In a lighthouse in the southern sea, your research nears it's end. Twenty years have passed since the first appearance of the Azure beacon. What caused a light to emerge from the sea and pierce the skies?
Important!!!
Since this is the "jam release" of the game, it is in a quite unpolished state, but it won't stay like this. Well, the jam version probably will, but the full release won't.
If you have any bugs to report, or possible QOL advice, feel free to comment, since I'll take into account all comments for said full release.
Development
This game was created for the
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My latest game, Beneath the Depths, is a bit technically complicated. It uses some rather unusual methods for extending the spritsheet space in a normal pico-8 cart without using reload(), and it takes advantage of the nature of memory in pico-8 to acomplish it. So, here is a deep dive into all the things I found out about while making this game:
Introduction to key concepts
First of all, if you are not familiar with the way memory works in pico-8, or you need a refresher, i recomend chacking out LazyDevs'( @Krystman) video on memory or reading the pico-8 wiki for information on the memory layout.
Aditionally, most of the things I'll talk about here I created with information from this post: Upper memory: 4 more spritesheets!. It uses a different method to reach a similar goal to me, but it is a bit more math-heavy, but do check it out!
Now, lets dive into it.
Extended spritesheet space with memcpy() and load()
Since Pico-8 0.2.4, memory now includes a section going from 0x8000 to 0xffff for general use. However, it can't be directly modified with reload(), which can only target regions from 0x0 to 0x4300. So, how can we use all that real state for our extended spritesheet?
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This cart performs sprite rotation using an old technique called "three shears rotation":
- Do an X shear on
tan(angle / 2). - Do a Y shear on
-sin(angle). - Do the first shear again.
One interesting property is that no pixels are created or destroyed, only displaced. This got me curious how it would look, so I went ahead and did a small implementation in Pico-8. Ended up being a bit disappointed in the quality, but maybe someone will find it useful.
It has some precision issues due to how it works (it offsets scanlines onto another buffer, then samples from that buffer for the next step). I tried to counter that by introducing a rounding offset to the first and third shears, with limited success. I might tweak this some more to see if I can preserve some of the subpixel precision. For now, you can swap the X and Y shears and see if you get better results with one over the other.
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Welcome to Dice City!
Buy, upgrade, enchant, and place your dice on your stat slots to build the perfect setup and defeat seven opponents on your way to the top of the casino!
Made for the SD Game Jam 2026.
How to Play
A mouse is recommended!
- Drag dice into the ATK, SPD, and DEF columns, or back into the bag. Dice kept in the bag earn money.
- Click the button to roll, fight, and move to the next screen.
- >> speeds up a fight.
- Click an enchantment to use it, or drag it onto a die.
- Enter / P opens the pause menu.
Story
You step off the bus into Dice City with nothing but a bag of dice. Fight your way across town and into the casino to face its owner. The house always wins, but tonight, you change the odds.
Tips
- Dice in the bag make money. If you win, every die you didn't place pays out its roll as cash.
- Beer heals. Each one restores 10 HP, before a fight or during it.
- Items stack. Items of the same kind share one inventory slot, up to 5.
- Read your enemy's stats carefully!!
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RALA:/:sutura
RALA:/:sutura is a turn-based bullet hell roguelike. Nothing moves until you do, and every attack is marked on the floor a turn before it lands, so every hit can be avoided (in theory).
Story
There's a road, the rifts are spreading, and Orinworks' convoy has to reach the rift at Sutura to prevent a dimensional cataclysmic event. You go ahead of the convoy, clearing the way one sortie at a time. Play it safe, take the risky road, or earn your way onto a secret one.
Feedback
Please provide any and all feedback! RALA:/:sutura's game mechanics are all inspired by (and ported FROM) my larger game I'm working on for the Panic Playdate, I would love any help at all to make this game (and that game) more fun and engaging!
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plop
programming language on p8so
"string"
$variable
:tag
;comment
eval target a op b
chr target a
ord target a
idx target str i
join target a b
cls color
print text x y color
spr id x y w h flip
rect x1 y1 x2 y2 color
oval x1 y1 x2 y2 color
rectfill x1 y1 x2 y2 color
ovalfill x1 y1 x2 y2 color
cpyglb name target
store target value
goto tag
if a op b tagt tagf
filenew name data
filewrite name data
filedel name
filelist target
flip
exit
0:'print "hello`n`qworld`q" $x $y 7'
1:{ --split by string delimiter
'print ',
'hello`n`qworld`q',
' $x $y 7'
}
2:{ --unescape escape codes `n `q and `` to \n " and `
'print ',
[ [size=16][color=#ffaabb] [ Continue Reading.. ] [/color][/size] ](/bbs/?pid=197488#p) |
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Introduction
My entry for the Pico-8 1K Jam 2026. The final size was 998 compressed bytes hand minified.
As a master egg chef, you're job is to make sure the yolks are placed into the CENTER of each egg white, as each yolk is matched to an egg white, it will be removed until there are no eggs left to match.
Any match is worth +100 pts, any miss is -100 pts, the goal being the the highest score after matching 20 eggs.
To match an egg, as the yolk moves over the egg white, hit any key that is mapped by default.
Screenshots
Gameplay
Enjoy!
Mike
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A little roguelike shmup I made in under 12 hours! Hope it's not too buggy lol. Feel free to leave your high score and any feedback in the comments!
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Ho, ho, ho! Whether you call it the Advent Calendar or the Holiday Bundle, gathering together as a community to make games that reflect the joys and anxieties of the winter holiday season is a much beloved tradition among PICO-8 users and players. We've made so many great games over the years: 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018.
This year we're inviting you to don your elf cap early and get to work making games and demos for the 2026 Advent Calendar. The games will be packaged in a special menu cart, the Advent Calendar, and released on the Lexaloffle BBS, one-a-day, throughout December. This high profile bundle is a great way to get your game noticed and played.
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My first game. A simple catch the snack game with a power-up and enemy to dodge. Based upon the lovely koala bear called Sausages.
Control him by pressing left and right to eat 25 snacks in the quickest time possible. Avoid the bird poops and eat mushrooms as they appear to get a temporary speed boost.
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A simple coroutines tutorial with some helpful lesser-known shortcuts. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwj390zCgjg
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GIFs
Controls
⬅️➡️ - Move the target left and right
⬇️ - Faster drop rate (toggle)
⬆️ - Normal drop rate (toggle)
🅾️ / Z - Take a bite!
❎ / X - Savour (cash in the points)
The Perfect Bite!
The Perfect Bite! is a Tetris-like with a box and asks "what if you could just clear the screen whenever you want?" Points are earned by the number of food tiles in your mouth (i.e. the box) whenever you press ❎ but there's bonus points for a BIG bite (>8 tiles), a FULL bite (18 tiles), or a PERFECT bite (contains each of the 3 food blocks). Now reach for the high-score within the allotted time! Originally developed in 10 days by BlueTieCasual (me!) as part of the Falling Block jam 2026.
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PAL8TRO: a poker roguelike demake
hey all! this is PAL8TRO, a little poker roguelike inspired by Balatro. play poker hands, score chips × mult, beat the blind, then spend your winnings on mods in the shop. 8 antes, 10 bosses, 20 mods with pixelled portraits, hard mode, and my own rendition of the game soundtrack ( oh my gosh, this was honestly the hardest part).
it's a fan project, not affiliated with Balatro / LocalThunk.
desktop builds over at
taylonius.itch.io/pal8tro
(free if you like, or pay what you want. Baby needs a new pair o' shoes!)
v2.2: Balance Update
PAL8TRO has been rebalanced from top to bottom. Hand levels now boost both chips and mult, every mod is worth its slot, and the rare mods multiply your mult. Forges upgrade a whole rank, saved cash earns interest, and the bosses hit harder in new ways. It's tougher, fairer, and every choice matters. Good luck at the table!
feedback very welcome!
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Game
Summary
A tiny game where aliens done invaded the frontier, so it’s up to you to put the hurt on them! Gun down waves of otherworldly foes while gathering loot and trying to survive. Can you whip the invaders back into orbit or will The Wild West be taken?!
How To Play
(Tutorial Included in Game)
⬅️➡️-To Aim
⬆️-To Shoot
🅾️/Z/❎/X -To Move
Credits & Thank You
This game was originally made in about two weeks and was a study for me to better understand how aiming and turning would work in Pico-8. Initially I wasn't going to release it, but in order to gain hype for my larger upcoming release I've decided I should showcase some of my work! I thank you genuinely for playing my game and maybe for enjoying it. Have a good one!
—Sawwtooth Games
Video on Development
I also created a video detailing my findings while designing and developing the game you can find it here:
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Get to gren 2
a simple precision platformer
This is a little precision platformer I made in a weekend. It's my first PICO-8 game so please be understanding if there are bugs. The reason for the "2" in the name is that it's technically a sequel to my old scratch game "get to gren (platformer)"
Hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave your time and deaths at the end in the comments!
Heavily inspired by games like VVVVVV and You Have to Win the Game
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Cytovore
Under a microscope, a scientist discovers a strange new type of cell with an insatiable appetite called a 'Cytovore'.
How much can the 'Cytovore' eat while dodging a much larger predator programmed to hunt it down?
How to Play
- Eat the coloured cells displayed (+1 point)
- Wrong coloured cells slow you down (-1 point)
- Avoid the predator chasing you
- Use X to dash out of danger
- Eat all the small cells to advance
Controls
- Arrow keys - Move
- X - Dash
3 comments
Tiny little Mode 7 style racing game featuring Pico-8 Mascot Jelpi.
Features:
- Mode 7 style psuedo-3D graphics
- Simple racing physics
- Two unique tracks to race (beginner and advanced)
- Persistent top track times
Controls:
L/R------------Steer/Select Track
Z/C------------Start/Accelerate
X/V------------Brake/Reverse
Enter/P--------Return to Track Select
This is my first attempt at a racing game, let me know if the controls could take some tweaking, and feel free to post your best track times!
Entry for Pico1K Jam 2026 (1024 bytes of compressed code)
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