lil dungeon

This is a game created for the TweetTweetJam 10 to make a game in 500 characters of code or less.

This was my first attempt at sizecoding in Pico-8/Lua and I found this quite a challenge. I attempted to balance my ambition (make a dungeon crawler) within the constraints. That said, the game is closer to something like the old Chase / Daleks / Robots game  than a true roguelike.

How to play

You are a cat descending levels in the dungeon. Try to reach the stairs ▒ (yellow cross-hatch symbol) to go down one level. You will die if you get eaten by any of the red demons. See how many levels of the dungeon you can descend before getting eaten! That's it!

Your only control is the arrow keys. Control-R (Reload the page) to begin a new game.

High scores

15 and above: God-level.

10 and above: True catpunk.

5 - 10: Not bad, kittypunk.

Less than 5: You're not too good at this.

Code

v5: Current code as of 2026-05-21

r,x,y,f=rnd,3,3,1::i::e={}a=r(9)\1b=r(8)\1for i=1,5do repeat g=r(8)\1v=r(8)\1until g-x|v-y!=0e[i]={x=g,y=v}end::m::d=16for y=0,114,d do for x=0,114,d do
fillp(r(♥))rectfill(x,y,x+d,y+d,2)end end
?"▒",a*d+4,b*d+5,9
?"🐱",x*d+4,y*d+5
?f,2,2,6
for j in all(e)do 
z=r(4)\1/4j.x+=cos(z)j.y+=sin(z)?"😐",j.x*d+4,j.y*d+5,8
if(j.x==x and j.y==y)stop()
if(x==a and y==b)f+=1goto i
end 
repeat flip()v=btnp()until v>0
x+=v\2%2-v%2y+=v\8%2-v\4%2goto m

Comments/questions

If you have any further sizecoding suggestions, or better yet, some solutions to the following bugs/unfair things that would keep me within 500 characters, let me know!

Known bugs/limitations:

• The monster spawner is buggy. When spawning new level, it knows not to spawn enemies on top of player, but then the monsters take one step before player gets first move, so could kill the player before they've had a chance to move.
• Technically the monsters can walk offscreen and then back on, so they could kill you if you're on the outer ledge and they walk into you. I think this is ok!
• The monsters can move 8 directions orthogonally while the player cannot. Again, this was a limitation based on my inability to fit in an either/or X/Y movement mechanism for the monster within the code length limitations. Update: solved! Thanks @pancelor.
• The left-behind screen residue/artifacts are a result of not redrawing the screen background, and I think are both visually interesting and make the game slightly harder. I like it!
• Ability to restart game with button press, or at least display last score and then start new game rather than requiring hard re-loading game.

R=rnd(4)\1/4
j.x+=cos(R)
j.y+=sin(R)

::m::
-- TODO delete m() and put the code inside it here
repeat
  flip()
  v=btnp()
until v>0
x+=v\2%2-v%2 --extract the x bits
y+=v\8%2-v\4%2 --extract the y bits
goto m

function _draw()
  --stuff
end

::d::
--stuff
flip()
goto d

r,x,y,f=rnd,3,3,1

::i::
e={}a=r(8)\1b=r(8)\1
for i=1,5do repeat g=r(8)\1v=r(8)\1until g-x|v-y!=0e[i]={x=g,y=v}end

::m::
d=16for y=0,114,d do for x=0,114,d do
fillp(r(♥))rectfill(x,y,x+d,y+d,2)end end
?"▒",a*d+4,b*d+5,9
?"🐱",x*d+4,y*d+5
?f,2,2,6
for j in all(e)do
z=r(4)\1/4
j.x+=cos(z)j.y+=sin(z)?"😐",j.x*d+4,j.y*d+5,8
if(j.x==x and j.y==y)stop()
if(x==a and y==b)f+=1goto i
end

repeat
  flip()
  v=btnp()
until v>0
x+=v\2%2-v%2
y+=v\8%2-v\4%2
goto m

if(v==2)x+=1;m() -> if(v==2)x+=1m()

function + call it 4 times = 40 chars
function l()return r(8)\1endr()r()r()r()
6 chars * 4 times = 24 chars
r(8)\1r(8)\1r(8)\1r(8)\1

(r(3)-1)\1) -> r(3)\1-1

r,x,y,f=rnd,3,3,1function _init()
e={}a=r(8)\1b=r(8)\1
for i=1,5do repeat e[i]={x=r(8)\1,y=r(8)\1}until e[i].x!=x and e[i].y!=y end m()end
function _draw()v=btnp()
if(v==2)x+=1m()
if(v==1)x-=1m()
if(v==4)y-=1m()
if(v==8)y+=1m()end function m()c=114d=16for y=0,c,d do for x=0,c,d do
fillp(r(9999))rectfill(x,y,x+d,y+d,2)end end
?"▒",a*d+4,b*d+5,9
?"🐱",x*d+4,y*d+5
?f,2,2
for j in all(e)do
j.x+=r(3)\1-1
j.y+=r(3)\1-1
?"😐",j.x*d+4,j.y*d+5,8
if(j.x==x and j.y==y)f=1stop()
if(x==a and y==b)f+=1_init()
end end

r,x,y,f=rnd,3,3,1function _init()
e={}a=r(8)\1b=r(8)\1
for i=1,5do repeat e[i]={x=r(8)\1,y=r(8)\1}until e[i].x!=x or e[i].y!=y end m()end
function _draw()v=btnp()
if(v==2)x+=1m()
if(v==1)x-=1m()
if(v==4)y-=1m()
if(v==8)y+=1m()end function m()d=16for y=0,114,d do for x=0,114,d do
fillp(r(9999))rectfill(x,y,x+d,y+d,2)end end
?"▒",a*d+4,b*d+5,9
?"🐱"..f,x*d+4,y*d+5
for j in all(e)do
j.x+=r(3)\1-1
j.y+=r(3)\1-1
?"😐",j.x*d+4,j.y*d+5,8
if(j.x==x and j.y==y)stop()
if(x==a and y==b)f+=1_init()
end end