PicoMix By NuSan

PicoMix By NuSan is a collection of about 20 games and experiments made by creator NuSan over eight years. The collection spans platforming, puzzles, crafting and base building; some games offer hours of challenges, while others take only a few minutes to complete. They were made with the Pico 8 fantasy console, using its 16-color palette, 128×128 pixel art and four-channel chiptune sound.

Display options

Some games include an optional wide mode through the Zepto 8 emulator, extending beyond Pico 8’s usual square screen. Visual filters include scanlines, CRT, toon and minit.

Games and experiments

• P.Craft: Gather materials and build tools to survive on a deserted island. Explore the area and find a cave as you look for a way to escape.
• Combo Pool: Throw colored marbles at one another in an arcade puzzle game. When two marbles of the same color touch, they merge into the next color. Your lifebar shrinks as the number of balls on the field grows; when it empties, sudden death begins, and your last ball must clear some balls from the field. Made in seven days for Lexaloffle’s second Pico 8 game jam in 2016, it won first place in the “Chain Reaction” jam.
• Cyclo 8: Guide a small bike through seven increasingly difficult levels without falling. Each level has 15 optional collectibles, and a clock supports speedruns; completing the game without dying is possible. It was NuSan’s first Pico 8 game, released in 2015, and has regular, wide, reversed regular and reversed wide variations.
• Flooded caves: Dig caves to redirect rising floodwater and save everyone. Your digging power is limited but recharges over time, so you need to choose where and when to dig. At regular intervals, you can send your rescue team to save someone. The game was made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 50 in 2022, whose theme was “Delay the Inevitable.”
• Dami & Flo: Organize a delivery train with two workers, Dami and Flo. At each station, move the input packages at the bottom into the wagon so they can be delivered at a later stop. You can play locally with a friend in split-screen. The game was made as a gift for two friends during a small secret-santa game jam in 2021.
• Zebulon: A Lost Cat: Explore a strange world as Zebulon, a curious cat, and collect food. This small 2D platformer uses metroidvania mechanics: use skills and observation to awaken Zebulon’s powers and navigate tricky environments. He learns new tricks to reach higher and deeper places, and falls or death do not prevent him from getting back up and exploring further.
• Path of Aratron: Solve puzzles by directing a small demon through Dreams. Place stones on Glyphs to set a path; when you begin the summoning ritual, the stones trigger one after another. The 25 puzzles grow in difficulty and require planning and reusing stones, of which you have only a small number.
• Defacto: Build an automated factory chain on an isolated asteroid, sell products and launch rockets into space. Install miners to gather raw resources, transport them to furnaces, then combine them in factories. The goal is to send rockets full of robots and continue exploring the galaxy.