It runs anywhere first
Write a game and play it on your PC — headless screenshots or a live window. The same code then runs on the device. Hardware is optional until the very end.
picogame
Make little games for a pocket handheld — in Python. Write and play them on your computer first, then run them on the real device.
What is picogame?
Section titled “What is picogame?”picogame is a small 2D game engine for the PicoPad — a pocket-sized game console — and for CircuitPython in general. You write your game in Python, try it instantly on your computer in a built-in simulator, and when it’s ready you copy it to the device and play. No C, no build step, no hardware required to start.
It gives you the things every game needs — sprites, a scrolling world, tilemaps, collisions, sound, text — and is fast enough that real games run smoothly even on a tiny chip.
What can you do with picogame?
Section titled “What can you do with picogame?”Journey — a whole game designed and built in picogame, running in the simulator:
Pick your path
Section titled “Pick your path” 🌱 New to making games Start from zero. Get something moving on screen in five minutes — no hardware needed — then build real games step by step.
🔁 Made games before Coming from Pygame, PICO-8 or displayio? Get the mental model fast, see what the engine can do, then jump to the reference.
🛠️ Already building with picogame Straight to the API cheat sheet, the feature guide, and how to do things efficiently (RAM, framerate, deploy).
What can you build?
Section titled “What can you build?”Real games across genres — all of these exist as runnable examples: a Breakout, a space shooter, a platformer, a top-down RPG, Pac-Man, Snake, Tetris, a pseudo-3D racer, pinball, match-3, and more. See the gallery →
Batteries included
Sprites with rotation & scaling, scrolling tilemaps, a moving camera, particles, collisions, a HUD, sound, and saved high scores — as small Python helpers you import as needed.
Bring your own art (or none)
Generate shapes in code to prototype, or convert your own PNGs into picogame sprites. Paint maps and scenes in a web editor.
Learn by doing
Three stepped tutorials build a Breakout, a shooter and an RPG — one new idea per step, every step runnable.
Where the code lives
Section titled “Where the code lives”picogame is spread across a few repositories:
picogame-libs The CircuitPython helper libraries — the picogame_* Python modules you import in your game.
circuitpython (fork) The CircuitPython fork with the native picogame engine built in — the firmware you flash to the device.
picogame-stage A compatibility layer for the Stage library, so Stage-based games run on picogame.
picogame Examples and tools. Not public yet — this note goes away once it's live.