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.

A bog standard minigolf game with 4-player pass-and-play multiplayer

Enter the caves and try to find as much gold as you can before you perish to the dangers of the depth. Use your trusty whip in combination with bombs, ropes, and whatever you scavenge to get as far as you can.

For 2019 I ran two prototyping classes – one in Pico-8 for the undergraduates and a graduate version with no platform constraint (which generally means they work in Unity). So this year I hid the same prompt in two different interpretations of the same idea. I tuned the Pico-8 game for the youthful reflexes of the undergraduate class, but I did not count on the fact that none of them would have ever played a bullet-hell game, and as a result, only one of them was able to reach the end and find out what the assignment was. I instructed that person that they could keep it a secret if they wanted to.

Time slows down drastically when not moving, use that strategically against the enemy. A mashup of Contra and SuperHot.

A demake of the game Dark Echo (Steam, iOS, Android) for PICO-8. You are trapped in a world of absolute darkness and can only see via visualized echolocation.

A little puzzle game with a little puzzle twist.

Retro match 3 with a Bug juggling at his job. Line tiles in a line to destroy them, but the way to move them changes constantly. Be a Bug, Do a Work, Match a 3

try to get some rest, don't miss your stop

Survive against hordes of relentless creatures by using your arcane powers to defeat them. Gather their essence and use it to increase your magical prowess! Use the beacons lure them and defeat them, but be warned, the more time passes, the stronger they get. Your mission? Survive until "It" arrives. When "it" arrives, destroy it.

An aquatic action game. Swim sword first into the deep to destroy the evil at the heart of the ocean.

A short, challenging soulslike with metroidvania elements. Made in PICO 8 by Abhi Sundu. Olden Peak is a melee combat-focused metroidvania with some soulslike elements like limited healing flasks and stamina.

Hit the slopes, turn by turn! Play cards, clear gates, and don't crash!

Pröng is a mutant game of pong. Also a techno-thriller dating sim.

A top-down, fast-paced shooter where you pilot a plane and use it to dogfight against those that seek to bring you down. Easy to understand but hard to master, the balance of risk-reward for score maximization while trying to not get overwhelmed is what this game is about! Try to reach to the highest score!

A two-player juggle fiesta!

Remember Alex Kidd in Miracle World for the Sega Master System? Now it's crunched down to 64x64 for the Pico-8 Fantasy Console! This miniaturised version of the game features everything from the original game - recreated in the limitations of Pico-8!

A casual game where it's time to tidy up the solar system. Shove planets into each other to make bigger planets. No stress, take your time. Play strategically to trigger insane combos. Earn missiles to get out of tricky situations. A totally accurate simulation of celestial bodies.

You are a star that jumps.

In Space Corgi 2: Snowhound Protocol, you solve puzzles using the power of teamwork. Created for CorgiJam!

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.

Pizza Panda is a fast-paced pizza-delivery platformer for the PICO-8 fantasy console. Players take on the role of a panda who drives a cartoonishly agile car, jumping around small vertically oriented cityscape-style levels in order to collect pizza and deliver it directly into the mouths of various animals who are sticking their heads out of the windows of buildings. Each level presents the photographs of one or more animals to which the player must deliver the pizza, some of them wearing hats which the player must correctly place upon the animals' heads in order to make a valid delivery. There are also baby rats crawling on the roofs of some buildings which must be collected and delivered to their papa without letting them be eaten by cats. In order to accomplish these things, the player stacks pizzas, hats, and baby rats on the roof of the car and traverses the level, either touching or avoiding certain NPCs. Finding an efficient route through each level is encouraged through the use of a target time; if the player completes all the objectives of a level within the target time, a star is awarded for that level.