Pyxel : A Complete Guide To The Python-Based Game Engine

With simple specifications inspired by retro gaming consoles, such as displaying only 16 colors and supporting 4 sound channels, you can easily enjoy making pixel-art-style games.

Pyxel’s specifications and APIs are inspired by PICO-8 and TIC-80.

Pyxel is open source under the MIT License and free to use. Let’s start making retro games with Pyxel!

Specifications

• Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Web
• Programming in Python
• 16-color palette
• 3 256×256-sized image banks
• 8 256×256-sized tilemaps
• 4 channels with 64 definable sounds
• 8 music tracks combining any sounds
• Keyboard, mouse, and gamepad inputs
• Image and sound editing tools
• User-extensible colors, channels, and banks

How To Install

Windows

After installing Python3 (version 3.8 or higher), run the following command:

pip install -U pyxel

When installing Python using the official installer, make sure to check the Add Python 3.x to PATH option to enable the pyxel command.

Mac

After installing Homebrew, run the following commands:

brew install pipx
pipx ensurepath
pipx install pyxel

To upgrade Pyxel after installation, run pipx upgrade pyxel.

Linux

After installing the SDL2 package (libsdl2-dev for Ubuntu), Python3 (version 3.8 or higher), and python3-pip, run the following command:

sudo pip3 install -U pyxel

For more information click here.