PICO-8
Meet the Devs
PICO-8 Community Stars:
Nationality: New Zealander
living in Japan
Race/Heritage: PÄkehÄ
Gender: male
Age: 46
Profession: Fantasy Machine Designer
Creator of PICO-8
Heya, it's nice to meet you. I'm here because I like making small throw-away things just for kicks, even though some of them snowball out of control. My dream is to get so far into fantasy machine development I end up on the other side as a fulltime trashcart author.
Nationality: Hungarian
living in Hungary, land of fine pĂĄlinka, wine and lĂĄngos.
Race/Heritage:
White, part Felvidéki, a sub-population of Hungarians now living in Slovakia.
Gender: male
Age: 29 (30 soon, sheesh getting old)
Profession:
Back-end software engineer with a little knack for frontend and devops.
Where to find me:
Discord, Twitter, BBS stream on Twitch, gamedev or gameplay and have gameplay videos on youtube.
Hobbies:
Big gamer, pixel artist, anime/cartoon and comic/manga/manhwa/manhua reader, mostly in digial, but I have a fair few of them in physical form. Tabletop games, TCG-s are also something I enjoy dabbling in. Tabletop RPG-s were a big passion of mine I haven't had the opportunity to pursue for a while. Loved streetball, but f***ed up my knee in an injury, so haven't really played it in a while.
Others: Weebs rise up and roll for initiative! I follow seasonal stuff in both anime and manga/manhwa/manhua/webtoon word. Was a 3.5 D&D Dungeon Master for close to 6 years, played Shadowrun, almost started Vampire and Risus.
I'm Achie a solo game dev and PICO-8 enthusiast. I make small little games, pixel/voxel art and stream games from the huge PICO-8 library. I'm also creator and writer of the PicoShorts series which aims to highlight amazing little PICO-8 games I found either on Splore or any part of the PICO-8 ecosystem! Active PICO-8 streamer.
Nationality: Canadian
Race/Heritage: white / European decent
Gender: male
Age: 34
Profession:
Web Developer, Dad
Hobbies:
writing, guitar, drums, print nerd
Where to find me:
Mastodon
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for wacky animals and instruction manuals, and since 2017, PICO-8 has been mushed in there too. I've met wonderful, inspiring people through PICO-8 and now have the privilege of running TweetTweetJam, one of our community's annual gamejams. PICO-8 is near and dear to my heart, and the helpful advice and welcoming attitudes of these devs ended up leading me to my current career in development!
Nationality: American
Race/Heritage: Northern European ancestry, heavy on the German
Gender: female
Age: Born in '63. You do the math. I've stopped counting.
Profession: Retired government bureaucrat.
(Automation Specialist/Project Manager)
Hobbies:
Knitting, gardening, hiking, meditation, reading, interactive fiction
Others:
Vegan and parrot owner.
Where to find me:
Active on the PICO-8 Discord and Reddit. Dabble with some knitting videos on Youtube
I'm probably best known for Speako-8, a speech library for PICO-8. My love of programming started in my teenage years when my father brought home an Apple II. As my skills grew, I went on to write articles and programs for various computer publications: Nibble, Call APPLE, II Computing, etc. Now, PICO-8 brings back the joy and excitement I felt in those early days of computing.
Nationality: Brazilian
Race/Heritage: German decent
Gender: male
Age: 36
Profession: Game Developer
Hobbies:
Lifting weights, painting, playing bass, enjoying nature.
Others:
Dad (9y and 5y boys), twin, kinda obsessed with self improvement and health.
Where to find me:
I'm not very active anywhere tbh, but I have a Youtube channel, Discord server and post sometimes on Twitter. You can find all my links there.
I had some experience making fan games before, but PICO-8 with it's limitations is what pushed me to release finished games. I value creativity in my games, but it sometimes comes at the cost of making my games a bit complex. Trying to balance novelty with simplicity.
Nationality: Greece
Race/Heritage:
Greek with some Albanian blood
Gender: female
Age: 43
Profession:Illustrator.
Currently UI artist at minecraft.
Hobbies:
I play the piano and sing, I cosplay. My Alphonse Elric cosplay won some awards too.
Others:
Iâm a trans woman and a dyke.
Where to find me:
Twitter
Iâm an illustrator who loves pixel art. I made all the art and animation for Space Jam: a new Legacy: The game. Animating Bugs and Lola Bunny was a blast. Iâve made about 20 jam games, most of them meh, but all of them taught me something about gamedev.
Nationality: Peruvian
living in Lima
Race/Heritage: Latin American
Gender: male (he/him)
Age: 24
Profession:
Part-time random gigs and PICO-8 dev
Hobbies:
Music is huge for me, I play guitar and have been making tracks in famitracker (a NES tracker, where you can make chiptunes) since a teenager. Beyond that, I play a lot of games, I love to tinker and to learn about all sorts of things.
Others:
Musician, Composer, Cinephile, Low-Res Enthusiast, Curious.
Where to find me:
Discord and Twitter
Im LokiStriker (Loki for short), I made "Beckon The Hellspawn" and "Defender X", currently making another, much bigger, shmup. You can find me at twitter posting updates (and possibly on youtube at some point). I love coding in PICO-8 because is such a delight to code in, it has quickly become my only form of making games. I look forward to keep participating on future zines, maybe some Jams here and there and eventually make games in Picotron when it drops.
Nationality: British
living in England
Race/Heritage: British
Gender: male
Age: Older than you might imagine (or maybe not: how old do I sound?) Anyway, it's 32, but that's not in decimal.
Profession: Teacher
Hobbies:
Cycling, as much as possible! Also guitar (building and playing)
Others:
Vegetarian (sometimes vegan). My day job combines teaching with a role in charge of sustainability at the school I work at; everything from power generation and food waste to meadow land and recycling.
Where to find me:
I'm mainly on Youtube and Twitter as Doc_Robs (I do actually have a PhD), but I need to get back into generating some content. Hopefully this will be the kick I need!
I have been a teacher for a long time and I discovered PICO-8 and realised what a fantastic tool it was for learning to code. It reminded me of the old days of coding on a Spectrum or BBC Micro (age hint there!) The lack of distraction and the instant results in a Lo-Fi environment really appealed. The fact that you can get under the hood of the software is incredible and I love learning new things about it. I share my time between PICO-8 and GameMaker and love both of them; I code for fun and relaxation but I'm very bad at finishing things! I guess I just get too excited about the next idea, but surely that's what drives all of us to do this, isn't it?
Nationality: UK
Race/Heritage:
I'm from Yorkshire which probably counts, right?
Gender: male
Age: 37
Profession: IT Teacher
I mostly teach Scratch to 5-11 year olds.
Hobbies:
I'm the proud/hopeless father of a one-year-old so besides some gaming/streaming to relax and gym/swimming to try and keep fit I don't have much time left for anything else!
Others:
I'm a bit of a metalhead so half my wardrobe is black band t-shirts.
Where to find me:
Most active on Twitter (#Pico8 is one of the few good things left on there) and Youtube. I'll trawl through the BBS looking for games to make videos about but I don't tend to post much on there.
I'm the Pico Playtime guy, so each week I post a short playthrough on Youtube of a cool PICO-8 game I've found and try to get across why I think it's good. I love PICO-8 and its community, it's where I first learned 'proper' programming and where I've been able to have so much fun creating my own games.
Nationality: Canadian
living permanently in the U.S. since finishing uni.
Race/Heritage:
Northwest European mutt. So pale you can see what I had for breakfast.
Gender: female
Also, with apologies to the hordes clamoring for my affection, I am happily married. Your princess is in another castle. ;)
Age: A gentleman does not ask a lady her age. Not twice, anyway.
Profession: Retired professional console/PC gamedev. 20+ years spanning SNES thru Xbone, VIC thru RTX.
Hobbies:
Gaming, AI, linguistics, philosophy, learning in general. Also passing down the ancient lore and magic to new devs.
Others:
Oh, I dunno, I don't like labels. I guess "Aspie" might be nice for another Aspie to know. I'm also at least one or two letters in the pride alphabet, depending on my mood, though I'm an ally to all letters, which is what I think really matters. Also an animal ally, so I don't eat them.
Where to find me:
Evenly split between Discord, Mastodon, and the Lexaloffle BBS.
I hang out in the PICO-8 community and co-administer the unofficial wiki. I'm retired from gamedev due to burnout and the neurological fallout that came with it, so I don't work on big projects anymore, but I love tinkering and helping people learn to code, and to optimize their code, which was my specialty. I feel like mentoring is just something we humans naturally like to do as we get older. I sure do. I also try to talk zep into doing stuff. Doesn't usually work. :P
Nationality: American U.S.
Race/Heritage: Caucasian
Gender: male (he/him)
Age: mid-twenties
Profession:
Full stack web & mobile development
I am a hobbyist game dev with a desire to bring other creatives to try game development - I often find that people think the bar to entry is a lot higher than they think. I love to educate and invite people into the processes, frustrations, and joys of game development, and also to create games that everyone can play â€
Nationality: French
Race/Heritage: ?
Gender: male
Age: 50+
Profession: Software Architect
Sticking to PICO-8 (well...until Picotron really comes out đŹ ) as a way to code like my 15 year old me was never able to do! I like digging obsolete 3d techniques and see how they fare on Pico. I am one of the PICO-8 Discord moderators, trying to use my dev experience to help others!
Nationality: Canadian
living in Toronto
Race/Heritage: Canadian
English/Irish decent
Gender: male (he/him)
Age: 39...I think?
Profession:
Musician, composer, educator
Iâm primarily a jazz pianist (Steinway artist, University of Toronto instructor) who ventured into electronic music and production, including PICO-8! One of my core educational philosophies is that everyone is âinherently musical.â So, I love sharing and making music with all people at all skill levels. I have an ongoing PICO-8 music tutorial series, I write music for the community, and help others make their own music.
Nationality: Italian
Race/Heritage:
Hmm I don't know, not really typical mediterranean dude, more like Germanic maybe? kinda pale and get easily sunburnt đ
Gender: male
Age: 50
Profession: Mostly IT
Hobbies:
Drawing, wordplay and anything related to words (like creating Palindrome sentences) and a mix of art and letters like Rebus, weird things people usually don't like apparently...
Others:
I don't eat any meat, more relaxed with seafood/fish (I recently discovered there's a specific label for this: Pescetarianism)
Where to find me:
Mostly active on two Discord servers PICO-8 and Lazy Devs..
Hi, I like helping people in PICO-8 discords, most of the time providing -unsolicited- suggestions on how to optimize code. You might have played Dinky Kong recently featured on lexaloffle BBS, a Donkey Kong demake I've developed in collaboration with Trog and his son (gfx, sfx/music).
Nationality: American
Race/Heritage: Caucasian/Irish
Gender: male
Age: 34
Profession: Freelance Programmer, Game Developer, Author, Voice Actor
Where to find me:
I am mostly consumed by the PICO-8 Subreddit, but I also post on Twitter, and you can find me in Discord.
Hobbies:
Streaming on Twitch, World building, Creating Open Source Software, and playing Guitar/Drums (Used to tour the country in a metal band for many years as a singer!)
Others:
I'm secretly just a writer who went way off track. Ive always been told I should be a writer, I love doing it, and I've been paid to do it - but the creative work I hope to produce one day remains a mystery. Perhaps it will never come!
For those who don't know me, I'm iivii (pronounced Vee) - except on reddit, where I am CoreNerd. I am the moderator of the PICO-8 Subreddit. I run the unofficial PICO-8 api. I'm also the guy working on the PICONOMICON. I find teaching others just as rewarding as making games, much like NerdyTeachers. I think of myself as the leprechaun of the community - always popping up with little golden coins from a pot that somehow hasn't emptied yet.
Nationality: Swedish
Race/Heritage: Golden Husky
Gender: male
Age: Millennial
Profession: Designer
I started making pixel art and games as a kid, stopped doing it for a while, and then found my way back via PICO-8 and the community around it. I love making chunky-funky games in the cozy PICO-8 environment. I also enjoy making pixel art with the PICO-8 palette. Those crisp default colors and the warm âsecretâ colors make a versatile palette thatâs a lot of fun to work with!
Nationality: Polish
living in Spain
Race/Heritage:
A boring he/him white male with some redeeming qualities.
Gender: male
Age: Sufficient, bordering on excessive? 36.
Profession:
Used to be a corporate software engineer. These days I'm working on my own games full-time.
Hobbies:
Other than games in any shape or form, I'm also a big volleyball fan - used to play a lot, but these days with my programmer's back, I mostly spectate. Recently picked up running again and getting close to my goal of 5K three times a week.
Where to find me:
Today, I'm most often on Twitter, though I'm also trying out Mastodon. In three months, who knows, might be the other way around.
I decided to follow my life-long dream of making games in my 30s. Found PICO-8 kind of by accident, and that gave me my start. I made The Lair, Dank Tomb and Slipways. It took me a while, but I turned that last one into a Steam release, which is the reason I'm quite busy these days and not as active in the community as I'd like. But I do love firing up the old console now and then, whether for a prototype or a quick low-res doodle.
Nationality: Swedish
Race/Heritage: Doesnât matter đ
Gender: male
Age: 46
Profession:
Previously product/production, now full time solo indie dev
Hobbies:
Spend a lot of time in my local scout community, also play board games, and sometimes find the time to draw
Others:
Not really, but everything and anything is possible if we try hard and do it together.
Where to find me:
Too old to be hang around online a lot but fairly active on Twitter and on my own discord server.
Iâve been making games for 35+ years, ranging from independent self publishing and social games, to big brand advertising and AAA mega budgets. These days Iâve scaled back to make small games again far away from the traditional industry hustle. People usually know me from games like Icy Tower or Happyland Adventures, or more recent work like picoCAD, Hellgineers, and Ascent.
Nationality: American
living in Sweden
Race/Heritage:
At least 5 different places, all white European
Pronouns: he/him
Age: Well, I technically saw last century
Profession: Game Programmer at Resolution Games
Hobbies:
Besides personal game dev and playing games my biggest hobby is definitely drawing pixel art, which I've been doing continuously since 2018. I've also fallen deeply into D&D in recent years, both as a player and DM.
Where to find me:
I first found PICO-8 through Twitter, and these days am most active there but also lurk on the main PICO-8 Discord and the BBS.
I've been using PICO-8 since 2017 and have always loved how quick it is to work in and how it pushes you to think small and manageable (having a great color palette also makes things nice of course). I've since released well over a dozen carts, my first being the eerie texting game Messages. These days I'm probably best known for FUZ, my demake of FEZ, but you also might have heard of Winterwood, NULL, A Dream's Command, or I Just Wanna Land!
Nationality: German
Race/Heritage: Polish
Gender: male (he/him)
Age: 41
Profession: Game Developer / Teacher
I am an indie dev and game dev teacher. I like to use PICO-8 to teach people how to make their own little games. I made games like Mai Chan's Sweet Buns, Porklike and High Stakes.
Nationality: British
Race/Heritage: White
Gender: male
Age: 40+
Profession:
Let's just say things were simpler when I was "just a developer".
Hobbies:
Watching movies (+tv shows). Making narrative adventure games (+building the editor/engine for them!). Retrogaming & collecting (when funds allow!).
Others:
Cinephile probably, as I really do love movies! (esp. "contained thrillers")
Where to find me: Mastodon
Tinkerer of PICO-8 since 2016, with a history of gravitating toward creating "demakes" of well-known (+some lesser known) games. I'm the guy who spent almost 3 yrs (on & off) demaking the RTS classic, Dune II and came out with "UnDUNE II". Also kinda known for making "Low Mem Sky" (a No Man's Sky demake within a single P8 cart), and "SCUMM-8" (demake of the engine that powered classic point+click adventure games like Monkey Island). Currently working on "SAGE": a web-based Simple Adventure Game Engine, while waiting for Picotron to be released.
Nationality: English
just moved from Sheffield in New Zealand
Race/Heritage:
Nothing interesting as far as I'm aware!
Gender: male
Age: 20 odd
Profession: I jump around!
I've worked bars and cafes most my life, did a brief stint in insurance, and was briefly a pyrotechnic for power rangers LOL. Wouldn't do it again, the film industry stressed me tf out HAHA
Hobbies:
Whatever I can get my hands on really! Love trying new stuff, cooking has been my new obsession- but mostly because I'm newly skint lol. I'd love to give pottery a go, perhaps that's my next obssession.
Others:
Not really! I'm just an uncomplex guy trying his best lol
Where to find me:
Twitter as 0xFFB3 or the LazyDevs discord mostly, but I'm fairly responsive just about anywhere I am. I'd like to give Twitch a go at some point.
I'm a PICO-8 dev making whatever strikes me as interesting at the time! I made Warwind, Oracles Inn, Calico, and soon will be release a taster of my shmup I've been working on. Outside of that I'm just looking to learn and grow as a dev, as well as an "internet person"- still getting the hang of it all! My dream is to quit my day job. XD
Nationality: American
Race/Heritage: white, various European
Gender: male
Age: Millennial
Profession: Software Engineer
Hobbies:
I like to spend time outside, especially in the mountains: hiking, skiing, occasional light peakbagging. Sometimes I also make music (though I haven't done very much of that recently!). Also cooking and baking.
Where to find me:
Discord, Lexaloffle BBS, Twitter, Mastodon
Former graphics researcher, longtime audio synthesis enthusiast. I made RP-8, a virtual analog groovebox for PICO-8, along with various other audio and physics toys, tools, and tweetcarts.
Nationality: Citizen of Earth.
Race/Heritage: I am a Marina
Gender: female
Age: 19
Profession: Cool-leg
Hobbies:
I draw. I write songs and play a variety of stringed instruments.
Others: I'm a very manic and depressed person, but not manically depressed. Just both at once, or just one or the other. I don't know if that's an identification.
Where to find me:
I use Twitter and Lexaloffle BBS mostly.
Mostly, Marina is the persona I hold to create games. It's usable as an icon or as a username. Sort of like Nerdy Teachers, but more publicly personal. In the end I'll either move on from Marina or use Marina as my source of living.
Nationality: American
living in Thailand.
Race/Heritage: Mixed
Black / White
Gender: male
Age: Millennial
Profession: Primary School Teacher
I am a creator and educator who simply follows my many many interests, learns as much as possible to create in that space, and then I am driven to teach others how to do the same. As soon as I saw PICO-8 way back in 2015, I immediately fell in love with its aesthetic, all-in-one package, and how it takes minutes to learn, years to master, and a lifetime to enjoy. I also believe it is the best way to get anyone into game dev and learning how to code.
Nationality: Northern Europe
Race/Heritage: Northern European
Gender: male
Age: Pretty Young
Profession:
Student with odd jobs here and there
Hobbies:
I play the guitar, listen to good music and go hiking.
Others:
Math rock enjoyer
Where to find me:
My games are on Itch and Lexaloffle BBS, and I'm active on Twitter and Discord too.
I love small, unique games with a focus on quality over quantity, which is exactly what I think the PICO-8 community is best at. It's a perfect engine for my jam entries and other small projects.
Nationality: American
Race/Heritage: white (jewish)
Gender: agender
Age: 27
Profession: Software Developer
Outside of PICO-8, I work with some friends on a dating site -- it's not glamorous, but it makes some cash!
Hobbies:
music, writing, hypnotism
Others:
Transgender, Autistic, Otherkin
Where to find me:
Discord (@pyrexbold)
I wrote my first game when I was 8. I emailed it to a bunch of my relatives, who thought it was a virus. Since then, I've broken my arm, crashed my car, and made a lot of games about the structure of desire and the awful way it feels to be torn by force from a body that was made for you.
Design the games you want to live in. Explore the moral complexity of your vision. Draw cuddly bats! đŠ
Nationality: North American
Race/Heritage: white
Gender: non-binary
Age: late twenties
Profession:
Composer and music teacher
Hobbies: songwriting
Others: bisexual
Where to find me: Discord
I enjoy making story-focused and vibes-y games. I'm particularly interested in game-ai steering and decision-making systems. I love Pico8 because it keeps my scope creep in check and because its community is an unbelievably supportive and positive place to be.
Nationality: US American
Race/Heritage: Mixed-race African American.
We actually made a PICO-8 cart about our relationship to race - "Driftself"
Gender: It's complicated. We're generally somewhere between no gender and female, "demilady" for short.
Age: Elder Millennial / Nineties Kid
Profession:
Tabletop Roleplaying Game Designer
(but we don't make a living due to mental health issues.)
Hobbies: Tabletop roleplaying games - especially GM-less games like "I'm sorry did you say street magic", and "This Town is Full of Monsters" - music-making, and the constructed language Toki Pona. (mi kulupu Pakapa!)
Others: We're asexual, aromantic, transfeminine, and nonbinary. Also, autistic, ADHD, and dealing with an anxiety disorder. Also maybe therian? We spent a long time trying to be normal and it turns out we're really not.
We're a plural system (More Than One) from the mid-Atlantic USA; we grew up playing the piano but dropped off in college, and PICO-8 is how we started making music again and how we began composing our own original music. We made an infographic about making more legible graphics in PICO-8 - and a few miscellanous carts, but mostly we make music. We also helped organize the MidiLib on the BBS. If you like making custom SFX instruments, feel free to get in on the party; we try to check occasionally for new posts in the tag.
Nationality: British
living in New Zealand past 20 years
Gender: male
Age: Somewhere in between my dad and my 3 kids (okay, 50+)
Where to find me:
Twitter
Hobbies:
Games (retro mainly, I have a very limited attention span), music, movies, Taekwon-Do, reading. I tend to get a new obsession every few years!
Profession: Software Architect (hate titles but found the company I work for would pay me more by changing my title from "Senior Developer" - who am I to argue?)
I'm Paul and, a few years ago, PICO-8 reignited my passion for hobby games programming (which I started on the C64). I find the PICO-8 community a breath of fresh air. I tend to remake old arcade or 80s home-computer games. I just enjoy the process, and find it a relaxing break from my day-job. I'm really looking forward to using Picotron in the future.
Nationality: American
living in Canada
Race/Heritage: white
Pronouns: he/him
Age: I used to use Twitter but I've never used Tiktok
Profession: Games!
I love games that go in a weird direction and really commit to it. I grew up making horribly unfair paper maze adventures, moved on to Game Maker 7 and TI-83 basic, and then stopped making games for a long while. But I'm back at it now and I couldn't be happier! I love how understandable and bounded PICO-8 is â it's a cozy environment for experimentation, and very fun to stretch right up to its limits. You might know me for The Tower, Bigmap Editor, or my TweetTweetJam entries.
Nationality: American
Race/Heritage: white
Gender: male
Age: 21
Profession: College Student
Hobbies:
furry, artist, composer, gamer. My golf handicap is abysmal, but at least I'm good at Mario Golf
Others: LGBTQ+ represent
Where to find me: Discord
Hi, I'm Para! I've been into retro tech for about as long as I can remember, so PICO-8 has been a great fit for me. The community here is wildly creative--it's always fun to watch folks make new things and continue to push the boundaries of what's possible.
Nationality: American
Race/Heritage: Multiracial
Gender: male
Age: 28
Profession: Security / Military / Pro Pico-8 Gamer
Hobbies:
Beating my wife and kids in gaming and spending time with my wife and kids
Others: Christian :)
Where to find me: Mostly active on the Discord, but I'm in all areas PICO-8. BBS, Reddit, Discord, Youtube
Hi, I'm Pico-8 Gamer and I just want the PICO-8 community to pop! I create PICO-8 gaming content on Youtube and I host the PICO-8 specific game jam called the Cre8-Jam. As I learn more game dev with PICO-8, I'm certain I can make a staple of PICO-8 in the game development community as a whole. PICO-8 is the best game development tool hands down. You can't convince me otherwise.
Nationality: American
Race/Heritage: White / Caucasian
Gender: male (he/him/they)
Age: 34
Profession: It's complicated lol
Hobbies:
Creatively, I also do a bit of fiction writing separate from games work. I'm a huge horror nerd, movies and podcasts in particular. I used to be a really competitive person, and was close to becoming a semi-pro bowler at one point!
Others: Gay/Queer
Where to find me:
Discord; Twitter - hopefully a different platform soon?
I'm a generally quiet guy who tinkers away at projects in his spare time and kinda does a lot of things backwards/upside-down/wrong because it tends to work better for me. My most well-known game now is probably Astra but prior to that, Pip! The Pelican got a lot of positive responses from P8 community folk. I'm a permanent lurker and PICO-8 fan but don't always start convos well - feel free to say hi to me pretty much whenever, I'm better at replying than initiating!
Nationality: Croissant Country, also known as "France"
Gender: I'm genderfluid babyyy, I prefer to be referred to with the pronouns they/them!
Age: I turned 26 this year, someone make it stop please.
Profession: I'm a video game developper!! I co-founded the indie studio PUNKCAKE DĂ©licieux and I'm very happy to say that working there is my fulltime job!
Hobbies:
I read quite a few books, I do some calisthenics, I enjoy tea and cooking and walking in the woods, and I have three cats! One of them is called Pico in fact!
Others: My two favorite bands are 'The Armed' and 'King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard'. They're both amazing and I love them. Also I'm queer but honestly who cares, listen to these bands they're great!
Where to find me:
Well it used to be Twitter... I'm on Bluesky now, and I'm trying to motivate myself to get on TikTok, but I think the easiest way to find me right now is on the PUNKCAKE Discord server!
I'm RĂ©my! I made quite a few of my first games on PICO-8, experimented a lot with it, and wrote a bunch of programming guides on my website that used my PICO-8 experiments as basis! I made One Room Dungeon, Lands of Yocta, Gar's Den, Embrace, and more! Right now I'm working on my own game engine inspired by PICO-8, called SUGAR, and I'm making games with it for my indie studio PUNKCAKE DĂ©licieux! We're mostly known for our chess game Shotgun King, but we actually made a new game every month for most of 2021 and 2022 and we're preparing to do it again in 2024!
Nationality: Japan
Race/Heritage: Japanese
Gender: male
Age: 26
Profession: Software Engineer
I studied interaction design and interface design at an art university. I participate in game jams on itch.io using PICO-8. I want to release a bundle of works once I finished 10 projects. Additionally, if a work has a great idea, I would like to remake it for consoles and mobile platforms. I love PICO-8 because its strict constraints promote development and, it's easy to create sound.
Nationality: German/American
living in Germany
Race/Heritage: Mixed
German / Indian
Gender: male
Age: 23
Profession: Software Development
Hobbies:
Recreational math, Language-learning, drawing
Others:
Free and Open Source Software enthusiast
Where to find me: Discord
I've been using math and shapes to make up for my lack of pixel art experience ever since I've started PICO-8. I like making tools to make the PICO-8 gamedev process easier.
Nationality: Spanish
living in Barcelona
Race/Heritage: Caucasian
(Mediterranean Subrace/Type)
Gender: male
Age: 48
Profession:
Software & Platform Engineer, though nowadays more a Software & Platform Engineer Manager (less hands-on)
I've been coding longer than anything else, started early with the Speccy back in 1983-4 (Basic, then Z-80 ASM). Started "gaming" on the Spectrum too and did some (horrible...) small games. Joined Fenix project building an open source 2D game engine port of DIV Games Studio in C. Tried several Game engines & languages, but ended up falling in love with PICO8 where limitations and DIY are a delight... Not discarding doing something bigger someday, who knows?
SmellyFishstiks
Nationality: American
Age: 20
Profession: Pets Huskies
Hi I'm Smelly, and currently I'm working on finishing up long-term projects like my platformer Redash I hope to finish soon. Really enjoy working inside of PICO-8; it's so pleasant to have the whole IDE there. And of course surfing the BBS from time to time.
Nationality: Irish
living in Scotland
Race/Heritage: Just Irish
Gender: male
Age: 43
Profession: Java developer
Hobbies:
I used to do photography and some 3d Modeling but both of those are kind of by the wayside.
Where to find me:
Almost exclusively on Discord. I've participated in all platforms to some degree or other, Youtube and Twitch as consumer/commenter.
I'm someone who got into PICO-8 to recapture the joy of coding for the fun of it. Over the past 20 years I have become jaded with code and a lot of that is to do with coding commerically. I stayed around because I find the community wonderful and helpful and there are so many interesting projects for people to be involved with.
Nationality: USA
Race/Heritage: Caucasian
(descendants are British/Scottish/Irish) but like 1/64th Native American.
Gender: male
(he/him, sometimes ho/hum)
Age: 58
(was Heinz 57 last year, this is the first year I canât say âmid-fiftiesâ đ)
Profession:
Professional Game Designer for 35 years. Unprofessional Game Designer / Coder for 7 years.
Hobbies:
photography, cinephile, meditation, disc golf (once junior state champion of Wisconsin), geocaching, massage therapy, reading. Is creme brulee a hobby? I think it isâŠ.
Where to find me:
Definitely most active on 1) Discord, 2) Twitter 3) Reddit 4) BBS (but may change as I have more free time), 5) YouTube.
I was one of the co-founders of id software, and made Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, and DOOM there. Later Rise of the Triad, Anachronox, Diner Dash games, Demeo / Blaston / Bait! social spaces in VR. Now a secret project!
Nationality: Japan
Race/Heritage: Japanese
(maybe Alien)
Gender: male
Age: 41
Profession: Web Engineer
I made the fighting game "Uchu Mega Fight" made in PICO-8 and it is available on my site. It's a full multi-cart project, and I've been developing it for three years. The game is designed to be easy for anyone to play, so please give it a try!
Nationality: American
Race/Heritage: White
Gender: male
Age: 29 last I checked
Hobbies:
Gaming, Programming, and Mathematics
I'm mostly known for my games, Sokocode, Slime's Light, and SB-1800, and their stylish itch.io pages. I've spent years working on tons of game prototypes, many of which haven't fully completed or been shown publicly. Though switching to PICO-8 really helped with finally completing some of these. I still have a huge backlog of ideas that I eventually want fully realized.
Nationality: American
Race/Heritage: Jewish
(emphasis on the "ish")
Gender: male
Age: Pushing 40
Profession: Visual Effects Artist/Teacher
(I have an IMDB!)
I have been working in the entertainment industry as a visual effects artist for over 10 years. During the pandemic under lockdown, I was playing a lot of Celeste on my Nintendo Switch. One fateful day, I decided to google what "PICO-8" was all about. I had some limited experience writing custom tools for Maya and Nuke but had never considered myself a "programmer" before then. I highly encourage everyone who thinks that they aren't good at this kind of thing to give it a try. I currently work in the Learning & Development department of a visual effects studio as a software trainer. I'm hoping one day to give a presentation on PICO-8 as a gateway to learning to code. One of the things I love the most about PICO-8 is the community. Whether it be in the subreddit, the Discords, on Mastodon or Twitter, everyone involved in the PICO-8 scene tends to be friendly, welcoming to newcomers, and generous with their knowledge and skills. Thanks to all of you for helping me to learn, and to teach.
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