Popular games built on game engine PICO-8
A hardcore platform game for the PICO-8 fantasy console.
Tutankham is a combination of the maze, action and shoot 'em up genres. Taking on the role of an explorer grave robbing Tutankhamun's tomb, the player is chased by creatures such as asps, vultures, parrots, bats, dragons, and even curses, all that kill the player on contact. The explorer can fight back by firing lasers at the creatures, but he can only cover the left and right directions. The player is also endowed with a single screen-clearing "flash bomb" per level or life. Finally, each level has warp zones that teleport the player around the level, which enemies cannot use. To progress, the player collects keys open locked doors throughout the levels, searching for the large exit door. Optional treasures can be picked-up for bonus points. Each level has a timer; when it reaches zero the explorer can no longer fire lasers, and once a level is cleared the remaining time is converted to bonus points.
This is a series of works that came out of a residency carried out in early 2018 in Tokyo, with the Creator Ikusei project, which is supported by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs. I adopted research techniques from ethnography and history, such as open-ended interviews and participant observation, and developed a method of representing the results of this research in a playful and interactive form that draws heavily from familiar interaction design patterns such as the tamagotchi-style virtual pet and role-playing game multiple-choice dialogue systems.
Slide, spin and snap to solve puzzles with your claw.
To a Starling is an indie fantasy platformer. Use your teleportation abilities to whirl through the rocky wastes and to find brighter stars.
Survive waves of enemies on a hostile alien world and contend with random modifiers every 10 seconds. Find new weapons scattered across the map. Watch your stats and try to use the most optimal damage type. How many waves will you survive?
A two-player juggle fiesta!
An idle crafting game inspired by games such as Forager and Minecraft made in PICO-8. Use your pickaxe to mine any and all materials you can find, and craft your way off the islands.
Light matches and read cards. Choose a card to burn & learn a little about yourself.
A collection of picross puzzles for PICO-8.
A demake of Frostpunk for PICO-8. Welcome to the frigid wastes of Northern England. The world is cooling, London is in disarray, and there is no end in sight. You are charged with helping your group of refugees survive the cold. This task will be daunting and dangerous, but you are not without hope.
Winter is coming (as every year actually...), time for some skiing! Enjoy going down the slope, trying to beat your previous track record or freeriding skills! Grab coins or perform tricks for some extra time bonus - watch out for off track hazards!
Explore a mysterious and exciting dungeon filled with exciting mysteries without ever leaving the same room! Why would you change rooms when clearly this one has all the danger and excitement and danger that one could possibly need?!
Speedcat is a tiny 2D platformer where you play as a cat trying to pick up all 32 Speedcoins! Run, jump, and use the environment to navigate your way through the map as quickly as possible. Developed on PICO-8 by Fletch, the game is delightfully small and easy to pick up, with an estimated completion time in under an hour.
Pixel Rift Adventure is a fast‑paced Pico-8 roguelike dungeon crawler that blends the room‑by‑room exploration of classic Zelda titles with the procedural unpredictability and challenge of Binding of Isaac. Each floor is a freshly generated grid of interconnected rooms, packed with randomized enemies, destructible obstacles, and hidden treasures. Your hero starts modestly equipped—three hearts, basic sword reach, and no special powers—but every playthrough offers new opportunities to power up via treasure chests, vending machines, and a unique letter‑collecting mechanic. The heart of the game lies in its letter system. Scattered throughout the dungeon are consumable letters that spell out SUBPIXEL and MATTA. Completing the former permanently extends your sword’s reach; completing the latter grants a limited‑use ranged projectile attack. Vending machines sprinkled on each level sell letters for coins you’ve hoarded, adding a strategic layer: do you spend now for a chance at a powerful upgrade, or save for health and keys? Boss rooms punctuate your descent, each featuring a thematic “family” of bosses—wiggling slime overlords, spectral ghost generals, and subterranean plant tyrants—that grow tougher as you advance. Defeating a boss opens a portal to the next floor, and reaching level 10 without succumbing to traps or overwhelming odds crowns you the ultimate Pixel Rift champion. Tight controls, i‑frames after damage, and a reactive HUD keep you always in the action—dive in, adapt on the fly, and see how far you can go!
The battle for Eternia is in your hands! A Masters of the Universe themed Barbarian remake for Pico-8. Side with He-Man and his allies or Skeletor and his minions in this new take on the classic Barbarian sword fighting game. Battle 8 levels against increasingly difficult foes or play against a friend. You have the power!
A compilation of different Roc Studios games made in PICO-8.
Spin a web, catch bugs, eat 'em for points! The player controls a spider that spins a physics-y web to catch bugs that fly in from the background.
A small demake of the classic Alone in the Dark in PICO-8 with 3D meshes of the characters ripped from the original game. Choose between Emily Hartwood and Edward Carnby and find your way out of the top two floors of the mansion.
An X-Com like game with procedurally generated maps for PICO-8. The game has 16 levels, and you need to beat level 16 to win.
In this falling block puzzle game, position your pieces wisely to make clusters of 4+ blocks of the same color. The bigger the cluster, the more points you'll get. Most importantly, if you manage to chain cluster destructions with the fall of the blocks, you'll multiply your points. Three different modes are available (after being unlocked), each one having a different rhythm.
In Ghost in the Garden, play as a little cat witch and help the princess catch all the ghosts!