Porting Celeste: From PICO-8 to PicoSystem - Indie Game Development on Microcontrollers

Explore the journey of porting the indie game classic Celeste from PICO-8 to the Pimoroni PicoSystem in this 23-minute conference talk. Dive into the world of pixel art graphics and microcontroller programming, comparing the challenges and rewards to coding for vintage 8-bit systems. Learn about the process of adapting Celeste to run on a system with only 264 Kilobytes of RAM, including initial attempts in C and C++, and the final implementation in embedded Rust. Discover how working within strict hardware limitations can foster creativity and deeper understanding of low-level programming. Gain insights into the potential development of a new beginner-friendly game framework for embedded systems, and understand the enduring appeal of pixel art in modern game development.

Celeste