Humble Bundle is doing another of its game design-relevant software packages. As usual, it’s a great deal. I can’t speak for most of what’s included, but PICO 8 by itself makes the bundle worthwhile.

PICO 8 is a “fantasy console”–a program that enables people to make games, and then runs the games they create. In PICO 8’s case, the goal is to make games that wouldn’t look out-of-place on 8-bit consoles like the original NES. All the necessary tools, from a sprite editor to an audio creator to a programming IDE, are built in; you make games without needing to leave the PICO 8 framework.

One of the joys of game design is exploring the capabilities of new tools, seeing what they offer and feeling out the interesting effects of the constraints they impose. The current Humble Bundle is a wealth of opportunities to do just that; how often do we try to make 8-bit games these days? Give it a look.