.P8RKER – PICO-8

You are P8rker, a nerdy teenager who was bitten by a radioactive spider, giving you superpowers like nearly unlimited strength and the ability to shoot webs. The public is absolutely okay with you leaving toxic web waste all over the place. As long as you save people from buildings under attack! They need your help. Oh, and did we mention that your girlfriend (according to you, not her) is waiting to be rescued somewhere in this building?

.P8rker was developed for the PICO-8 fantasy console (among other platforms) by an amazing developer called donswelt. The game feels like a nod to Spider-Man on the Atari 2600, but plays soooo much better.  Like many games for the console, the developer has to work within severe coding and graphical limitations.  .P8rker is just one of the myriad of games where developers step up and create truly inspired short experiences that can be run on just about anything.

This is a personal favorite of mine, and donswelt has made some other amazing tiny games on itch, such as Jaw, Bullet in the Train and Tiny Ronin.  All of these games and more are worth checking out on his page.

Download the Game

If you want to play this game before the tournament, you can download it from the developer’s page on itch.io. I play it on the PICO-8 fantasy console, but the developer donswelt also made it available for Windows, Linux, Mac and the Raspberry Pi.  If you do download it, please leave a small contribution for the developer.  These indie devs work hard to bring us games and they deserve our gratitude (and the ability to feed themselves).

Game Tournament Rules

  • You must play the 8 Round Mode.
  • Rescue as many citizens as you can until you complete all 8 rounds or run out of lives.
  • Your final score at the end of the game is your score for that attempt.
  • Beat the current high score to win that game… for now.  Anyone else can try to beat your score in the tournament.
  • Return at any time to try again.

Game Controls

  • Up/Button 2: Jump up in the direction your facing
  • Down/Button 1: Jump down
  • Left/right: Change the direction your are facing
  • Swing over people to rescue them.
  • Avoid the pumpkins of the Green Gnome.
  • Avoid Otto the Kraken

Game Video