PICO-8 is a fantasy console for retro game development

PICO-8 is a fantasy console created by Lexaloffle to make small games with a retro flavor.

The tool makes it easy to share your creations with others via "carts" and you can inspect the source code, spritesheets, audio config, etc. of these.

PICO-8 games are coded in Lua, and the platform's specs set arbitrary limitations to enhance creativity. These specs are:

• 128×128 screen size.

• 16-color palette (inc. transparent color).

• Bank of 128 8×8 pixels sprites (+ another 128-sprite shared with maps).

• Bank of 128×32 tiles for maps (+ another 128-tile shared with sprites).

• 4-channel chiptune audio (up to 64 sfx).

• Up to 8192 tokens of code.

Resources

• Official manual
• PICO-8 Education Edition (free, browser-based)
• PICO-8 Zine (4 issues available)