute heroics fixed some small issues and lets the launcher work perfectly! Thanks, Zep!
Have fun with the games/tech demos/stories/experiences!
Also, good things come to those who wait..... ;^)
25 comments
MYRRH'S EDGE
You are BALTHAZAR, King of Tarse and Egypt! You are one of the Three Kings mythically following the North Star to find that baby Jesus! BUT you’ve woken up late -- you were supposed to be at the manger hours ago! On top of that you’ve forgotten your gift of Myrrh you were supposed to bring! (Maybe you can pick some up on the way?)
Parkour your way across Bethlehem, avoiding aggressive Bethlehem guards, picking up 50 myrrh to fill your gift box, and get to the barn's manger as fast as you can!
MYRRH’S EDGE: It’s a holiday parkour speedrun challenge!
Who can get:
--fastest to manger with 50 myrrh? (World Record So Far: 38.0 Crayonatee!)
24 comments
.png)
FRUIT LICKER!
Lick fruit without guilt or shame RIGHT NOW in my easy little game, FRUIT LICKER! (My 560-char entry to #TweetTweetJam)
Get as many oranges as you can in 30 seconds! Play in your browser or on your phone! IT'S LICKALICIOUS!
Z to lick. Game ends in 30 seconds. Press X to restart.
Game minified and cool eye-moving by Paul Nicholas ( @Liquidream). Thanks!
WORLD RECORD IS 37 by Mango Man. Congrats!
3 comments
.
.
.
TATER EVADER!
You dropped some Honey Gold potatoes at a picnic, and they GAINED SENTIENCE, realized you were about to eat them, so they got mad and started to fire TATERIKENS at you! Try to survive as long as you can!
Use the arrow keys to evade the angry taters and their taterikens! If you touch either, you die and game ends. Press X to retry!
WORLD RECORD SO FAR: 77.26s, Taters (E:) 26.
0 comments
