What could be more meta than writing a game for a console that doesn’t really exists. Writing a game for a Fantasy console? This is what Lexaloffle is proposing with its Pico-8 plaftorm. The spec of your game will be :

• Display 128x128 16 colours
• Cartridge Size 32k
• Sound 4 channel chip blerps
• Code Lua
• Sprites 128 8x8 sprites
• Map 128x32 cels
• Controls D-pad + 2 buttons

When you start pico-8 you get this:

An empty prompt waiting for you to access the console. If you type help you get:

And then you can start your adventure in fantasy console land:

But how do you develop a game for a console like this? Turns out the there is even a code editor!

Granted 128x128 is not great for editing code. The good news is that you can modify the cartridge code from your favorite editor and hot reload the game from the console:

You will write your game in Lua using a few primitives functions provided by the Console OS. The documentation is great and it explains from sound design to sprite manipulation with even a Lua Primer.

Brief Lua moment of Awe

This is the 3rd time I recently wrote about Lua (see Stingray Lua debugger and Torch). I am amaze how this super simple language can creep in some of the least expected place. Ease of integration and a SUPER small footprint makes wonder.

Back to developing a console game

Pico-8 comes even with a simple Level editor! Barebone but workable.

For debugging purposes, there is memory inspector coupled with a profiler:

All in all, this makes for a tight constrained developing environment that would be a great challenge for a game jam. Who wouldn’t want to write a Mario clone like this on a tiny tiny screen: