Hey, fellow Picos.
I am currently working on a book aiming to teach kids code games with PICO-8. Target audience is aged 8-14, so it will be a quite slow, careful approach suitable for all kinds of beginners, not just kids. I am writing it in both english and german (will have to have the english proofread though) and plan to initially fund it on kickstarter.com.
I would love to showcase some of the bestlooking games in it to show what's possible with Pico, will be going to approach some of you eventually to ask for your permission.
I have been teaching game development for kids for some years in a primary school and currently teach marketing- & management-students to make games using Pico.
If this sounds interesting to you, I'll keep you posted in here.
Best,
Tassilo

Well I am really interested,
I am slowly teaching pico 8 to my 7 year old son,
and as a software developer it is sometimes hard for me to be progressive enough !

I'd begun work on a book like this myself, but I'm glad someone else is doing it, so I can share it with my kids.

If you need any proofreaders and code testers count me in!

BTW, Is this is the same project as this Kickstarter?

How To Make Games With Pico-8

It is, thanks for posting it. You can find the kickstarter campaign related to this book on
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bumblebee/how-to-make-games-with-pico-8-english-and-german
There's 20 early bird deals for the digital book left right now.

Best,
Tassilo

Have you looked up the PICO-8 fanzine series? They're a good start.

http://sectordub.itch.io

Backed! Glad you posted the Kickstarter link, otherwise I would have missed out. Short Kickstarter campaign, 7 days?

Tassilo, I missed the Kickstarter campaign :(
What to do now to purchase your book?
Thx in advance.

Is there anyway we can still purchase the e-book ?

This sounds like what I need to get started :) Grats on reaching your funding goal. I hope that the book will be easily available once released to kickstart backers (hint -> Amazon ebooks plz!)

This sounds like a great idea! I'd be happy to proof-read the English version.

Hi
I only just found out about this book in progress and campaign.. Is there any way to still jump on board? I recently got my son and daughter to start playing around with pico-8 and they're loving it.. access to a book aimed at them would be ideal.

Thanks :)

Paul

I just found out about this post and this kickstarter. Is there still a way to get involved? I'm working on the side right now on something to teach kids electronics and making games (programming, math, art) and a book like this could really go along with what I'm thinking about. E-mail me at wenceslaovillanueva at gmail. I'd be interested in at the very least pre-ordering a copy.

@Tassilo I'm also interested in pre-ordering a printed copy. I'm sure there are more people interested. It might be good to make it easy to do so before you order the prints.

I would be interested to.

Is it possible to get it even if kickstarter is over?

I would like to paypal you for a digital copy. is it available at all now?

Yey!

https://tassilo.itch.io/howtomakegames

Any update on the book?
It seems, on itch.io that it was never quite finished...

Just wondered.

As of June 2018 there was a substantial delay due to a family health problem. We should probably consider this project paused until Tassilo says otherwise.

There are several excellent zines and video tutorial series now. mboffin's zine is an effective printable tutorial suitable for a similar age group. https://mboffin.itch.io/gamedev-with-pico-8-issue1

Very sad news.

Tassilo's wife became ill and passed away last year. He'd (absolutely rightfully) directed his energy towards caring for her, which delayed his writing:
Link for his backers.

Tassilo himself died unexpectedly at the beginning of this month:

[tweet ]

I didn't know the guy, but was looking forward to his book.
He was clearly very talented - especially as a pixel artist - and seemed very driven towards educating kids with code.

BBS Profile here: @Tassilo.
Rest peacefully.

I see he used some of my code with credit. Dang. If anyone can figure out my cryptic mess of spaghetti code they must be some sort of genius. His loss will definitely be felt in the community.

Arthur Schopenhauer famous philosopher was quoted as saying:

"After your death you will be what you were before your birth."

Here's hoping it's all good.

I must agree with @Xeonic. Books are great and all but if a video can cover everything a book can, and more - logically the video covers more territory, but certainly not the convenience to carry non-powered print under your arm.