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 shoot’em up game with bite-size levels.
You’ve been assigned a strange task: find the creature that escaped from the lab. Can you take Pico back to its cage?
A low-res demake of Friday Night Funkin' made in PICO-8
A retro style pseudo-3d bike racing game
Play Moss Moss to moss the world and find secrets.
The Land of Miskatonia needs a hero to save it from the evil Faxon and its minions. Can you be that hero? Explore Miskatonia and its settlements, talk to its residents, build up your skills, and finally challenge Faxon in its secret lair. Minima is an adventure RPG in the style of the older Ultima games (Ultima I, Ultima II, Ultima III, Ultima IV, & Ultima V) as played on the Commodore 64 and 128 computers. Just like the original Ultima games, it includes a world view, enterable towns, and 3D dungeon displays. It also features graphics, sound effects, and music that should help one recollect those classics. More importantly, it is a fully playable (and winnable) game with its own backstory, plot, setting, and characters.
You signed up for the biggest martial-arts challenge in history! In a gauntlet beyond example, contestants from all around the world face myriads of artificial monstrosities to find out who can deal with them performing the most stylish and efficient combos. There’s a twist though - you can only move in accordance with the hand of cards you’re holding. Ah, there’s nothing like the beautiful arbitrariness of game rules...
You are one big monster with an appetite for destruction. This turn-based rogue-like PICO-8 game is all about that stomping, smashing, grabbing, and chomping your way through a procedurally generated hapless city and its tiny citizens.
Train Journey is a 16-cartridge PICO-8 game (the maximum size) about a mysterious train to which the player is seemingly bound. Travel between stops, meet unique characters, and learn their stories. Can you free yourself and return home? Or will you ride the train forever...?
The evil Chiro Empire has captured all of the other Dragon Eggs! It's your job to save them!
An homage to Katamari Damacy for Pico8 in 1021 bytes for the #PICO1k jam. Collect enough things with your Katamari ball to reach 64cm as fast as possible to please the King of all Cosmos.
In Sebastian's Quest, you have to shove gems and find the cheese.
Step back in time to an era when folk were real folk and race car steering wheels were real steering wheels. Mot's Grand Prix is a pseudo 3D Formula 1 racer inspired by Grand Prix Circuit, Continental Circus and a bunch of other 80s/90s racers. The game has 4 difficulty levels plus a practice mode to learn the courses without the pressure of racing.
Take off and explore the mountains and lakes of Picotopia! A flight simulator made for PICO-8. Flight model should be "somewhat realistic" in that it models thrust, lift, drag and weight--Of course all the numbers are made up, and things are grossly simplified.
Explore an archipelago, encounter fellow explorers, and seduce and haggle with them to help you complete your map! There is no time constraint, no danger, there's no gameover. Instead, this game proposes a calming experience of exploration and encounters. You can just stop playing when you feel satisfied. A play session will usually last 15 to 30 minutes.
Inspired by the release of CorgiSpace and SEBI16, the author wanted to try out PICO-8. Here is the result! His first PICO-8 game, made between January 18th-22nd of 2026.
"From Rust To Ash" is roguelike auto battler where your items are your build. Fight, Loot, Scavenge. Arrange your items to benefit from each other, store items in your backpack for future synergies, scrap what you don't need to increase your health. Do all that you need to survive the encounters before you.
A retro scrolling beat'em up with a dark fantasy theme.
"In Dino Sort, there are, uh, dinosaurs, and, well, you have to, you know, sort them out." A puzzle game about arranging dinosaurs around a grid. Each dinosaur has a specific ruleset that must be followed.
A first-person grid-based oldschool mini dungeon crawler inspired by Wizardry/Ultima, created in PICO-8.