Build your own board

picogame can run on a board you wire yourself, as long as it has an SPI display, a few buttons - and a firmware build with the picogame module (prebuilt for the boards on Supported hardware, or your own build). This page takes a bare Raspberry Pi Pico (or Pico W / Pico 2) plus a display and gets a game running on it.

Wire it

This is the PicoPad’s pin map. Matching it requires the least configuration, but you can choose other suitable GPIO pins and name them in settings.toml. Schematics: Pajenicko PicoPad hardware.

Function	Pico GPIO	Notes
Display SCK	GP18	SPI clock
Display MOSI	GP19	SPI data (to display SDA/DIN)
Display DC	GP17	data/command
Display CS	GP21	chip select
Display RST	GP20	reset
Display BL	GP16	backlight (tie high, or PWM to dim)
↑ Up	GP4	button to GND (active-low, internal pull-up)
↓ Down	GP5
← Left	GP3
→ Right	GP2
A	GP7
B	GP6
X / Y (optional)	GP9 / GP8
Speaker	GP15	PWM audio, through a small transistor/amp or a piezo
Display VCC / GND	3V3 / GND	also the common for buttons & speaker

Buttons wire to GND (read active-low with an internal pull-up). The ST7789 bus runs up to 62.5 MHz. On a breadboard keep the display wires short, or drop PICOGAME_BAUD (below).

Three ways to get board.DISPLAY

A game asks the engine for the screen via board.DISPLAY. How you provide it depends on your board. Pick one path:

1. Your board already has board.DISPLAY (PicoPad, PicoSystem, µGame, Thumby, VIDI X). Nothing to do: copy your game as code.py plus the lib/ it imports. Done.
2. A picogame custom-board firmware: the Pico / Pico W / Pico 2 / Pico 2 W downloads expose a board.DISPLAY slot. A small boot.py builds the display from settings.toml, and your game remains unchanged as code.py. This also works for existing games and stage-based games.
3. A stock / other firmware (no slot). A launcher code.py builds the display, makes it board.DISPLAY, then runs your game (as game.py). A little more setup.

Grab the ready boot.py / launcher from custom_board/ in the repo. Each path has its own folder; use one. The display driver is Python (an init table inside the file), so adding a new controller needs no firmware rebuild.

Configure it — one settings.toml

Both non-native paths (and the game itself) read the same settings.toml. One file describes the whole board:

# Display
PICOGAME_DISPLAY = "st7789"        # or "ili9341"
PICOGAME_PINS    = "SCK=GP18 MOSI=GP19 DC=GP17 CS=GP21 RST=GP20 BL=GP16"
PICOGAME_SIZE    = "320x240"       # WIDTH x HEIGHT; WIDTH > HEIGHT = landscape
PICOGAME_FLIP    = ""              # "", "h", "v", "hv" — orientation (see below)
PICOGAME_INVERT  = 0               # colours negative? -> 1
PICOGAME_BGR     = 0               # red/blue swapped? -> 1
PICOGAME_BAUD    = 24000000        # lower on long breadboard wires

# Buttons (active-low, to GND) — token is LOGICAL=GPpin
PICOGAME_BUTTONS = "UP=GP4 DOWN=GP5 LEFT=GP3 RIGHT=GP2 A=GP7 B=GP6 X=GP9 Y=GP8"

# Audio (optional)
PICOGAME_AUDIO   = "GP15"          # PWM speaker pin; omit if none

Re-wiring a button is then a one-character edit, no code. (The launcher path also reads PICOGAME_GAME = "game" to know which module to run.)

Changed a display setting? Do a full restart

On the boot.py path, boot.py builds the display only at power-on, so after editing a display key (PICOGAME_DISPLAY, PICOGAME_PINS, PICOGAME_SIZE, PICOGAME_FLIP, PICOGAME_INVERT, PICOGAME_BGR, PICOGAME_BAUD) press RESET or re-plug USB. A soft reload (saving a file) re-runs code.py but not boot.py, so it keeps the old display. Button and audio keys are read by the game, so those do update on a normal reload. (On the launcher path everything updates on reload: the launcher rebuilds the display each run.)

Full settings.toml reference

The keys above cover the common case. Below is every runtime key picogame reads. All are read at runtime, so a board is adapted with no reflash — a key takes effect on the next reload (display keys need a full restart, see the note above). Values are integers or strings only: CircuitPython’s settings.toml has no floats or booleans, so on/off is 1/0 and volumes are integer dB.

Key	Format / values	Example	Note
PICOGAME_PULL	"up" or "down"	PICOGAME_PULL = "up"	Internal resistor + active level for all buttons. up = wired to GND, pressed reads low (default); down = wired to 3V3, pressed reads high.
PICOGAME_MATRIX_ROWS	space/comma GP pins	"GP0 GP1 GP2 GP3"	Row pins of a scanned key matrix (see intro below).
PICOGAME_MATRIX_COLS	space/comma GP pins	"GP4 GP5 GP6 GP7"	Column pins of the matrix.
PICOGAME_MATRIX_MAP	NAME=row,col tokens	"UP=1,2 A=3,5 START=0,0"	Maps matrix cells to game buttons. Also accepts NAME=key_number (key = row*ncols+col). Map only the keys you want; the rest are ignored.
PICOGAME_MATRIX_ANODES	"cols" or "rows"	"cols"	Optional; which axis is driven. Default cols; flip to rows if the diode direction is reversed.
PICOGAME_AUDIO_OUT	"headphone" / "speaker" / "both"	"headphone"	Output select for an I2S DAC (Fruit Jam TLV320). Default headphone.
PICOGAME_HP_VOLUME	integer dB, <= 0	-10	Headphone analog trim. 0 = line level (too loud for earbuds — stay <= -3); -78 = silent. Driver default is a quiet -30, so raise toward 0.
PICOGAME_DAC_VOLUME	integer dB, <= 0	-3	Main digital fader. Keep <= 0 to avoid DSP clipping.
PICOGAME_SPK_VOLUME	integer dB, <= 0	-10	Speaker analog trim (same scale as headphone).
PICOGAME_USB	1 / 0	PICOGAME_USB = 0	On a USB-host build, 0 disables auto-attach of USB HID input (gamepad + keyboard). Default on.
PICOGAME_KBD	1 / 0	PICOGAME_KBD = 0	0 disables the USB keyboard only (the gamepad still auto-attaches). Default on.
PICOGAME_USBPAD	NAME=byte:bitmask tokens	"A=5:0x40 B=5:0x20"	Remap gamepad buttons (HID report byte index : bitmask). A partial list merges over the DragonRise defaults.
PICOGAME_USBPAD_ID	"VID:PID" (hex)	"081f:e401"	Pin the USB gamepad to a specific device (skip auto-pick) when several HID devices are attached.
PICOGAME_USBPAD_TIMEOUT	ms	10	HID read timeout for the gamepad poll. Raise only if a pad drops inputs.
PICOGAME_USBKBD	NAME=keycode tokens	"A=0x2C START=0x28"	Remap USB-keyboard keys to game buttons (HID keycode, hex or decimal). Merges over the default arrows/WASD layout.
PICOGAME_USBKBD_EP	"iface:endpoint"	"2:0x83"	Point the keyboard driver at the live interface/IN-endpoint of a combo dongle whose boot interface is silent (find it with tools/usbkbd_probe.py).
PICOGAME_USBKBD_TIMEOUT	ms	10	HID read timeout for the keyboard poll.
PICOGAME_DEBUG	1 / 0	PICOGAME_DEBUG = 1	When something doesn’t work, set this. Prints [picogame] ... failure reasons (audio DAC/driver, USB pad/keyboard, …) to the serial console. Remove once working.

Buttons on a key matrix. If your buttons are wired as a scanned row × column grid (a small keypad or a QWERTY block) instead of one pin per button, use the PICOGAME_MATRIX_* keys above instead of PICOGAME_BUTTONS. Map only the cells you care about onto game buttons. Discover each cell’s (row, col) (or key number) by running matrix_probe.py first — it prints them as you press.

USB gamepad. On a USB-host firmware (Fruit Jam) a pad plugged into the USB-HOST port auto-attaches with no game change; the default layout is the DragonRise 081f:e401 generic pad. Set PICOGAME_USB = 0 to turn that off, or remap another pad’s buttons with PICOGAME_USBPAD (discover its report bytes with the USB probe tool).

These are build flags, not settings

DVI/framebuffer output, 12-bit RGB444 colour, and the fast (DMA) display backend are compile-time firmware options (CIRCUITPY_PICOGAME_FRAMEBUFFER, CIRCUITPY_PICOGAME_RGB444, CIRCUITPY_PICOGAME_FAST_DISPLAY), not settings.toml keys — don’t look for a runtime key. See Firmware to rebuild with them.

If the picture is wrong

picogame draws straight to the panel, so orientation lives in the panel’s own settings, not in a software rotation. Toggle these in settings.toml until it looks right, no code:

Symptom	Fix
Sideways / wrong aspect	swap PICOGAME_SIZE (320x240 ↔ 240x320)
Upside down	PICOGAME_FLIP = "hv"
Mirror image (text backwards)	PICOGAME_FLIP = "h" (or "v" if flipped vertically)
Photo-negative colours	flip PICOGAME_INVERT (0 ↔ 1) — ST7789 panels come in both polarities; the key sets the panel’s correct resting state and works on the stock PicoPad firmware too
Red/blue swapped or image mirrored on stock PicoPad firmware	PICOGAME_MADCTL = the absolute panel-orientation byte: 0x60 stock · 0x68 BGR panel · 0xA0 mounted 180° · 0xA8 both. (On a DIY board use PICOGAME_BGR/PICOGAME_FLIP above instead.)
Backlight too bright / dim by default	PICOGAME_BRIGHTNESS = integer percent 0–100 (applied at game setup)
Red and blue swapped	PICOGAME_BGR = 1

Panel modules vary. Change one setting at a time and check the result. An ST7789 often uses INVERT = 1, and an ILI9341 often uses BGR = 1, but the correct value depends on the module.

Check the wiring first: input_example

Before your game, drop input_example.py (in the repo’s examples/) on the board. It prints what the engine detected — board id, display size, mapped buttons, audio — to the serial console, and draws the D-pad + A/B/X/Y as squares that light up and beep as you press them. An unmapped button stays dark, so a wiring or settings.toml mistake shows at a glance.

Then deploy as usual

Once the display and buttons respond, everything else — shipping .mpy, the RAM budget, flashing — is the same as on the other supported boards: see Run on hardware.