Skip to main content
Game Dev

Retro Game Lab

Fantasy consoles like PICO-8 and TIC-80 strip game development down to its essentials -- tiny screens, limited palettes, and tight token budgets. These constraints force creative problem-solving and make every pixel count. Here are the games I have built within those limits.

Games

Lunar Patrol

PICO-8

A Moon Patrol demake -- arcade side-scroller where you drive a lunar rover across cratered terrain, dodging obstacles and blasting UFOs. Features 5-layer parallax scrolling, 10 progressively harder levels, and 1/6th gravity physics for satisfying moon jumps.

Lunar Patrol gameplay screenshot

Stackarta

PICO-8

A deck-building tower defense roguelike. Draw cards each wave, then choose to Burn them for resources or Play them as towers. The tension between short-term defense and long-term deck strength drives every decision across 10 escalating waves.

Stackarta gameplay screenshot

Deadlock

TIC-80

Top-down arena survival shooter with neon vector visuals. Fight through waves of 6 enemy types, grab powerups, and face boss encounters. The wider TIC-80 resolution gives room for frantic dodging and satisfying screen-clearing chain reactions.

Deadlock gameplay screenshot

Last Relay

PICO-8

Atmospheric radio exploration. Drive a rover across a desolate landscape, tune your radio to pick up fading signals, and find dying relay towers before they go silent. A quiet, meditative experience built around discovery and solitude.

Last Relay gameplay screenshot

128x128

Pixels

16

Colors

8192

Tokens

4

Games