Infant Arcade: Pico-8 Games Made For a Child

My nephew is big into retro video games, and Pico-8 is great for making a tiny retro-style videogames, so here are some that I made for him. You can play them in the browser, or download them if you have Pico-8. If you want any exported as builds for anything Pico-8 exports to then let me know (or get a copy of Pico-8 and do it yourself).

Step On All The Lasers Until You Get The Boss A game made in an hour based on something he was playing in real life

Legally Distinct Emergency Dog A larger game about being a dog and putting out fires, not based on any particular cartoon show

Advanced Binman Simulator A difficult game about being a binman

The Mole Game A small game based on something we played in real life

It was around this point that he got curious about how the games were made, so here are a few we made together. He tended to design the games and pitch in with the graphics; I wrote the code, did other graphics, and tried to steer him towards his more realistic suggestions. (Luckily, while he often threw out some pretty difficult to realise ideas, he would usually also come up with something easy, so I’d suggest we start on that. By the time we finished that bit, with a couple of entertaining bugs along the way, he’d usually forgotten the other idea. This may or may not work on corporate project owners.)

Treasure Hunt A quest for not-all-that hidden treasure

The Bee Game A game about being a bee

The Kirby Game A game which is going to get me sued

The Butcher Game Play as me and the kid and use your powers to defeat an evil butcher