I now have a custom sector editor up and running and can generate more complex maps, including the elusive 8-sided column. (Why use existing tools when you can spend twice as long to create and debug your own? :-D )

I have more headroom than expected on the CPU, so 3D polygon props seem to be a possibility.

yeah!
untextured polygons may look out of place no?

Hmmm yeah… need to write up a polygon rasterizer that handles affine UV. Then I’ll take the PS1 world by storm.

single cart game or bigger plans?

Haven’t looked into how to make multi-carts work yet. Are you essentially storing data in the sprite/map/sound regions and importing it in to get over the compressed cart limit that you hit with string-based data?

for something like poom? storing sprites and map data in many carts indeed.
main cart has game logic, and side carts are reload’ed as needed in lua ram to overcome storage limits.
kills you from bbs but I can live without

you should be the person to create a remake of baldi’s basics. nobody has ever done a remake of baldi’s basics in pico-8.. ever.. I actually believe you can do that.