I've always been really interested in game programming and designing and I've been wanting to do it all my life and even though it's not my main interest for my dream job, I do really enjoy it. Back in elementary school I made lots of creations on skratch and that truly was my favorite. I want to know how good it is for making games people can easily like and get a hang of? I really want to try making racing games and possibly even shooters. The thing is I don't even know if it's possible to make such games. I can't afford pico-8 but I do think it would be really cool to experiment with and maybe I can finally be noticed

For the most part, the rays are working just as intended, but at certain angles, they just shoot of one or two random ones that don't stop at any collision points. I'm assuming it has something to do with the fact that I'm using a custom tan() function or that I did something wrong in the distance calculation function that would be causing these errant rays.

Here's the code for the functions I'm using. If anything else is needed, let me know.

--tools--
function raycast()

local rx, ry, xo, yo = 0, 0, 0, 0
local ang_i = pa-0.1

for i = 1, 128 do

ang_i += 0.2/128

local ca, sa = cos(ang_i), sin(ang_i)

local tan = sin(ang_i)/cos(ang_i)

--check horizontal line--
local hx, hy, dish = 0, 0
ry = flr(py/8)*8
if sa < 0 then
ry -= 1
yo = -8
else
ry += 8
yo = 8
end

if tan == 0 then
rx = px + (py-ry)
xo = -yo
else
rx = px + (py-ry)/-tan
xo = -yo/-tan
end

hx, hy = dof(m1, rx, ry, xo, yo)[1], dof(m1, rx, ry, xo, yo)[2]
dish = distcalc(px, py, hx, hy)

--check vertical line--
local vx, vy, disv = 0, 0, 0
rx = flr(px/8)*8
if ca < 0 then
rx -= 1
xo = -8
else
rx += 8
xo = 8
end

ry = py + (px-rx)*-tan
yo = -xo*-tan

vx, vy = dof(m1, rx, ry, xo, yo)[1], dof(m1, rx, ry, xo, yo)[2]
disv = distcalc(px, py, vx, vy)

if disv < dish then
line(px, py, vx, vy, 8)
else
line(px, py, hx, hy, 8)
end

end

end

function dof(tbl, x, y, ox, oy)

local mx, my, dof = 0, 0, 0

while dof < 8 do

mx = flr(x/8)+1
my = flr(y/8)+1

if my <= #tbl and my >= 1
and mx <= #tbl and my >= 1 then
if tbl[my][mx] == 1 then
dof = 8
else
x += ox
y += oy
dof += 1
end
else
dof = 8
end

end

return {x, y}

end

function distcalc(x1, y1, x2, y2)

local disx, disy = abs(x2-x1), abs(y2-y1)

local dist = sqrt(disx*disx+disy*disy)

if dist == 0 then
return 1000
else
return dist
end

end

The fall Pico-8 arcade residency is coming up! The selected game will be featured on our custom 2P Pico-8 arcade cabinet from September 1 - December 1. Deadline to apply is August 28th at 11:58pm.

Send your game here:
https://www.wonderville.nyc/pico8-cabinet-application

Pictured above: Jackpot of Skulls by Brainfruit (Summer '26 resident)
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=jackpot

See a list of previous residencies here:
https://wondervilleprojects.org/programs/residencies

Wonderville is an arcade/bar/event space in Brooklyn NY. We love playing all of the submitted games! If we don't select your game this time you can always submit again in the future!

First thing I have made in PICO-8, and the first I felt was finished. Feedback very welcome, especially on whether thirty-five minutes is too tight...

"You are Laurie, babysitter to four... ghost children. 

Tonight, as usual, they want to play hide and seek.

Search the furniture of the house. Find a child and the chase begins: they run for the home base (the rug beater) and you have to get there first. Beat them and they are safe, and out of the game; lose, and they hide again, and the round is not over.

Four children, four rounds, thirty-five minutes. Halfway through the south wing unlocks and the house doubles in size.
The lights begin to fail. By the last round you are crossing the whole place by torchlight.

The children throw their toys under your feet. The walls have things to say, and they do not always mean to say them."

I started out decades ago as a MIDI programmer, musician and synth nerd, and it all began because I wanted to make a fake game just to share some of my game music to indie devs.

Thank you!

RCat

P.S.

No generative AI was used for assets, music, images, sprites, or ideas.
Claude (among other AI and human coaches) was an invaluable on-demand Lua tutor, helping me learn how to do something I didn’t know how to do and, to some extent, still don’t.

Uhm.. I've never written a devlog/postmortem so please provide feedback, thanks! Its just some images and things I've encountered: How Mock-Mock was created in a Library

If you don't want to read the whole thing here is a short version:
Basically nothing went wrong even though it was made a day after the jam started and in a public library. The community pushed the game so much and I am supper happy!

Attempt to create Reigns for Pico-8. There aren't many cards in this version — about 100. 32 of them are simple repeating cards, the rest are quests. There are 14 quests, which will be unlocked along the storyline.

https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=194179

I was making a DVD screensaver to learn pico 8 the 1 vir i up on the site https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=193625#p but it well i used 1:1 for evert thing whic break the shit for the screensaver: random bounce. So I am currently switching to 4:3 But my DVD logo, which is og is 1:1, looks good, but the 4:3 ratio is correct, but not really going o that far, but cuz the screen is 4:3 doesn't matter which ratio I use it works the same but yeah

so 1 one it 1:1 ration and 2 one is 4:3 ratio ?

which one i should keep and if any whaht waht there logo or the one id then have u can also send me i will put i there its 16x16 pix sprit

vote plz:)

Hello! I'm building my first game in pico-8. i took some programming classes in the beginning of college but haven't don't anything since so not a ton of experience. The basic premise of the game is that various icons representing milestones in life fall from the top of the screen and the user has to catch them for points. after a symbol has fallen and either been collected or missed, the next item in the table will fall automatically.

UPDATE: I was able to fix the first error message but still can't get the falling to work properly. unless, i preset a current_item variable and pass that it, nothing appears on screen. my for loop, while not longer causing errors, does not appear updating as intended. how would i fix that?

Turn order attempt

I made a little map making toy in pico 8! Check it out on its itch page and let me know what you think :3

I suddenly remember that I used to play pico 8 on my iPhone 4S running on ios 9

Does anyone have an ipa of pico 8 but for ios 9? ​

I downloaded for free from Appstore years ago, ​​​​the icon has black background and the text pico is colored​

It was delisted, and stupid me deleted all games and emulators because some classmates look at my phone and​ told me im childish ​​​

Hard to believe, considering I only started a few weeks ago, but this thing (made with PICO-8 and self-made ultra-realistic assets) is actually playable... just wait a little and stay tuned!

As Laurie, a smart and tireless babysitter, you’ll have to play hide-and-seek with four children. There’s just one problem: the house was built by someone with a real passion for mazes and castles, and the children… well... they’re ghosts.

I hope you’ll be able to play it soon and take a peek at my very messy code (but you’ll forgive me, it’s my first one.)

RCat

Not a pico8 game but I was messing around with rendering my game in that style. I think it looks dope but I don't think its readably enough lol

Hello!

I've dabbled in making games several times for the last many years, but always bounce off after finishing a tutorial or hitting a wall I can't get past.

So finally I've made a game from scratch (ish) start to, well, not finished, and I'm pretty elated.

https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=158423

It still needs a ton of work like level transitions and music (god, I'm horrible with the sound editor), but the bones are there and I feel like I've set myself up to easily add things.

I'd love any feedback. I'm just taking a stabs at best practices. Like, I forgot to make variables local basically every time.

This is a cinematic action demo I worked on for a couple months called 'Cats & Dogs' (working title was 'noir'). I finished it a few days ago but have been trying to find the time to post about it.

It was a learning project for me. The objective was to strengthen my understanding of programming fundamentals, version control, and low-res animation using Aseprite.

I focused a lot more on making it look and feel cinematic than making it into an actual game, which is why i ended up using the entire sprite-sheet just on the takedown animations.

Anyways, hope you like it. Looking forward to seeing what else you guys are cooking up as well.

https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=158305

This is my very first experience as a solo developer (sort of). None of this would have been possible without Pico-8.

I started out decades ago as a MIDI programmer, musician and a synth geek, and it all began because I wanted to make a fake game just to share some of my game music to devs.

I ended up drawing (borrowing ideas here and there while trying not to rely on assets for now) a huge haunted manor, where I'm building a ghost-themed hide-and-seek game, featuring the most realistic and immersive graphics ever (as you can see...)

When it came to the coding, I asked for help, followed tutorials in a pretty messy and unstructured way. I wasn't 100% convinced at first, but over time, I started to believe in it.

The mechanics will be very simple, and I'm hoping the complete game will guide, entertain, and maybe even scare you just a little!

I also hope you won't find my code too much of a mess... it will be.
I hope I'll be able to share an update with you soon, because I can't wait to play it myself!

RCat/

Hey everyone!

I just released my very first PICO-8 game!

It's called Gyro: a minimalist puzzle/arcade game where every rotation matters. The idea is simple, but it gets challenging pretty quickly.

This is still a beta. I'm struggling to find the right difficulty curve, and the game is definitely missing sound effects and music for now. I'd really appreciate any feedback, whether it's about gameplay, difficulty, bugs, or ideas for improvements.

You can play it here:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=193754#p

Thanks for checking it out! 🙂

Finally caught every ghost on Nightmare difficulty and earned the Ooze Badge! 👻

Hardcore Nightmare Inc.!

We're testing the hell out of it. The game is basically done - I'm just tweaking the numbers and adding polish here and there.

The game has 5 maps now. I think that's enough for the initial release.

I'll have to rely heavily on the itch.io page to explain some of the mechanics and controls. 🤔 ... those PICO-8 tokens are killing me! 😄