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Simplified Rules: Limit = 1K of Compressed Bytes Sticky

A topic by Paul Nicholas (Liquidream) created Aug 29, 2022 Views: 474 Replies: 5
Viewing posts 1 to 5
HostSubmitted (1 edit) (+1)

Hi all,

TL;DR - #Pico1k Jam has now been simplified to have a single code size limit: 1024 of Compressed Bytes.

It's always kinda bothered me that this jam was a little confusing with the code limit. The jam started out it's life with a 1024 Char limit, as it was heavily inspired by the char-counting Tweet/TweetTweet jams. However, I also hoped that Pico1K might appeal to talented Demosceners - whose are used to writing beautiful demos within very tight, but typically "byte" size, constraints (rather than chars).

Since PICO-8 v0.2.5 (which was just released) now provides a simple & convenient way of seeing a live display of the Compressed Bytes - after much consideration, I have decided to make PICO-1K Jam have a single code size limit of 1024 Compressed Bytes.


Apologies for the late change in the Jam, but TBH - had PICO-8 had this feature last year, I probably would've started the 1K jam with this setup.  But hopefully, most people will agree that this is a "win win" for everyone - as not only does it make the rules very simple (one single limit), but this also means that we all now have even MORE code room to play with. 馃槈

Right - let's make the most of the extra code space & create something cool in 1K 馃

(+1)

Perfect! Going the 1kb packed will give everyone a few extra bytes to push the jam to the next level!

Thank you 馃檱馃徎

Submitted(+1)

It makes using multiple functions way more feasible as function () end compresses realllly well once you've done it a few times.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

This is amazing, I just started getting into making games, I've had a lot of off and on again motivation to dive in over the years. Jumped in with some Jams last month and spending free time just doing it. I've always thought the demo scene was just magic (like no way) some serious talent. I'm excited to try my hand at the limit, never used pico8 before, but after looking at the free version online the compressed bytes limit makes sense. seems doable. spending the remaining time before jam start reading over the resources you have linked. Thank you so much for hosting this and the guidance. Can't wait!

HostSubmitted

You're very welcome, @Neosis - glad I could help.
TBH, this is quite a slightly tricky Jam to start PICO-8 with
(as normally, you'd be allowed to create Sprites/Maps/SFX, etc. using PICO-8's tools)
But certainly glad to have you along for the ride.
Good luck and hope you enjoy taking part! 馃榾

Quick question: are cart labels allowed? They鈥檙e just decoration and don鈥檛 use code or provide data.