Pico-1K Jam: Make Something Cool in Pico-8 in 1024 Characters

oneearedrabbit 2021-08-16 17:03:32 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Pico-8 is love. I recently started working on a tiny game, and I appreciate the limitations of the platform. No more scope creep, i.e. if it is getting bigger than what Pico-8 can support, perhaps I am not thinking straight and focusing on the wrong part. It is like having a free mentor and a dearest friend who is reminding me to finish the core mechanics first, and then if I have time, energy, and other resources, make a reasonable decision on what is the next thing to add. Although it is a double-edged sword, but my heartfelt experience is that embracing and accepting limitations is what constitutes progress.

I haven’t done jams in a long time, but kudos to everyone who will try to push boundaries.

lostgame 2021-08-17 02:49:34 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Only now realized Pico-8 isn’t open source, or even free?

I was sincerely considering picking it up, but it actually surprised the shit out of me to find that it had a license cost.

I’d rather just dev for a SEGA genesis or equivalent and have the benefit of running it on real hardware. There’s certainly a fantastic, enormous and open-source-focused world and community behind that.

musha68k 2021-08-17 03:49:10 +0000 UTC [ - ]

It's a great and influential project none the less and costs as much as a cheap book ($14.99 IIRC).

I'm all for homebrew dev on classic consoles (Mega Drive being my favourite also) yet these fantasy consoles are much easier to program for and usually have more meaningful constraints targeted towards finishing little projects while going solo.

Check out this list of free pico-8 clones, some of which support programming in lisp like languages even:

https://github.com/pico-8/awesome-PICO-8#clones

oneearedrabbit 2021-08-17 04:04:49 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I guess, your mind is set already.

My thought process though that Pico-8 is roughly the same price as three cups of coffee. However, it is a way to say Thank you, Zep and support the future development of the platform. Some interesting things came out of Pico-8 BBS and also helped me to sharpen my skills.

If it is too much or inconvenient there is also TIC-80 which is open-source and more-or-less follows the same spirit albeit less constrictive.

otachack 2021-08-17 03:49:35 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Is it a matter of affordability, or do you strictly use only open source/free? There are similar projects to Pico-8 like Tic-80 that are open source if you're still interested.

Pico-8 is absolutely worth $15 IMO, and the creator more than deserves the asking price.

Torwald 2021-08-16 16:57:05 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Can't wait for the 16bit Pico with HAM graphics mode.

mkotowski 2021-08-16 17:21:31 +0000 UTC [ - ]

If someone really wants something with less enforced limitations than PICO, then the TIC-80 [0] fantasy console is fully open source.

[0]: https://tic80.com

trasz 2021-08-16 22:31:29 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Just wondering… Why use fantasy consoles instead of building something comparable, but physical, based on eg RPi Pico?

II2II 2021-08-17 02:25:26 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Just a guess: it is a lot easier to focus upon making a game using a fantasy console than it is to use hardware. Using something like a Pi Pico means building out the hardware or buying into a non-standard board that provides suitable I/O capabilities. From my meager experience with fantasy consoles, they also provide a development environment that is more similar to an 80's vintage computer than you would get with a microcontroller. (While it is easy to setup a development environment on a Pi Pico if you follow the instructions, it is rather involved.)

That's not to say it can't be done. I have seen demos using everything from custom code and circuits using an ATtiny to people using VGA libraries on higher performance microcontrollers, but that's not everyone's cup of tea and would likely be hard to implement around a game jam.

no_time 2021-08-17 08:53:51 +0000 UTC [ - ]

I was wondering about this too. Then I realized that the interpreted nature and user friendliness doesn't map to a low power mcu.

You either settle on a hardware that's basically an embedded linux that's way overpowered and runs hot/drains battery OR you let go of the ease of use and get dirty with embedded development tools. If you look up some GBA homebrew you can quickly see why this will remain unpopular.

The third and most ridiculous option would be fabbing a custom low power SoC that has an embedded gpu specifically designed around the pico8 limitations and some extra opcodes that accelerate luaJIT.

mkotowski 2021-08-17 05:42:07 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Such fantasy consoles more often that not have a complete programming setup built-in and are mostly free from programming gotchas that can be present on old hardware. They are also much simpler to learn and use than modern platforms, and offer limits that can force you to come up with interesting ideas.

Beyond that, I suppose it is also a some way to prototype. Celeste[0] was originally created as a PICO-8 game.

[0]: http://www.celestegame.com [1]: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=2145

oneearedrabbit 2021-08-16 23:38:10 +0000 UTC [ - ]

If I understand your question, it is not mutually exclusive, and there are physical devices that can run Pico-8, for instance, GameShell and RaspiBoy.

Certainly, you can build your custom device. Still, it is sort of derailing the original intention if you are making a game or participating in the demoscene and would like to focus on the development (or learning) aspect rather than porting and hardware.

Game development is already hard. It could be a nice cherry on top to run it on the physical device; however, emulators are great to get started.

liveoneggs 2021-08-16 20:23:22 +0000 UTC [ - ]

write your games in fennel!

japhib 2021-08-16 20:16:49 +0000 UTC [ - ]

You jest (maybe?) but Zep, the guy that made the PICO-8, has announced something called the "Picotron" that is more from the 16 or 32-bit era: https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php

Torwald 2021-08-17 08:49:38 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Both, thanks for the link.

cogburnd02 2021-08-17 01:38:56 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Funny, 'Zep' is also a commercially available Copper Sulfate. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Zep-Root-Kill-32-oz-Drain-Cleaner/4...

cogburnd02 2021-08-17 01:37:41 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Sad that Pico-8 isn't free software.

patkai 2021-08-17 08:22:28 +0000 UTC [ - ]

Sad that we are not paying for software nowadays. Look at the consequences!

musha68k 2021-08-17 03:55:56 +0000 UTC [ - ]

There are alternatives these days:

https://github.com/pico-8/awesome-PICO-8#clones

I would just add that $14.99 is still a very fair price and it enables the developer (lexaloffle) to work on other cool stuff like voxatron, picotron, etc.