BORK 1.0
A retro dog-fetching adventure built in PICO-8!
Created by: Kyle Giffen
DESCRIPTION
Bork is my first game! A pixel-art arcade game where you play as my dog Sisko, the best dog on the block, running through an 8-bit replica of our garden to catch and return a ball thrown by my wife, Tita.
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[16x16] |
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[8x8] |
CONTROLS
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[8x8] |
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[8x8] |
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- 🅾️ (Z or C): Start the game / Return the ball
- ❎ (X): Hold to turbo boost while moving
- Arrow keys: Move Sisko around
OBJECTIVE
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[8x8] |
- Catch the ball mid-air after Tita throws it to earn bonus points!
- Bring the ball back to Tita to keep playing.
- Picking the ball up from the ground is worth 100 points.
- Catching the ball in mid-air is worth 200 points.
- Get 5 mid-air catches in a row to earn a +1000 bonus!
TIPS:
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[8x8] |
- Turbo boost lets you reach the ball faster but drains your boost bar.
- If you miss the catch, the ball lands on the ground and can still be picked up.
- Enjoy sparkles and floating text for visuals that give feedback and style.
- The game lasts 60 seconds—maximize your score before time’s up!
BEHIND THE SCENES
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Making Sisko's Ball Game was a total passion project. I wanted to capture the joy of playing fetch with my dog in my wife's garden—and somehow it turned into a sparkly turbo-charged arcade thing. 😄 This whole thing kicked of from my love of pixel art. Everything was drawn on an iPad with the app Pixquare (https://www.pixquare.art/)
What went well: The moment I got the rainbow sparkles working after a successful catch—chef’s kiss. Also really proud of the idle animations and how Sisko gets a little wiggly tail when you leave him alone too long.
What was tricky: The collision and movement took a few rewrites (shoutout to normalized vectors and frustration). Diagonal movement had some jittery moments, I'm not sure if I fully solved that the way I was hoping to. Collision with the diagonal area of the fence was a little bit of a pain until I laid a debugging drawing inside the bounds of the play area. Getting the ball to throw and animate just right was weirdly fiddly.
Biggest surprise: I didn't expect the turbo mechanic to feel so good. It adds this little thrill that made testing way more fun than it had any right to be.
Feed back is greatly appreciated!
CREDITS
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[8x8] |
Made with love for my wife and dog. Music, code, art, and game design handcrafted in PICO-8 and Visual Studio Code
If you would like to commission me for your own personal game please contact me.
Enjoy and thank you for playing!
CONTACT
What a neat and fun little game, well done!
I really was surprised by the depth of gameplay.
Also the cute graphics do support the atmosphere really well.
This is excellent. Just excellent. My only suggestion is to track hiscore
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