Pico-8

Check out the write up I did on my latest little game. j46k

What is pico-8?

PICO-8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs. It feels like a regular console, but runs on Windows / Mac / Linux. When you turn it on, the machine greets you with a commandline, a suite of cartridge creation tools, and an online cartridge browser called SPLORE. -- https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

Specs

Why use pico-8?

There's some benefit to adding constraints to enable creativity and productivity. The artificial system specs play that role a bit.

I think pico-8 shines in that it's entirely self contained. Directly in the console you can edit code, draw sprites, draw maps, make sound effects, and compose music.

You don't have to spend much time deciding how big your assets will be (by default they are 8x8 pixel sprites).

Community

PICO-8 has an active community of game developers. Most problem that I faced when building my game were easily resolved by doing some google searches (which usually lead me to PICO-8's wiki).

SPLORE

SPLORE is a app that runs on PICO-8. It allows you to browse games made by others and even jump into their code to see how they are made.

It's fun to poke around SPLORE and it might even give you some ideas on what to add to your game.

Sharing your game with PICO-8

You do have to purchase PICO-8. It's $15 dollars.

However, you can export your game in a way that it runs on a static HTML page. The people that play your game do not have to purchase a copy of PICO-8.

note: a few people experienced some issues with the controls using an ios device with safari.

Conclusion

I think pico-8 could be a great platform to make quick games (possibly for game jams). If you're looking to make a large game, it might be better to use some other platform/framework.

It's fun.