jplopeznavarro [Lexaloffle Blog Feed]

Pico-8 Snippet Builder Tool

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 20:54:31 UTC

Hi!

I created a Pico-8 snippet builder tool to help me organize the several files and functions I've collected during my time developing for pico-8.
I'm confident others here have a similar struggle, and would find this useful, so I made it public in Github.
The Readme.MD explains how to setup and use. Start by cloning or downloading the code.

Code: Pico-8 Snippet Builder (Github)

Any feedback to make this tool better for all the pico-8 community is greatly appreciated! Leave a comment or create a ticket on the Github repo.

And if you want to contribute, even better!

Santa's Sleight Rush

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 15:46:14 UTC

Santa's Sleight Rush

Help santa to deliver all the presents on time! Avoid all the obstacles and make the most deliveries possible!

Controls: use arrow keys to move santa and avoid the obstacles. Press x to drop the presents.

Credits: Main idea and characters by Leo. Programming by JP (Leo's dad).

ssr_final

by jplopeznavarro

[Click to Play]

Holidays are about family to me, so I made a game with my 10yo daughter. She provided most of the ideas and mechanics, did all the characters' sprites in Pico-8l, and QA'ed the whole thing!

I'm super proud of the result we got!

Submitted for the 2024 Advent Calendar Gamejam.

Help: Aspects for metatables

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:37:44 UTC

Hey,
Out of curiosity, I wanted to implement Aspect Oriented Programming into metatables used as objects.
I'm having trouble making the __index meta-method to work correctly.

My goal is whenever the functions update or draw are executed, I also execute the functions called pre_update, pre_draw and post_update and post_draw if they exist in the same object.

I can't make the code below to work. What am I doing wrong?

function aop_mt(tbl) 
  tbl = tbl or {}
  tbl.__index = function(tbl,key)
    local ogfunc = rawget(tbl, key)
    if (one_of(key, "update", "draw") and is_fun(ogfunc)) then
      local prefunc = rawget(tbl,"pre_"..key)
      local postfunc = rawget(tbl,"post_"..key)
      return function(self,...)
        if(prefunc) prefunc(self,...)
        local ret = ogfunc(self,...)
        if(postfunc) postfunc(self,...)
        return ret
      end
    end
    return ogfunc
  end
  return tbl
end

--creating an object using aop_mt
object = {
  items = {
    {name="potion", qty=100, price=120, sell=100},
    {name="medicine", qty=100, price=100, sell=80},
    {name="revive", qty=10, price=300, sell=180},
    {name="attack+", qty=10, price=400, sell=250},
  },

  --when I call this function, I also want 'pre_update' to run before, and 'post_update' to run after.
  update=function(self) -- update logic end,

  pre_update=function(self) -- pre-update logic end,
  post_update=function(self) -- post-update logic end,
}
setmetatable(shop,aop_mt())

--utils used above for reference
function is_fun(f) return (f!=nil and type(f)=="function") end

function one_of(value, ...)
  if(select("#",...)==0) return false
  for arg in all({...})do if(value==arg) return true end
  return false
end

Parkanoid - Arkanoid-esque

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 06:10:15 UTC

Parkanoid, the Pico-8 Arkanoid.

The most significant deviation from the original game is the "Powerbar". It loads every time the ball hit bricks and loads faster you hit several bricks in a row before bouncing in the paddle (ship).
When the Powerbar loads enough, the ball can break tougher bricks with one hit, and when its fully loaded it can destroy every brick, until it hits the ship again.

Have fun! Let me know your thoughts and feedback in the comments.

kinageheye_1_2_2

by jplopeznavarro

[Click to Play]

v-1.2.2
Bug fixes:
-Glue powerup was not removed after game over
-Loading high scores was throwing 'out of memory' error.

v-1.2.1

Bug fix for sticky ball not placing in paddle correctly.

v-1.2.0

Added music to all stages, powerups working, added some particle effects and keep iterating on improving some mechanics.

v-0.3.0

The game isn't complete. Is missing some music and powerups do nothing for now.

I've been a developer for 15+ years, but this is the first time I'm attempting to code a video game. I love the Pico-8 community and I'm having a great experience coding.

Arkanoid Clone 0.0.2 - jplabs

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 00:19:16 UTC

Hi again!

Here is the second early release of my very first game: an arkanoid-like clone. I'm not looking to replicate the original game exactly, but to use it as a base to learn in the process.

I focused this release on cleaning the code - I was close to run out of tokens - and improving collisions. There aren't any visual/audio improvements from the 0.0.1 release (first release here: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=143441).

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to play it and provide feedback. I'm looking at you @RealShadowCaster, your insights on the collision engine were very useful. Let me know what you think of this version.

Arkanoid clone 0.0.2

by jplopeznavarro

[Click to Play]

Arkanoid-Clone 0.0.1 - jplabs001

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 20:32:42 UTC

Arkanoid-Clone 0.0.1 - jplabs001

by jplopeznavarro

[Click to Play]

Hi!

This is a very simple clone of Arkanoid, that I created to learn to code games in Pico8.
Although I have 15 years of experience in coding, this is my first time programming a video game, which is an area I would like to work professionally.

The game has the basic mechanics for collisions, levels and score. Some SFX but no music yet. I started to work on sprites when I decided to publish this version to gather feedback and ideas from the community.