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.
Swim under the sea with this hungry cephalopod and meet the other marine dwellers in this straight forward arcade adventure.
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!
In Cave of Cards, you clear dungeons by making poker hands.
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.
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!
A demake of Japan's best selling action game Thexder in PICO-8.
A challenging puzzle game in which the player manipulates gravity in order to reach magical, green portals. Place colored boxes on buttons to open gates, avoid spikes, and more!
A retro fan-game and unofficial prequel to Nintendo's Advance Wars series made in the PICO-8 fantasy console.
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.
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.
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.
A puzzle platformer about using friends to travel.