
Zepton – a Pico-8 voxel shoot'em up [game] - chiptune
http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?uid=556
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jasonkostempski
I just got the Voxatron and PICO-8 bundle. This is how my kids will learn to
program! I love everything about these projects. I just started working on a
Robotron: 2084/Smash TV style game idea with LÖVE but I think using Voxatron
is going to be way more fun for me. The first cartridge in the list is a
Robotron: 2084 style game.

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j_s
[http://www.lexaloffle.com/voxatron.php](http://www.lexaloffle.com/voxatron.php)

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taneq
Saw big pixels. Expected something 2600-esque. Was very pleasantly surprised -
smooth and fun!

If I may be lazy and ask instead of reading all the docs right now - how much
processing power would it take to implement PICO-8? I know you say there's
RasPI support but this feels like it deserves to run on a proper 8-bit micro,
not just a small Linux SoC.

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hexmiles
It use lua for the logic so i thing it will need a bit more processing power
than that. Maybe it will run on something supported by elua:
[http://www.eluaproject.net/overview/status](http://www.eluaproject.net/overview/status)

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leafo
Available on itch.io as well!
[https://chiptune.itch.io/zepton](https://chiptune.itch.io/zepton)

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chiptune
so much <3

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quadcore
Good job. Just for the clarification, it is well a voxel engine, but not a
"2D" one as it makes no sense (voxel means VOlume piXEL, which is a 3D unit
box, compared to a 2d unit-rectangle for the pixel), but a real 3d voxel
engine. The good old method to make a voxel like that (specifically, a
terrain) is to iterate over the screen column then to iterate over the 'z'
coordinate in (3d) world-space. Those loops, for screen space, for world
space, is quite an interesting hack of early graphics programming. However, in
the case of this game, it seems the renderer works more like a for x-world for
z-world, draw square.

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chiptune
it's actually a full 2d voxel made only of rectangles, using the classic
position_(x|y) / position_z * focale method, and drawing them from farthest to
nearest z :)

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quadcore
Oh yeah, of course you prefer to render the rectangles like that, my mistake.
I insist on the 3d terminology though :)

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jlebrech
It feels reminiscent of AMOS
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMOS_(programming_language)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMOS_\(programming_language\))

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Neliquat
Worked somewhat well on mobile, now that impresses.

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ICRqVNmDrU8FDi
The gravity mechanic is cool. When you take-out an enemy it falls out of the
sky and you can still crash into it.

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Keyframe
Cool! Reminds me of SEGA's Thunderblade:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfhRzhbXAPc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfhRzhbXAPc)

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usernam
Amazing feat for the PICO-8 :)

I wonder why sometimes the view is blurred, and sometimes it's sharp (looks
like some post-processing on the image)?

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chiptune
on the image? wich one? :)

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usernam
The actual game canvas. It seems to switch between bilinear filtering or
nearest-neighbor scaling. FF 52 on linux here.

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agumonkey
I love this kind of games with retro design but slightly new capabilities
(instead of completely new engine/rendering).

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dividuum
Also PICO8 cartridges are PNG images with the image in the style of an old
cartridge (Example:
[http://www.lexaloffle.com/gfx/jelpi.p8.png](http://www.lexaloffle.com/gfx/jelpi.p8.png)).
That almost make them feel like something physical and perfectly fits into the
theme. I think that's the smartest design choice I have seen in recent years.

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agumonkey
Heh, having just found an Atari Lynx with games, it does fit the style of the
era.

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nickpsecurity
A pain for me to control with bad hand-eye but a really neat game. You did a
great job with it. Cool stuff.

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chiptune
i added mouse control for the next update!

give it a try here -> lol.pm/zepton.html (beta version)

to enable the mouse, you have to press "p" or enter key to access the "pause
menu" and select "mouse / button" option :)

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nickpsecurity
MUUUUUCH BETTER!! I was blastin them fools so good on that one! :)

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chiptune
good! I'm totally happy of that :D

also, I added a new weapon, try to press z and x at same time :)

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nickpsecurity
Oh, scheming up ways to get me back in the game, eh? At first, I thought it
was a glitch or something that can't be what it appears. Then, I find you
actually added God Mode to the game. ;)

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thecodefoundry
Reminds me of a smoother Zaxxon. Great job!

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rbanffy
Kind of the FPS version of Zaxxon for the Atari 2600 (which was woefully
underpowered to do it)

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imode
point voxels! :D

I've always wanted to try point voxels out. Ace of Spades uses them for
models.

awesome work!

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chiptune
thank you! it's more like "rectangle" voxel than point voxel :D

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Cafeine
Awesome work. oO

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chiptune
AMOUR <3

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etiene
omg, I love the colors!

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chiptune
thank you! btw it's a bit hard to manage since PICO-8 is 16-colors fixed-
palette engine :D

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bussiere
nice :)

