I coded this tiny demo based off @mhughson 's micro platformer demo as an exercise to get more familiar with the basic pico-8 API.
However, I came up with a fun particle effect and wanted to share it - maybe it could be of interest to someone.
The basic idea is to scale a sprite from size 0 to X (however large it should become), and shift its position by a movement vector each frame (determining the speed and direction of movement). The movement vector is based on a random point on the unit circle (direction) that is multiplied by a scaling factor (speed).
You will find a detailed documentation of the code inside the cartridge.
2 comments
Almost Fourier Transform
I recently watched a video from 3Blue1Brown(https://youtu.be/spUNpyF58BY) about the Fourier Transform and remade the "Almost Fourier Transform" in PICO-8.
⬇️/⬆️ to select parameters and switch between the 3 screens.
⬅️/➡️ to change the value of the selected parameter.
1 comment
Hello! This is my first post. I'm going to be documenting the making of my small platformer game Mushroom Hero. I was up late last night programming player movement and I think it's a pretty good base that I can build upon later. Here's my little mush sprites:
So far I have running, jumping and sliding movements along with the appropriate sprite animations.
2 comments
Void Seeker
You wish to become one with the void, but you're running out of time—you need to fall through the gaps on each floor and make it to the void before it closes. The deeper you go the sooner the void closes and the path becomes more challenging, but fortunately you'll have some power ups along the way. The goal of the game is to get to the deepest level as the void has no end.
Controls
⬅️➡️ - Movement
❎ - Jump/Start/retry
Features
- The void is rife with randomness—no two levels are the same!
- Spiffy sound effects, they'll never get old
- High score tracking, your PB is displayed on the start screen
Gaps
- Normal (grey) — Fall at regular speed
- Fast (green) — Fall fast then move
- Slow (purple) — Fall slow then move slow, less so if you jump in
When falling from one gap if you go through another that will speed your fall and give you a speed boost on landing!
Items
- Key — Get all the keys on the floor to unlock the gaps
- Time extend — The void lingers a little longer
Power ups
As you wish to travel light you can only hold one power–up a time, but fortunately they aren't uncommon in your journey.
- Warp — Walls lose all meaning
- Grav Belt — More jumps and improved slow descents
- Speed shoes — Move faster, stop slower
Obstacles
- Launcher — Gives you boost … back up a floor
- Bouncer — Gives you a little push
Game Jam
This is an entry for the inaugural
4 comments
Hi, this is my first ever game on any platform, ever!
Use arrow keys to move.
Press the Z key to send love to Pablo, gift subs, and bits.
Press the X key to throw poop on Jad, gnome child, and mayo.
Score goes up if you send/throw the correct thing. Otherwise it'll go down!
Game ends when something hits the crumby desk.
0 comments
Picamor is Dating Hell! Dodge awkward beams, collect tiny hearts and stay in the cool blue flow to win your date's affection or risk breaking their heart...
If you enjoy our little game let us know, and consider supporting it on itch.io
dinoware is a collective of tiny dinosaurs. In alphabetical order:
- Amysaurus: Pixel artist extraordinaire
- Galenmereth: Programming and game design
- Gruber: Composer of wicked pico8 tunes
- Himitsu: Tamer and advisor, QA
4 comments
50 (plus 1) of the most challenging lode runner levels!
WARNING: some levels are untested. The following are definitely achievable: 1, 3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 18, 32
Controls
[Z] and [X] dig
Hold [X] if you get stuck to restart level
[Q] to quit back to titles
Thanks To
Finn for testing
Doug Smith for creating the 1983 classic
Mike Dailly for creating the original lemmings sprites
Zep for the confetti tweetcart I used for the game complete scene
PICO-8 for creating an awesome "fantasy console"
Minified using the GEM Minifier:
https://pahammond.itch.io/gem-minify
Unminified code can be downloaded from:
https://pahammond.itch.io/lode-runner-ce
2 comments
Use your lazor to kill the infection (orange fuzzy cells) before it overruns your healthy ones (blue).
arrows: move aim
O: cycles lazor power from 1-5
X: FIRE LAZOR
Next version of this should have proper end game states
0 comments
Third game I ever made.
Move with arrows, X to attract nearby cows to you.
There are 17 cows in total to find and terrorize.
Follow the flowers to find them.
0 comments
The second game I ever made.
Move with arrow keys, the spinny blade thing is attached by a springlike connection to you.
You cannot go off the edge of the screen, but the blade can.
0 comments
The first game I ever made in PICO-8: it's a simple animation, nothing to do here.
And yes, it does hit the corner eventually.
0 comments
So, I wanted to do a quick experiment to see what happened if you played a note on a custom SFX instrument with reverb - would the reverb continue past the line where the note is played? would it cut off? Either would definitely be cool.
So I made a test cart:
...and did an export command from the command line to save a .wav of SFX 1 to open in Audacity, and PICO-8 immediately crashed.
It looks like it's an issue with SFX that contain custom SFX instruments, from my very quick testing.
Edit: I haven't noticed this error at any point recently; I'm going to chalk it up to gremlins and resolve the report.
0 comments
Hey All! PICO-8 0.2.2 is now up on lexaloffle, Humble, itch.io, and for PocketCHIP.
This release follows a pattern set by previous 0.2.* updates in that I set out to fix a bunch of bugs and resolve design details, but in doing so, went down some deep rabbit holes and came out the other end with brand new features. As a result, some of the new features are on the advanced side, and this post will be likewise be more technical than usual. But I hope everyone can find something fun to mess around with!
SFX Filters
At the bottom of the SFX editor, you can now find 5 switches that alter the characteristics of each instrument. You can get a much wider variety of sounds and textures now, but they're meant to feel like variations on the existing instruments rather than completely new ones. I settled on this scheme after working on Voxatron's sound system and found that I could boil the set of parameters I wanted down to just 7 bits of information -- which is fortunate because there were only 7 unused bits left in the SFX data!
33 comments
What happens when time () reaches its limit?
Can a pico-8 game run longer than 32,767 (9h 6m)?
1 comment
This is with the current latest release v0.2.2 on macOS 11.2.1 (if that's relevant):
If I try to export a sprite sheet, then modify it in an external program, then import it, I get a "could not load" error message. It also doesn't seem to matter whether I modify it externally, since export sprites.png and then import sprites.png shows the same error. Nothing seems to be logged to stdout or stderr.
3 comments
Been seeing some amazing things in Pico-8 lately and want to try my hand at some basic 3d. Can someone point me in the right direction for learning?
Thanks! <3
1 comment
Continuing my topic of custom fonts, here's one that replaces almost every character in the later half of the character set (which is usually taken by patterns, hiragana and katakana) with the 120 official characters of the "sitelen pona" writing system for the minimalist conlang "toki pona".
Here's the charts of characters:
Changelog:
Version 1.1 (current):
- slight adjustments to some characters, an easier-to-understand "moli"
Version 1.0:
11 comments
This is a demo for a game I did for class which I hope to expand on in my free time, when I actually have some of that again lol.
You play as the volcano god of an island city. When foreign ships carrying missionaries of another god arrive at your shores and convince the villagers to convert and stop their worship of you, you get revenge by destroying the city with your fireballs.
X to fire a shot
Goal is to destroy as much as you can in 10 shots
Some areas give more points than others
0 comments
finally finished something, the basics were made in one day, prob 5 hours, then kept adding effects and sound, planning on adding transitions with dithering!
1 comment
 14.29.02.png)