Pixel Vision 8's core philosophy is to teach retro game development with streamlined workflows. PV8 is also a platform that standardizes 8-bit fantasy console limitations built on top of the open-source C# game engine based on MonoGame. This engine simply provides a standard set of APIs to create authentic-looking 8-bit games with modern programming languages and workflows. It also allows you to define specific limitations that alter the following properties:
- Memory and game size
- Color palettes
- System colors
- Colors per sprite
- Number of sprites on screen
- Scrolling tilemap
- and more
There are different ways to build and run Pixel Vision 8 games depending on your choice of language and skill level. The most common way is to use the commercial build of the fantasy console itself which you can download from pixelvision8.com and write your games in Lua. For more advanced developers familiar with C#, Pixel Vision 8 can be compiled in Visual Studio by visiting the GitHub repo as well. There you will find the two components which make up Pixel Vision 8: a Runner and Pixel Vision OS.
The platform was designed to be incredibly modular. This allows you to customize it to your own needs. While there are tools and a dedicated OS to help make games with, there is nothing stopping you from using your own external tools and workflows.
Pixel Vision 8 was created by Jesse Freeman (@jessefreeman) in collaboration with Christina-Antoinette Neofotistou (@CastPixel), Pedro Medeiros (@saint11) for art and Christer Kaitila (@McFunkypants) for music. With additional coding contributions by Shawn Rakowski (@shwany).
Licensed under the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL) License. See LICENSE file in the project root for full license information.
Pixel Vision 8 is Copyright (c) 2017 Jesse Freeman. All rights reserved.