Cre­ate a Video Game: In Pico‑8

In this project, we’ll use Pico‑8 to teach pro­gram­ming fun­da­men­tals in a fun and cre­ative way. Stu­dents will learn and imple­ment core con­cepts such as log­ic, loops, if state­ments, and func­tions. We’ll also explore sprite and map cre­ation along with col­li­sion detec­tion. By intro­duc­ing these skills through game devel­op­ment, stu­dents will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be cre­ative and prac­tice design prin­ci­ples.

Project Overview

  1. Ori­en­ta­tion & Set­up
    Intro­duce Pico‑8’s inter­face: code edi­tor, sprite edi­tor, and map edi­tor. Walk through draw­ing a sim­ple sprite and writ­ing a few lines of Lua to move it.
  2. Game Mechan­ics
    Pro­gram basic play­er move­ment (left, right, jump). Add col­li­sion detec­tion with plat­forms or walls. Option­al­ly, include col­lectibles, ene­mies, or pow­er-ups.
  3. Design
    Cre­ate unique sprite art for char­ac­ters and back­grounds. Exper­i­ment with lev­el lay­outs to encour­age explo­ration or chal­lenge. Add sim­ple sound effects or music for atmos­phere.
  4. Test­ing & Iter­a­tion
    Playtest the game to find bugs or improve game play. Share feed­back in small groups, then iter­ate for improve­ments.

Try out the game I cre­at­ed! (Use the arrow keys)

Why Pico‑8 Is Per­fect for the Class­room

Pico‑8 is a hands-on way to teach pro­gram­ming and video game design. It pro­vides an 8‑bit retro-style envi­ron­ment with built-in tools for cod­ing, art, and music. Stu­dents of any skill lev­el can design sprites, build lev­el maps, and write Lua code to bring their game ideas to life.

  1. Begin­ner-Friend­ly
    Pico‑8 uses the Lua pro­gram­ming lan­guage, which is made to be sim­ple to learn and easy to read, but still pow­er­ful enough to make real games.
  2. Teach­es Foun­da­tion­al Cod­ing Skills
    From basic log­ic to struc­tured prob­lem-solv­ing, Pico‑8 projects rein­force core con­cepts like vari­ables, if state­ments, loops, func­tions, and debug­ging.
  3. Cre­ative & Engag­ing
    Pico‑8 pro­vides easy to use tool for mak­ing sprites, maps, and SFX. This envi­ron­ment allows stu­dents to blend art, log­ic, and sto­ry­telling.
  4. Quick Feed­back Loop
    A built-in code edi­tor and instant run/test fea­ture means stu­dents can quick­ly tweak and test ideas. Rapid iter­a­tion not only builds cod­ing skill, but also fos­ters crit­i­cal think­ing and resilience.

Plat­former Tuto­r­i­al