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 2018’s assignment, a diabolical puzzle. You’re a monk who has forgotten where his cell is in the monastery, and who must walk the labyrinth in order to remember it. If you can find his room, you’ll find out what the assignment prompt is. I was a bit worried the students would be unable to find the prompt hidden in this one, but about half of them got there eventually. (The rest were expelled from the university.) 2018’s class was 100% Pico-8 so it seemed appropriate that the prompt game should be in Pico-8 too. Pico-8 is so great for prototyping — as a case in point, it builds to a single JS and HTML file which loads quite happily in the browser from a local file, so you don’t get annoying permissions or crossdomain problems.
In Space Corgi 2: Snowhound Protocol, you solve puzzles using the power of teamwork. Created for CorgiJam!
The evil Chiro Empire has captured all of the other Dragon Eggs! It's your job to save them!
Crashed on a desolate but mysterious planet you find yourself eye to eye with an ancient civilisation. Explore the planet, find powerful upgrades, and uncover its secrets.
Build a vast interstellar empire in 30 minutes flat.
Cipher-8 is a brain-twisting minimalist arcade puzzler where you push numbers into a grid and manipulate them with randomly drawn special abilities. Blitz mode is all about frantic combo streaks. In puzzle mode you can analyze every move. Both modes scale infinitely in their difficulty.
A noisy, pixellated vampire platformer set in the Nevada desert. When Ysabel, a vampire living in Reno, finds her brother dead with a strange crucifix-like structure attached to him, she finds herself compelled to take revenge on the humans that murdered him.
A clone of PakuPaku — built using PICO-8, with no external sprites or assets. It’s basically a one-button game: Press any arrow key to flip your direction. Eat pellets. Dodge the ghost — unless you're powered up. Fast, focused, and minimal. Just pixels, logic, and a bit of chaos. Made as a small learning project.
A "One Level Concept" Demake of Contra for PICO-8!
A demake of Castlevania in PICO-8
Steve Johanson has disappeared and his girlfriend Sally Franklin has hired your detective agency to locate him. Even before you get on the scene there are signs that maybe this isn't just a simple missing persons case. Can you crack it? Explore Anteform Valley and its settlements, talk to its residents, search desks and files, and build up your skills as you collect clues to figure out what really happened to Steve and maybe even prevent it from happening again. Anteform is a horror / sci-fi detective story 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 (although thematically it fits in better with the Worlds of Ultima games). Just like the original Ultima games, it includes a world view, enterable towns, and 3D dungeon displays. More importantly, it is a fully playable (and winnable) game with its own backstory, plot, setting, and characters.
These busy birds will eat almost anything that falls into their gullet -- what will you feed them? They have their preferences, but people food beats bird food any day of the week! A difficult, chaotic arcade game with local multiplayer support!
An unofficial demake of Babe is You made in Pico-8, which contains 32 levels.
In Astropocalypse you take control of a hotshot meteor bent on destroying the galaxy. Use your directional pad to steer your meteor buddy and ram it into nearby planets in the current solar system. Once all planets are destroyed, it's time to go for the finishing blow... destroy the sun!
Micro Murder is a game of ballistic extermination for 1 or 2 tactical modules, organic or otherwise. Assert your domination over four pictoresque and extremely resource-rich celestial bodies using a flexible arsenal designed to fit any situation.
An isometric bird-based demake of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series.
In Sub-Uber-Marine you are a sub-aquatic taxi driver. Deep-sea divers need your help getting around the ocean! •Three different game modes: Arcade, Day Shift and Night Shift. In Arcade mode, complete as many fares as you can, each fare adds more time, like a certain taxi-based game by a very litigious company. In Day Shift, complete as many fares as you can in 8 minutes. In Night Shift, there are 20 divers scattered about the ocean, complete the fares as fast as possible.
Oops Airlines needs your help! After the terrible ClownShrike virus shut down all of the airport's systems, it up to you, the sole air-traffic controller, to manually direct flights to the runway! Carefully plan routes for each plane - but watch out! Once a flight path is connected to the airport, it cannot be altered. Plan wisely to guide the incoming flights to safety!
In Super Mumtaz Bros. you join the titular plumbing brothers on their mission to rescue Princess Sana from... chickens?
Use your solitaire skills to assemble powerful combos and defeat the dungeon's monsters. Grab treasure and spend it to build a set of powerful, synergistic abilities to help you. Manage both your own resources and the demon's patience to hopefully survive the ordeal.
A break-neck taxi driving game. Welcome to the Whiplash Taxi Company, where our motto is "The slower you're there, the lower the fare!" As a valued employee and taxi driver, your job is to pick up passengers and deliver them to their destination as fast as possible, by any means necessary. Passengers are easy to spot, just look for the big red arrows over their heads.
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!