I’m a low-vision developer who recently fell head-over-heels for Pico-8 and Picotron—honestly, the low-res aesthetic is a game-changer for central vision loss. With fewer pixels and tight constraints, these platforms are some of the most playable and buildable game dev environments I’ve come across.
That said, I’ve been running into some accessibility bumps—especially with the IDE tooltips. The red-on-brick-red color scheme is tough to parse, and jumping my gaze from one side of the screen to the other really adds up in eye strain over long sessions.
Here’s my wishlist:
• Screen reader support: If tooltips and field labels had ARIA tags or other hooks for screen readers, I could fly through tools without as much visual fatigue.
• Retro screen reader mode: Even better? Imagine a built-in reader that sounds like an old-school ’80s computer voice. Bleeps, bloops, the whole vibe. Functional and fun.
I know accessibility work takes time, but even a small tweak—like upping the contrast on tooltips—would go a long way. I’d love to hear if others have worked around this or if it’s on the roadmap.
2 comments
A pong game that I created. Definitely easier than tic tac toe! (I'm not that good at coding in PICO-8/Lua ._.)
0 comments
hello! i'm just posting, because i was wondering if anyone else has made some kind of floating point type thing here on pico-8! i just really wanna see if anyone has broken free from pico-8's fixed-point numbers. if you have, or know somebody that has, please let me know!
3 comments
Ten days of hyperfocus later, I have a working playtest ready!
The "how to play" section needs a lot of love, but the game is functional. The logic is based on the Andy Looney game Icehouse (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjow6EJflw4&t=192s), which is a real time board game played with 3-4 players.
0 comments
Just a little snippet I use when looking sfx that haven't been used in the pattern editor.
p,s={},"" for a=0x3100,0x31ff do p[@a]=true end for i=0,63 do if not p[i] then s..=i.." " end end print(s) |
Paste into the terminal and hit enter.
WARNING: This only shows sfx that are unused in any pattern. You are responsible for checking whether they are:
- Used as sfx in the program
- Used as instruments by another sfx (i.e. for sfx 0 to 7)
- Used in some other way I haven't thought of
0 comments
PicoZip
A PICO-8 rendition of LinkedIn's daily Zip puzzles. Procedurally generates a square grid with checkpoints that must be crossed in order, and all squares in the grid must be filled in order to complete the puzzle.
Controls (Game):
Up/Down/Left/Right: Extend path in direction if possible, or backtrack last move
X: Backtrack last move, or open exit menu
Features:
- Random color scheme per game
- Adjustable grid size (3-6) and checkpoint count (2-9, may be less in smaller grids)
- Random wall generation in grid
To-do:
- Add SFX/Music
- Need to optimize the path generation algorithm for 6x6 and higher grid sizes. Even 6x6 can take up to a minute to generate right now with naive Hamiltonian path generation.
2 comments
A new WiP for a 4 player RTS game. It's also my first pico project. yay!
Pyramid Panic – A Game of Tactical Geometry 🚀
Hey PICO‑8 pals! I’m brewing a snappy 3–4‑player skirmish where every pyramid you fling can flip the table. Try it, break it, tell me what hurts!
Quick Pitch
Redirect lasers? Nah—redirect pyramids! Stack attacks, juggle defenses, and overload your rivals before the buzzer.
Controls
Each player drives one cursor with three modes (cycle with ⬅️ / ➡️):
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Attack | Plant an 8‑pixel pyramid aimed at any defender. Hitting your own defender scores 0 but still fuels Overcharge. |
| Defend | Keep a defender alive at all times. Lose it and you’ve got 10 s to drop another or you’re out. |
| Capture | Triggered by Overcharge—snatch an attacker pointed at your defender, then redeploy it anywhere. |
Scoring
We recalc right after every placement:
- Attackers earn 1 pt if 2 + attackers point at the same defender of another color.
- Defenders earn 1 pt if facing 0 – 1 attackers.
- Everything else = 0.
Each player totes 6 pieces → 36 pyramids max in a 4‑player frenzy.
Overcharge ⚡
Three or more attackers locking on one defender? That defender Overcharges. Its owner gets an instant Capture move before play rolls on.
Endgame
- 3‑minute round timer, or
- Player 1 may end early by holding both buttons 5 s.
Highest score wins. Tie = sudden‑death; first point steals the crown.
State of the Panic
Alpha build live! I need your hot takes on:
- Attack/defense balance
- Is six pieces each spicy enough?
- Can you always tell which cursor mode you’re in?
Drop feedback, gifs, and victory dances below. Salty taunts encouraged.
0 comments
Hi, I got this crash while picotron was running in the background. I had loaded my cartridge that was playing a song, but then I had manually called music() to turn off the music since it was just looping.
If you look in the catridge you'll see I added a while loop to keep the cartridge running; without that it would only play the first note of the song (song is Lemonade by Gucci Mane by the way). Maybe it's a memory leak that it kept printing in a loop (I still haven't figure out where to see this print output.)
I'm hitting "submit" but that'll go to Apple so I thought I'd post it here as well.
On to the error details:
Process: picotron [6154] Path: /Volumes/VOLUME/*/Picotron.app/Contents/MacOS/picotron Identifier: com.lexaloffle.picotron Version: 0.2.0d (0.2.0d) Code Type: X86-64 (Native) Parent Process: ??? [1] Responsible: picotron [6154] User ID: 501 [ [size=16][color=#ffaabb] [ Continue Reading.. ] [/color][/size] ](/bbs/?pid=167748#p) |
1 comment
My first Pico-8 release, it is a simple text adventure where you type what you want to do.
Just an experiment with the capabilities of pico-8!
(You need a keyboard to play this one!)
0 comments
version 0.0.1
- Add shrink feature where pressing X will shrink the hero
- Monster now have collision
2 comments
I'M LOOKING FOR A GAME
A GAME OF SOME YEARS AGO WHERE YOU SHOULD WALK FOR STAGE DIFFERENTS, IT WAS ABOUT A HIGH MAN WHO WAS FOLLOWING FACTS OF BLOOD AND THE END FIND A MONSTER EATING A PERSON. I PLAYED IT ON THIS PAGE MAKES ENOUGH TIME AND THE GAME IS OUT OF HERE BUT I COULDN'T FIND IT AGAIN.
PLEASE!! I WANT TO PLAY AGAIN THIS GAME.
I DON´T SPEAK ENGLISH BUT A HOPE THIS IS UNDERSTOOD.
3 comments
.jpg)
Hi!
TLDR:
Color tables are basically free to use because the gfx pipeline uses one by default. By modifying it we can achieve effects-in this case we add 2 colors that allow us to draw "shadows" and add lit areas. Copy the function below and give it a 64x64 sprite as a color table. Now draw shapes with color 32 and 33 to apply the effects.
My attempt at explaining color tables
I've struggled with understanding color tables, but thanks to @washburnello I finally got it. He is using a sprite to visually represent the color table, which makes it much easier to plan.
This small function allows you to do the same and use a 64x64 sprite to visually represent and plan the color table. It then memmaps it into the appropriate spot in memory.
5 comments
This is something i have worked on for a while, and was wanting feedback!
Controls:
X - Switch selected block (block abouve head)
Z - place selecte block
Up arrow - jump
Down arrow - break block below and put in inventory, or, if pushed with Z, places a block below player
left arrow - moves left and places block to left when using Z
right arrow - same as left arrow but flipped
if you have any questions, just ask!
1 comment
Is it golf? Is it not golf? It's glof!!!!!!
After spending the past week on this game I have something playable! 30 levels and 3 worlds, and 8 different mechanics!
This game is very unfinished, so if you encounter any issues or have feedback/ideas for the future, please comment them here.
Have fun!
3 comments
PIXOTHELLO is a colorful and strategic twist on the classic game of Othello, built with a retro-inspired aesthetic. Battle against the computer or test your tactics solo as you flip your opponent's pieces and dominate the board.
The game starts with the traditional four-piece setup, then evolves dynamically as you choose your moves and watch the board change in real-time. Every move counts—capture corners for maximum points and outmaneuver the AI’s logic.
Can you control the grid and claim victory in black or white?
Press ❎ to start flipping!
Feel free to check out my other games too ! https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?uid=91692
0 comments
I've been considering using Pico-8 Education Edition to teach kids the cozy world of game-dev in pico8. But one friction I've had is that using a tablet (most kids nowadays have access to one), it's impossible to hit the escape key (I've tried it with a couple of bluetooth keyboards).
Again, it's meant for kids, so I'm not really looking for a roundabout complex solution.
It would be great if this educational tool had an alternative way to hit [esc]. I'm open to any possible alternatives really, but I do think it would open the door to a lot of kids to play with the tool and have fun with it.
Any thoughts on this?
Jose
3 comments