no sprites where used, text and glyphs only

Impressive work, @prisheletz.

Yet unless you're going for a competitive Tweet or something at 280 or 560-characters, I wouldn't worry about the # of characters in your code. You are encouraged to program where it's comfortable for you, using full-names for your variables and descriptions. Make the source-code something you can write easily and enjoy and do maintenance on later.

Because you have 65536-characters maximum and 1500-characters is 436 times smaller than that.

You are in fact encouraged to make use of all of Pico-8's Sprite area, Mapper, SFX, Music, and Cart art (press key F7 on any screen) to present your cart and game with. They are there to make your programming easier and your games richer with detail.

Thanks!