8 Reasons We Love PICO-8 [2021]

[@AskGamedev]

Thanks for watching! For more Ask Gamedev, check out 100 Gamedev Tips for New & Aspiring Game Developers: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXKxpoejop6Wpsk

[@RewdanSprites]

Wish I would have known about this when I started out. I'm way too attached to Game maker now. There's no turning back.

[@FloatingSunfish]

@@RewdanSprites No shame with sticking to tools that work great for you. Although exploring other tools also has its charm, mastering a single tool that has everything you need is more useful in the long run.

[@RewdanSprites]

@@FloatingSunfish I like the idea of the pocket chip. Seems pretty interesting.

[@FloatingSunfish]

@@RewdanSprites Unfortunately, I hear the Pocket Chip company ran into issues and are unable to take new orders (and even serve preorders from way back). Hope they make a comeback someday and give future game devs their awesome hardware again.

[@djlclopez128]

I loved this video! I've been thinking of trying PICO-8 out and now I have a reason! I've also been waiting until the GameShell comes back into stock! (And secretly wanting a PocketChip too!) Thanks AskGameDev!

[@LazyDevs]

Thanks for the shoutout! One addendum 11:09 - this info is already a bit outdated. The RG350 devices aren't really state of the art anymore. The RG351 series and similar devices are where it's at right now. The run Pico-8 natively and have a way more refined user experience. Video on that coming soon!

[@AskGamedev]

That's awesome! Can't wait for your video on that. Thanks for swinging by :)

[@makscee]

holy crap i never though that PICO-8 is THIS great! I can't imagine how many ideas are breeded there. Since forever all the best games came from mods, that's where always were best communities and best ideas, and now there's a whole engine where everyone shares games and can edit any of them? And thanks to you even more people will know about it, atleast i'm for sure making a game on PICO-8

[@AskGamedev]

Awesome! Keep us posted on your progress!

[@thewholecircus]

I play pico-8 games on my spare time (and sometimes during online classes). I'm so glad SOMEONE acknowledged it's existence besides the original Celeste showing up in the full game, and even at that most people thought it was just a minigame and had nothing else behind it.

[@datmantj7]

This looks powerfully charming, looking forward to exploring the pico-8 world.

[@MLittleBrony]

Pico-8 has always interested me, but it also seemed too niche to justify paying $15 for it. now that i know there's a massive community around Pico-8, i guess now i _have_ to get it.

[@kyonas6047]

Well if u know anything about programming u would know that something like pico 8 isn't hard to make cuz most game engines handle a massive amount of tiles but pico only handles a small amount on screen so idk why use it over something like love2d which is free and support alot of platforms and uses lua aswell

[@henrykado]

@@kyonas6047 people use it *because* it has limitations

[@janPolijan]

Try TIC-80, it's very similar to PICO-8 (and in some ways better) but you don't need to pay $15 because it's free and open source.

[@chastitywhiterose]

@@kyonas6047Love2D is really great. I tried it and since it’s also Lua it is comparable. But PICO-8 games even run in a web browser!

[@nacs]

Had heard of pico8 before but had no idea about what it was. This is an incredible overview video thanks!

[@djlclopez128]

Ask GameDev, thanks for such a wonderful video! I can't wait to get PICO-8!

[@Pythonify1234]

Wow, nice game engine! I feel like there are barely any game engines like this on the internet.

[@FloatingSunfish]

It's certainly the only "fantasy console" that I know before I watched the video. 😅

[@divinus41]

Pico-8 is already a pretty cool tool, but the community makes it even more awesome ;)

[@ChristmasLights2]

Just bought it. Can’t wait to noodle around on pico 8

[@bencanfield]

Yay! Great video. Shoutout to Johan and the picoCAD community is pretty sweet.

[@TrailBlazer5280]

Holy cow a StarFox remake?? I'm sold

[@dakabaka4912]

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.

[@Morokiane]

I like Pico-8...but prefer TIC-80 since it has tricks to give it a bit more power beyond its limits.

[@TirzaBoi]

i played poom on my 90€ phone, it was snappy and fun

[@geos-music-corner]

Man, as much as I love this, 15 bucks. I don’t even have anything to actually Buy Pico-8

[@minimoe2807]

The Powkiddy RGB30 is newer than this video, and it literally looks like it was made by Pico8 enthusiasts. It has a 1 to 1 square screen, so it's worth it even if you only use it for Pico8

[@EnjoySynthSounds]

Any 'Cave Story' style games on the Pico 8 horizon?

[@Fezblock100]

1:19 FEZ?!?!

[@DFX2KX]

It's funny that someone ported Celeste Classic to the Gambuino META, which is an actual hardware console. At the time I wondered how they managed that, since I was under the impression the engine was just emulating the look of retro and not the limitations. Turns out the Meta is actually more powerful, so there was plenty of room to do it.

[@heckyes]

Wow, so cool!

[@mikeroegames]

Amazing! Is there a n64 or PS1 virtual console? I’d still love to try this thing however.

[@kendrel2099]

PICO-8 is great!

[@TarikA]

But it's not like the whole game is inside those PNGs right? I mean there's no QR-Code or anything on them, just the title screen and some text. More likely it tells the official PICO emulator which code (that's hosted in their website archive) to download and play or am I wrong? How are thousand lines of code hidden in a image otherwise?

[@puppeli]

if i remember correctly, the game code is in the meta data of the png image

[@TarikA]

@@puppeli Haha yes you are right. Was educated at the time of writing that comment but found out pretty soon that a PNG file indeed doesn't only store the information as to which pixel is where and with which color among some basic metadata but indeed allows a "certain amount" of plain text to be stored in that metadata as well which PICO-8 "abuses" to store the source code in t here which is pretty cool but limiting at the same time.

[@stardustbiscuits]

Please make a video on LWJGL

[@ramakrishnamishra8179]

I need 320x240 resolution atleast

[@EquaTechnologies]

What about TIC-80?

[@bwulf]

Ok, shut up and take my money.

[@BalancedSpirit79]

Can Pico 8 play PCM files?

[@JONATHANMAZZINI]

Processor mhz? 32bits?

[@Disthron]

The NES had a resolution of 256x240 and the master system had a res of 256 × 192 The pico-8's res is way lower. It's still super cool but the tiny resolution dose annoy me sometimes

[@yuytbe]

TIC80 is a bit higher like 240x320 or something

[@dee23gaming]

TIC-80 is free, open source, and has A LOT more features and less limitations than PICO 8. I don't know why PICO 8 is more popular

[@doc8125]

​@@dee23gamingthe limitations is a feature, not a negative. Limitations breed creativity and problem solving, it limits the scope so you don't feature creep yourself. It's the perfect little thing to mess around as a side project since it's so fast (relatively speaking) to complete a project

[@isayoldchap1]

I think the reason it was done that way is to encourage focus on the core game mechanics and playability vs. aesthetics. Given the limitations, it's still really impressive how engaging many of the titles are. The built in sprite and map editors are really nice for rapid prototyping though. Like you though, I wish the resolution was at least double to make certain types of games more doable. It's hard to do RPGs because you can hardly display any text on the screen. Since it's a virtual console, I don't see why they couldn't offer an optional 256x256 version. I know you can do memory pokes to lower the resolution for even more basic games.

[@solarpolar666]

Can pico 8 games work on analogue pocket

[@doc8125]

No

[@tacobell8189]

SECOND!!!!! I know its cringey but I had to do it

[@LeoStaley]

Yall couldn't make an engine for the 16 bit era?

[@FloatingSunfish]

I'm sure they could, but I assume they thought the 8-bit era needed to make a comeback.

[@MaDPuPPeTgames]

most 16 bit machines couldn't do what the pico-8 does. there's nothing 8bit about pico-8 other than the name.

[@phj9894]

@@MaDPuPPeTgames it's not even 8bit because there are only 16 colors. It's 4bit.

[@JONATHANMAZZINI]

Port #MEGADRIVE #MasterSystem?

[@samuelcamargo6937]

I was totally sold on it until I found out that it costs money.

[@tarekwayne9193]

Lol, how can you be "sold" on something that's free?

[@PlayWithFurcifer]

I can't really believe this tool exists. Wow.

[@turbochop3300]

It's pretty fantastic! I'm making Contra on it, and I have never programmed a game in my life!

[@justacasual7927]

It's wild, I can tell you that much.

[@ChineseCaseoh]

Begone Satan!

[@NerdyTeachers]

This is an incredible overview of PICO-8 and its community! We are so glad you found it and fell in love like we did. Thanks for the kind words while spotlighting our channel and website! That really means a lot to us.

[@AskGamedev]

Thanks for swinging by! Love your work!

[@UltimateGamerCC]

this is why i love this KZbin Channel, i wouldnt even know that PICO-8 exists if not for this video, i'm gonna have to look it up right away.

[@AskGamedev]

Glad we could introduce you to PICO-8!

[@jacacent]

Jakub also did Slipways, which is releasing in two days as a standalone game on Steam!

[@AskGamedev]

Thanks for letting us know. We'll make sure to check it out!

[@gulfgiggleanimations4472]

I remember finding the celeste classic easter egg in celeste proper, and thinking, "Woah, is this some sort of fantasy retro console that was used to make the prototype for celeste?" And eventually I looked it up and found out ... yeah it's exactly that. I was right on the money.

[@FloatingSunfish]

Saw this console many years ago and am still amazed at what it can do. Welp, time to learn some Lua. *_EDIT:_* Probably should've mentioned that PICO-8 isn't free ($14.99).

[@AskGamedev]

Thanks for the feedback! We'll add that to the description.

[@MsieurDooM]

Fun to see in 2023 because some handhelds have native pico 8 support now.

[@LiquidreamUK]

This is an awesome summary of PICO-8! You did a really great job of including many (if not ALL) of the key aspects that make the platform great. It really is a great community with many wonderfully talented creators, that I'm very proud to be a part of. (Also, thx for giving Low Mem Sky a shout-out - much appreciated! 😊)

[@Jamie-MrJam]

I don't know how much I'd push the Pocket Chip, the company went under a while back so I imagine what hardware is floating around is all there is.

[@FloatingSunfish]

From the PICO-8 dev's blog, the Pocket Chips seem to have been lost in storage or wherever when the company ran into problems. He says he will compensate those whose orders never came with virtual hardware.

[@Thunderbird1337]

This would have been even much more impressive if it supported 256x256 pixels (roughly C64 resolution). The 128x128 resolution is extremely limiting, too much for my taste. That puts a lot of people off the system I think. I mean, it's still very impressive what's possible with these limitations. But imagine what would've been possible in 256x256.

[@abbeybrickner6603]

Wow what an amazing tool!!! I'm so excited to look more into this. I have so many questions lol

[@Vospi]

Yeah, just here to 1) aid by leaving a comment, great video for a 100% noob like me, 2) and to note that I got re-introduced to PICO-8 with Anbernics that run on RK3326, and it absolutely runs PICO-8 natively (on ArkOS, for example), which is rad. I stocked up on carts this night. The adventure awaits.

[@Sugar-Zombie]

Wow, this engine looks so cool and adorable. Thanks for the video :3

[@_fragment]

FINALLY good coverage. I've been using PICO-8 for a while now, and have been longing for external content covering the tool. Thank you!

[@AskGamedev]

No problem! Glad we could help spread the word :)

[@pacococo3763]

Loved this video so much.

[@BryPazReacts]

128x128 resolution is way smaller than any of the major consoles from the 80s. Interesting…

[@kristilucero4553]

bruh they have a linked in, like... who?

[@dariuscurry7396]

The best 15 bucks I ever spent. I love the passion put into Pico-8.

[@s7121n9s]

This is pretty neat. I have a Miyoo Mini and been hearing about Pico 8 a bit lately. I wish there was a version to do this on an iPad. I don't use my computer too often

[@maxboudreaux1076]

i relly like game dev but when it comes to coding i get frusterated and would like some tips

[@phj9894]

Start wih modifying other's works than making entirely new.

[@DeadDie44]

Never heard about it before, but it's kind of adorable

[@LoganIsTired]

Pico-8 would be absolutely perfect if you could place multiple tiles at the same spot.

[@Katzenha]

I don’t understand what tokens mean, can someone explain it, like I am five, please?

[@persialoh4102]

Really love this concept, Just know it today. Thanks for your info

[@wills2652]

I love playing pico 8 on my miyoo mini plus! I love supporting indie game devs!

[@goncaloteixeira5800]

The only thing that sucks is that it only supports LUA I guess I'll be learning a new language lol

[@chastitywhiterose]

I don’t like Lua as much as I do C but Lua is a whole lot easier than JavaScript or BASIC for some odd reason for me to learn.

[@TrasherBiner]

This video has aged like milk when it comes to recommended devices.

[@eboatwright_]

I love this tool. I even used it for Ludum Dare 48

[@LeaGibson1]

Great video. Caught me up quickly.

[@disposablechannel2309]

For a second I thought this was Tic-80 lol. They look kinda similar at first glance but tic is for mobile.

[@jlewis4441]

TIC actually does have a PC version

[@disposablechannel2309]

Is there much of a difference between mobile and pc versions?

[@jlewis4441]

@@disposablechannel2309 I'm not entirely sure, as I've never used mobile, but I do know that both can play TIC games. If you make a game on PC, that same game should be playable on mobile. And vice versa

[@PixelTrik]

@@disposablechannel2309 There is hardly any difference except keyboard and that the mobile version only supports game pad.

[@randydrew66]

I still enjoy GameMaker Studios more tbh

[@XandreIns]

Very good vidéo

[@CrowleyBlack2]

the real nfts png cards and it's free.

[@allTkindaTstuff]

>loves retro art style >uses globalist art style in video

[@Carsonnetic]

That’s Dylan’s footage!

[@colwarsstudiobrickfilmandm8580]

looks inspired by c64

[@ObsidianContraption]

Cool video. Really nice projects. I've only started dabbling with picoCAD

[@pin00ch]

Just discovered this.... I am sooooooo excited!!!! (49 year old retro game and programming lover here)

[@elektron2kim666]

Brand new to me. A couple of days and I created a "thing" in colours and something is moving and whatnot. If nothing else I can use it as gifts.

[@niilokolehmainen]

Tic-80 is a free and open-source option for Pico-8, it just is kinda obscure and has very little amount tutorials made.

[@AlexAntuna]

Really good break down! Pretty much sold on trying it out!

[@geckoo9190]

Well, like they say, limits frees us, I think that this tool could be used to create small games in short time, if they are popular, then they can be ported and polished.

[@why_i_game]

Just learned about Pico-8 tonight. It looks really cool, and I will probably be trying it out. Your presentation was captivating, informative, and detailed. Thanks for a great video!

[@ibfarway6517]

are there even any reasons to not?

[@FareeegYT]

Bro I come to school and show my friends some games I made makes me feel like a king

[@slickback5100]

It's rare I find an engine in a programming language I already know... probably because I only know Lua.

[@Canale064]

This is why I love communities

[@aidanbrophy9947]

Im blown away by both the idea of this engine/console and then even further by what people have created with it

[@rolandkatsuragi]

2:57 What sorcery be this? A .png can't hold code and audio.

[@s7121n9s]

Now you can add the Miyoo Mini running Miniui Os and Onion Os. They can play pico 8 too

[@nuberiffic]

For years I've been thinking that a new retro style console would sell really well.

[@_sans.]

0:38 Friday night funkin ❌ Pico night Punkin ✅

[@musicdev]

3:49 YOU CAN WHAT??? That is amazing!

[@drkmgoswami3042]

I love pico-8 ( ◜‿◝ )♡

[@janetcupp467]

(❁´◡`❁)

[@filipemecenas]

Thats super dope !!!! Thanks for this info

[@wolfpack8275]

what is that lil keyboard were can i find it

[@linuxstreamer8910]

tweetcart looks like the demo scene reborn

[@A-Random-Guy]

Amazing tool, I love it to bits!

[@chrisholder3428]

Simply beautiful !!

[@reelo7931]

wwww we

[@sonatuh]

Too bad I'm a broke kid lol

[@pedroanthunesgames2649]

E

[@indexergames7995]

IS GREAT PICO-8