I recommend the Picotron, their newest fantasy software. It is a full fantasy workstation. It has no upper limit on game size and can export native binaries for the big three OSes. You could, in theory, publish a full game with it.
I remember playing this probably 10-12 years ago with Minecraft's creator Notch donated a bunch of money to their HumbleBundle campaign. It was pretty early alpha back then, and it seems like the main pivot has been to make it more of a platform for user-created games, rather than a game itself. Interesting!
Is it a game, a console, or collection of games? Because the main page and FAQ say different things.
It's probably all of the above; can empathize with pitching something as unconventional as this. But it might make for a stronger presentation if there was a single framing throughout the site.
You're right, it is confusing. I wrote a whole comment and deleted it because I thought I knew what it was.
Pico-8 is a fantasy console, and Picotron is a workstation for that console.
Voxatron is a (1) fantasy console and (2) a collection of games but also (3) a game with (4) a game named "Voxatron Story" set in the (5) Voxatron Universe (??)
I played around with this years ago but I do not know where I purchased it so I can't say more. I remember playing around a bit but I don't remember Voxatron Story or anything else of that matter, only the cartridges.
I bought the Humble Bundle for this in like 2011, and I played it a bit, but I ended up having a lot more fun with the included Pico-8 that came a bit later.
I think primarily I just found it a lot more approachable than anything else.
I love PICO-8 too. There are so many games, and they’re all free to play, with the source code available to explore or modify. Games are also reltively easily published online. Some PICO-8 games are genuine works of art. I’m always impressed by how creative people become when working within tight constraints. I wish I’d had something like this when I was a kid.
I always recommend Pico-8 to like minded folks, sometimes kids.
Years ago I had hoped Voxatron and voxel-ish games inspired by it would have taken off more. I wonder why it hasn't saturated the indie game scene more.
> Voxatron is a fantasy console and collection of games made entirely out of voxels (little colourful cubes, kind of). The Alpha version comes with an arena shooter and action-adventure cartridges as well as powerful design tools to make your own voxelly games.
It is an emulator for a console that does not exist in real life. People make games for this "console" because they are fun to play and fun to program.
Vision of the future: Voxatron's high-priced gamble (2013) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11189329 - Feb 2016 (1 comment)
The Humble Voxatron Debut - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3178802 - Oct 2011 (39 comments)
Game Preview: Voxatron - voxel-based, destructible environment, 8bit soundtrack - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2070025 - Jan 2011 (65 comments)
https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php
It's probably all of the above; can empathize with pitching something as unconventional as this. But it might make for a stronger presentation if there was a single framing throughout the site.
Pico-8 is a fantasy console, and Picotron is a workstation for that console.
Voxatron is a (1) fantasy console and (2) a collection of games but also (3) a game with (4) a game named "Voxatron Story" set in the (5) Voxatron Universe (??)
I played around with this years ago but I do not know where I purchased it so I can't say more. I remember playing around a bit but I don't remember Voxatron Story or anything else of that matter, only the cartridges.
It's by the same person who created pico-8, if you're familiar with that.
I think primarily I just found it a lot more approachable than anything else.
What part of that is hard to understand?
It's not clear at all.
The same developer made PICO-8, which is better known: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
Maybe that space can be revisited with AI assistance now?