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.
In Super Mumtaz Bros. you join the titular plumbing brothers on their mission to rescue Princess Sana from... chickens?
Artemis' Minesweeper is the a hardcore version of minesweeper, a mashup of minesweeper and a bullet hell shoot 'em up. It features Artemis of the Blue Fan-Game by VTuber Numachi Tamanegi.
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!
A PICO-8 demake of Tetris Effect.
Explore an archipelago, encounter fellow explorers, and seduce and haggle with them to help you complete your map!
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!
This is a little experiment Bennett Foddy made in Pico-8 a while ago on a flight. It uses a control method they hadn’t seen before, where the movement is damped according to the rate of change in the acceleration (the ‘jerk’) which creates a strange oscillating movement.
A port of Omega Race for PICO-8. Kill all enemies to advance to the next level. Use the shield to avoid enemy fire and the rotating lasers. Collect yellow coins for the bonus level.
A strategy-based resource management simulation, where three houses fight for control of the planet Dune - the land of sand and home of the spice. It is a demake of the classic (and original) RTS game Dune II, re-created from scratch in PICO-8.
A collection of picross puzzles for PICO-8.
Tower Noire is a small coffeebreak roguelike inspired by Cave Noire, Little Nemo, and Powder, created for 7DRL 2018 in PICO-8. I ended up reusing old, long-abandoned assets and concepts to be able to complete something in 7 days. Gameplay Tips: * The goal is to get to the 25th floor and defeat an enemy there, so plan accordingly. * Your starting equipment will very quickly need to be upgraded. * Passive effects for weapons may be more useful than additional strength. * Some passives affect positioning and can help you from getting cornered. * Get a sense for the room before running straight in. Some enemies can kill you pretty easily in 1x1 hallways. * Explore the room carefully for easy enemies that drop edible items and items scattered around. * Falling down a hole will damage you and also let the enemies take a turn. On harder floors this can do a lot of damage. * Move slowly.
Spend some time with a depressed, laconic Luigi as he chain smokes and wanders through a crumbling Mushroom Kingdom, ruminating on ontology, ethics, family, identity, and the mistakes he and his brother have made.
What do an excitable asexual pirate, a cultured genderqueer vampire, and a lesbian bird who may be at an important decision point in her life all have in common? They're all your friends, and they're all counting on you to make an absolute banger of a flag for them! In Flags for Friends, you play as a queer artist in a post-scarcity era and make custom pride flags for -- wait for it -- friends!
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.
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.
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.