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/Game Design in Pico 8
Game Design in Pico 8
Game Design in Pico 8
Game Design in Pico 8

Game Design in Pico 8

Project

Custom retro-style computer game

Date Created
January 7, 2026
Author
U
Untitled
Tools & Skills
coding
[CoF] Careers of the Future
Select COF
Launch Lab Connection
Competency
CommunicationProblem Solving
Status
In Progress
  • Fly Catcher
  • Material List
  • Steps
  • CoF connection
  • Launch Lab connection
  • Specific technical skills

In this workshop you will learn how to code in Pico-8 to use logic, functions, and principals of computer science to create a retro-style game. We will walk through a quick tutorial to get you started coding, and then customize our games using the built-in sprite and sound editors.

image

Fly Catcher

‣

Material List

Supplies
Quantity
URL
Laptops
1/student
Monitor/Projector
1
Pico 8 Education Edition
https://www.pico-8-edu.com/
‣

Steps

  1. Introduce Pico 8
  2. Sprites
  3. Map
  4. Player
  5. Controls
  6. Scoring Object
  7. Scoring Object Reset
  8. Collision Detection

CoF connection

Computer Science/Information Technology

Launch Lab connection

Creative CS: Game Design, April 2026 will be using the same software as this workshop.

Specific technical skills

Coding

-- for the possible zone,
-- based on a tutorial 
-- by spacecat

function _init()
	x = 63
	y = 90
	score = 0
	resetfly()
end

function _update()
	if (btn(➡️)) x += 2
	if (btn(⬅️)) x -= 2
	fy+=1
	if fy > 128 then
		resetfly()
	elseif abs(x-fx)<6 
		and abs(y-fy)<6 then
		score += 1
		resetfly()
		sfx(0)
	end
end

function _draw()
	cls()
	map()
	print("score: "..score,1,1,10)
	spr(1,x,y)
	spr(2,fx,fy)
end

function resetfly()
	fx = rnd(120)
	fy = -8
end

-- next steps --

-- easy --
	-- change background
	-- change the theme
	-- more sound effects

-- challenging --
	-- add the dragonfly
	-- make the fly move randomly
	-- move in all directions
	-- add more flies

-- expert --
	-- add a win condition
	-- add a lose condition