►
From YouTube: Building a Fantasy Game Console - GitHub Satellite 2020
Description
In this talk, Jesse Freeman, will walk you through how he created his open source Fantasy Game Console, Pixel Vision 8.
He'll also cover the general architecture of Pixel Vision 8, how #Lua
is used on top of C# for scripting, and finally how to build the engine
from the GitHub source code. At the end of the talk, you'll know everything you need to start making PV8 games in C# or Lua.
Twitter: @jessefreeman
GitHub Satellite: A community connected by code
On May 6th, we threw a free virtual event featuring developers working together on the world’s software, announcements from the GitHub team, and inspiring performances by artists who code.
More information: https://githubsatellite.com
Schedule: https://githubsatellite.com/schedule/
A
A
A
So
I
joined
microsoft
and
amazon
and
over
the
course
of
eight
years,
worked
directly
with
indie
game
developers
around
the
world
to
help
them
build
their
own
games
and
I've
tried
to
be
a
champion
for
indie
game
developers
and
I
also
wrote
one
of
the
first
books
on
html5
games.
So
in
addition,
I
also
worked
on
several
amazon
teams
that
helped
build
hardware
and
software
to
allow
developers
to
build
innovative
and
profitable
games.
A
A
So,
of
course,
I
approached
machine
learning
like
I
do
any
other
new
programming
language,
and
I
tried
to
see
how
can
I
make
a
game
with
it?
So
one
of
the
earliest
examples
I
did
was
teaching
a
machine
and
a
model
how
to
actually
generate
out
text
adventure
stories-
and
this
is
an
article
I
wrote
for
towards
data
science.
It
talks
about
how
I
fed
all
of
the
terminal
text
from
a
game
called
marathon
into
a
model
and
had
it
output
its
own
generic
text
for
a
game.
A
But
this
talk
tonight
isn't
really
about
jesse.
Today,
it's
actually
about
jesse
almost
35
years
ago,
so
this
story
really
starts
back
in
the
early
80s.
When
I
first
started
using
a
computer-
and
I
came
from
the
last
generation
of
kids
who
remember
using
computers
on
monochromatic
displays
that
ran
solely
from
the
command
line,
and
while
this
may
have
been
how
I
got
my
start,
my
true
passion
for
computing
began.
A
And
so
six
years
ago,
this
indie
game
aesthetic
gave
rise
to
the
first
fantasy
console.
Now
a
fantasy
console
revolves
around
three
key
points.
The
first
is
that
it's
a
self-contained
development
environment
and
what
that
means
is
that
not
only
is
it
a
place
for
you
to
build
a
game
and
play
a
game,
but
it
also
has
all
the
tools
you
need,
such
as
a
sprite
editor,
a
tile
map,
editor
and
tools
for
building
sounds
and
even
coding.
A
The
next
is
that
a
fantasy
console
usually
has
very
strict
limitations.
These
are
designed
to
emulate
early
8-bit
game
consoles
so
because
of
that
there
are
strict
limitations,
around
resolution,
memory,
graphics
and
sounds,
and
finally,
each
fantasy
console
has
a
very
unique
ecosystem
around
it
and
that's
due
in
part
to
the
limitations
that
they
have,
since
each
fantasy
console
has
its
own
color
palette
and
its
own
way
of
rendering
graphics
to
the
display.
You
get
very
unique
games
that
you
can
tell
come
from
very
specific
fantasy
consoles,
just
like.
A
So
the
first
fantasy
console
was
pico
8
and
at
the
time
it
was
incredibly
clear
to
me
how
this
was
the
natural
counter
movement
to
the
large
and
more
complicated
game
development
software
tools,
such
as
unity
and
unreal.
But,
unlike
those
tools,
pico
8
was
more
than
just
a
game
engine.
It
was
entirely
self-contained
development,
environment
and
I
was
instantly
hooked.
A
There
was
one
thing
that
I
felt
was
holding
it
back
and
to
kick
things
off,
you
needed
to
use
the
command
line
and,
while
I
use
bash
daily
to
commit
code,
run
node
and
execute
my
automation
tools.
My
earliest
days
of
coding
really
began
on
the
more
user-friendly
and
graphical
rich
ui
of
the
macintosh.
A
So
I
set
off
to
build
my
own
version
of
a
fantasy
console
called
pixel
vision8,
and
not
only
did
I
want
to
make
a
more
user-friendly
development
environment
for
people.
Like
me,
I
wanted
something
more
approachable
to
generations.
The
developers
that
came
after
me
and
grew
up
where
design,
ux
and
rich
uis
were
at
the
forefront
of
the
computing
experience.
A
So
while
it's
easy
to
build
a
clone
of
pico
8,
in
fact,
there
are
lots
of
them
out
there.
My
vision
was
to
push
the
concept
forward
and
to
do
this,
I
built
a
custom
engine
from
the
ground
up
and
an
os
on
top
of
it
that
supported
a
desktop
disks
allowed
customizing
the
specs,
and
I
made
it
fully
extendable
so
that
people
can
build
their
own
tools
on
top
of
the
ones
that
I
created.
A
So
pixel
vision,
8,
is
built
in
c-sharp
with
a
lua
interpreter,
that's
sitting
on
top
and
exposes
the
underlying
game
engine's
apis,
and
what
this
allows
you
to
do
is
to
build
games
in
lua
without
having
to
recompile
in
order
to
see
the
changes,
and
this
is
pretty
common
with
fantasy
consoles.
A
lot
of
them
are
written
in
a
lower
level
language
and
what
you
get
to
use
is
sort
of
a
scripting
language
on
top
to
make
iterating
through
game
designs.
Rather
quick
and
fast.
A
So
since
the
lua
apis
are
also
the
same
as
the
c-sharp
ones,
it
offers
an
upgrade
path
to
easily
port
to
c-sharp.
If
you
want
more
power-
or
you
want
to
add
features
that
are
not
actually
part
of
the
core
lua
api
set,
and
what
this
means
is
that
there's
complete
parity
and
one
of
the
frustrations
I
saw
with
modern
fantasy
consoles-
is
that
once
you
built
a
really
great
game,
you
were
sort
of
stuck
in
that
little
sandbox.
A
So
if
you
wanted
to
turn
that
into
something
bigger,
there
really
was
no
way
to
do
it
unless
you
ported
it
to
some
other
game
engine
with
pixel
vision.
8.
All
you
need
to
do
is
take
the
same
apis
that
you're,
using
in
lua
and
just
port
the
differences
between
the
two
languages
over
to
c
sharp,
and
you
can
now
build
on
top
of
monogame.
A
So
because
of
this
shared
api,
there's
a
consistency
between
both
of
the
different
types
of
coding
languages.
You
can
use
to
build
your
games
because,
really
at
its
core,
I
didn't
want
to
lock
developers
in
and
while
pixel
vision,
8
has
its
own
built-in
tools.
I
really
created
a
workflow
that
allows
you
to
use
external
code
that
allows
you
to
use
external
code
editors
and
create
artwork
with
your
own
art
tools
as
well.
In
fact,
I
actually
released
an
atom
plug-in
that
offers
the
lua
api
code
completion.
A
A
A
A
So
I
did
this
throughout
my
flash
career
and
it
allowed
me
to
bypass
the
slow
vector
rendering
in
flash,
and
I
actually
created
one
of
the
first
early
3d
websites
with
it.
But
the
downside
of
it
is
that
modern
game
engines-
don't
really
do
this
anymore.
They
all
use
textures
and
shaders
and
really
primarily,
are
focused
more
on
3d.
A
If
you
want
to
fade
up
and
down
artwork,
especially
on
like
a
start
screen,
mario
3,
for
example,
does
this
you
can't
actually
use
alpha
because
8-bit
game
engines
didn't
have
alpha.
So
what
you
wind
up
having
to
do
is
just
change
through
and
cycle
the
colors
out
through
different
palettes,
and
this
can
create
the
similar
effect.
A
So
another
part
of
it
is
how
I
actually
display
the
pixel
data.
So
I
use
a
custom
built
software
render,
as
I
mentioned
before,
and
the
final
output
from
the
pixel
vision
8's
own
software,
render
is
basically
dumped
into
a
texture
and
displayed
on
the
screen,
and
some
of
the
other
things
that
I
do
is.
I
have
some
shaders
that
can
sit
on
top
of
it
to
give
you
a
crt
filter
for
a
more
authentic
look.
A
A
I
don't
come
from
a
music
background,
so
it's
really
good,
especially
when
you're
in
a
game
jam,
I
usually
let
the
sound
and
music.
I
leave
that
to
the
very
end,
so
I
can
just
go
into
sfx
or
click
a
few
buttons
and
get
all
the
sounds
that
I
need-
and
this
also
gave
me
the
idea
to-
can
we
extend
this
into
making
music
so
pixel
vision,
8's,
music
tool
is
rather
unique,
while
it
does
have
a
tracker
and
the
tracker
uses
the
sound
effects
for
its
for
its
instruments.
A
What
you
see
here
in
the
animation
is
that
you
can
actually
click
this
magic
wand
and
the
magic
wands
will
automatically
generate
music
for
you.
So
going
back
to
what
I
had
mentioned
earlier
about
my
interest
in
machine
learning,
this
is
an
early
example
of
me
trying
to
figure
out.
How
can
we
train
and
teach
pixel
vision
8,
for
example,
to
generate
out
music,
so
a
lot
of
the
music?
A
It
creates,
isn't
very
good,
but
it
gets
me
close
enough
to
go
in
and
start
cleaning
it
up
by
hand
when
normally
looking
at
a
blank
tracker
sort
of
intimidates
me-
and
I
wouldn't
even
know
where
to
begin
so.
The
other
thing
I'll
mention
too.
What
I
find
interesting
and
why
I'm
fascinated
with
machine
learning
is
the
idea
of
well
generating
music
is
pretty
simple
one
day.
I
hope
to
be
able
to
create
artwork
or
have
the
pixel
vision,
8
even
generate
out
levels
or
play
test
them
for
you.
So
all
of
these
are
things.
A
So
next
I'll
talk
a
little
bit
about
input
and
the
way
that
I've
handled
input
in
pixel
vision,
8
is
that
I
exposed
three
different
input
methods.
There
are
controllers,
so
you
can
plug
in
usb
or
bluetooth
controllers,
there's
keyboard,
support
for
entering
in
text
and
then
there's
mouse
support
and
one
of
the
things
that
I
wound
up
having
to
do,
especially
when
I
was
switching
over
from
unity
to
mono
game
and
trying
to
build
out.
A
A
very
simple
input
system
was
that
I
wound
up
abstracting
out
the
way
that
input
works
through
the
controller
chip
and
what
winds
up
happening
is
that
there
are
a
set
of
core
apis
that
hide
all
the
complexity
of
dealing
with
input.
It
makes
it
easy
where
all
you
have
to
do
is
say,
is
button
a
been
pressed
or
released,
and
you
can
do
the
same
thing
with
any
key
or
with
the
mouse.
A
But
the
most
important
thing
for
me
was
the
desire
to
make
all
of
this
open
source
so
that
I
can
contribute
to
the
community
and
also
that
others
can
take
what
I've
built
and
maybe
build
their
own
fantasy
consoles
on
top
of
it.
So
from
the
very
beginning,
the
whole
reason
for
me
building
this
modular
architecture
was
to
allow
other
people
to
go
in
and
customize
and
do
what
they
want.
A
So
there
isn't
really
a
lot
of
time
for
me
to
go
into
actually
building
a
game,
but
what
I
do
want
to
show
you
is
a
quick
example
of
just
how
to
compile
the
code
from
scratch
and
before
I
dig
into
that.
What
I
want
to
show
is:
if
you
go
to
pixelvision8.com,
what
you
can
actually
do
is
download
a
copy
of
the
pre-compiled
version,
and
this
has
everything
you
need
to
start
building
a
game
built
in
it.
Has
the
operating
system
already
configured
and
installed.
A
It
has
pro
tools
which
I've
recently
just
made
free
during,
what's
going
on
with
everything,
I
want
people
to
make
more
games
and
I'll
talk
a
little
bit
about
that
later
and
also
there's
documentation
and
code
examples
and
you
can
go
and
click
on
the
source
code.
So
when
you
open
up
the
source
code
and
you
go
to
github
you'll
see
the
project,
all
the
commits
and
everything
that's
going
on
master
is
always
the
most
stable,
build
and
below
is
instructions
on
how
to
actually
build
a
simple
c-sharp
game
using
the
included
project.
A
A
One
of
them
is
called
sharp,
zip,
which
is
for
dealing
with
zipping
up
the
disk
files,
and
the
other
is
called
monovision,
which
is
another
open
source
project
that
allows
me
to
use
the
lu
interpreter
and
then
once
all
the
references
are
set
up,
all
you
need
to
do
is
hit
start
and
it'll
go
ahead
and
compile
it
for
you.
So,
as
you
see
it'll
boot
up
into
pixel
vision,
8
give
you
all
the
credits
for
everyone.
Who's
helped
contribute
to
the
project
and
then
you'll
see
this
error.
A
A
You'll
see
the
disk
it's
inserted,
and
if
this
is
your
first
time
using
pixel
vision,
8
it'll
ask
you
to
create
a
workspace
on
your
computer,
where
you
can
access
the
files
that
pixel
vision,
8
are
editing
and
then,
if
you
hit
ok,
it'll
create
your
first
project.
For
you,
so
inside
of
this
you'll
see
all
the
different
files
that
make
up
a
game.
Each
one
of
them
is
associated
to
a
unique
editor
and
if
you
hit
run
you'll
see
your
first
hello
world
project
going
quickly.
A
You
can
simply
just
open
up
the
code
editor
here
and
type
in
the
code
that
you
want,
or
you
can
use
an
external
code
editor.
There
are
tools
for
building
out
custom,
colors
and
system
palettes.
So
here
is
a
full
color
picker.
If
you
want
to
design
your
own
custom
colors,
one
of
the
other
things
that
I'm
really
proud
of
is
this
idea
of.
A
A
So
all
of
these
things
are
here
to
help
you
build
your
own
games
and
the
other
thing
is
that
there's
a
full
set
of
documentation
so
on
the
github
project,
there's
actually
a
wiki
and
the
wiki
has
everything
you
need
to
get
started
with
a
c-sharp.
But
if
you
go
to
docs.pixelvision8.com,
it'll
show
you
all
the
documentation
for
either
building
a
game
in
lua
or
c-sharp
and
there's
a
full
set
of
api
examples.
A
So
the
reason
I
talk
about
documentation
is
an
important
one,
because,
when
building
a
fantasy
console
on
my
own,
it's
been
like
an
incredibly
time
consuming
project,
but
it
also
has
a
lot
of
non-technical
challenges
as
well.
So
one
of
the
things
is
having
to
build
all
the
documentation
for
the
game
engine
for
the
tools
for
the
operating
system,
the
workflows
and
all
these
other
things.
A
But
perhaps
the
thing
that
I'm
most
proud
of-
and
one
of
the
things
is
I
love.
Building
automation
tools
is
a
tutorial
generator,
so
I
wrote
a
plugin
in
atom
that
allows
me
to
actually
take
code
examples
from
lua
and
convert
them
into
step-by-step
instructions,
and
this
is
sort
of
based
on
the
idea
of
a
decompiler,
but
instead
of
it
giving
you
back
code,
it
unwraps
the
code
and
gives
you
these
step-by-step
instructions,
including
line
numbers,
and
will
tell
you
if
you
enter
a
function.
A
What
code
goes
in
and
also
how
it
changes
the
line
numbers
as
you
go
through
the
tutorial
and
what's
really
cool
about
this?
Is
that
as
I'm
writing
code,
it
automatically
is
updating
in
the
window
next
to
it.
So
I
get
a
live
preview
of
the
tutorial.
I'm
writing.
This
means
that
I
get
to
focus
on
what
I
really
love
most,
which
is
writing
little
games
or
code
examples
and
the
tutorials
automatically
get
generated.
A
While
I
work
so
pixel
vision,
8
has
been
a
nights
and
weekend
project
for
the
past
five
years
and
throughout
the
project.
I
collaborated
with
two
developers:
three
pixel
artists
and
maintained
the
project
both
on
itch
github
and
my
own
site,
and
while
this
isn't
something
that
I
set
out
to
make
money
with
a
big
motivating
factor
for
me
was
to
be
able
to
help
support
a
lot
of
the
indie
developers
and
artists
that
I
love
with
them,
also
being
able
to
contribute
back
to
pixel
vision,
8.
and
collectively.
A
So,
while
I
continue
to
build
a
healthy
community
of
developers,
using
my
background
in
game,
dev
and
evangelism,
I'm
proud
to
say
that
we
now
have
over
5.6
000
active
users
and
3.7
user
3.7
000
users
on
twitter
so-
and
I
was
also
one
of
the
first
developers
to
get
a
verified
discord
channel
and
I
try
to
be
as
active
on
it
as
possible.
There's
a
good
community
of
people
who
are
out
there
who
are
willing
to
help
you.
And
if
you
have
problems
you
can
go
on
there
if
you're
just
getting
started.
A
But
a
lot
of
the
things
that
we
also
like
to
see
are:
what
are
you
dealing?
What
are
the
works
in
progress?
You
can
share
that
with
the
rest
of
the
community
on
the
discord
channel,
in
fact,
ludum
dari,
which
is
a
very
popular
game
jam
that
happened
the
past
weekend.
I
set
up
a
special
channel
for
it
and
myself,
and
a
couple
of
other
developers
were
constantly
sharing
back
our
feedback
and
sort
of
what
we
were
doing
and
the
games
that
we
were
building
with
pixel
vision,
8.
A
So
this
brings
me
really
close
to
the
end
of
my
talk
and
I'm
sure
you've
heard
a
lot
now
lately
about
how
this
is
really
unprecedented
time.
So
I
live
in
new
york
and
we've
been
hit
especially
hard
by
everything.
That's
been
going
on,
so
it's
actually
been
over
eight
weeks
since
we've
been
able
to
leave
the
house,
I
wouldn't
notice,
because
as
long
as
I
have
a
computer
and
some
video
games,
I'm
pretty
content
just
staying
inside,
but
I
think
the
rest
of
my
family
is
itching
to
get
outside.
A
But
that
being
at
said,
it's
never
been
a
better
time
to
build
a
game
than
now,
especially
if
you've
always
wanted
to,
or
if
you
have
a
project.
That's
been
sitting
on
the
back
burner,
use
this
time
to
create
and
build
out
your
skills.
I
mentioned
really
early
on
in
the
talk
that
one
of
the
things
that
I've
always
done
when
I
learned
different
programming
languages
is
that
I
started
by
building
a
game
and
well.
A
Some
people
may
not
know
what
the
future
holds,
especially
if
you
feel
that
you're
going
to
lose
your
job
or
maybe
that
you
want
to
have
a
different
job.
When
things
calm
down,
I
highly
suggest
picking
up
a
game
engine,
it
doesn't
have
to
be
pixel
vision,
8,
it
could
be
any
other
game
engine
out
there.
There
are
so
many
different
game
engines
in
different
languages
and
just
start
building
games,
and
maybe
the
game
itself
is
not
the
end
result.
A
Using
this
project
has
been
able
to
keep
my
development
skills
sharp
and
also
share
things
back
with
the
rest
of
the
community.
So
please
take
the
time,
be
productive,
be
creative
and
use
it
as
an
outlet.
I
much
rather
sit
at
home
and
code
and
build
games
than
watch
tv
and
do
other
things
that
are
passive,
so
create
create,
create,
and
that
being
said,
this
sort
of
gets
me
to
the
end
of
the
talk.
A
So
all
of
this
is
out
there
and
it's
ready
for
you
to
poke
around,
to
take
a
look
and
to
build
something
fun
and
if
there's
anything
that
you
run
into
any
problems,
feel
free
to
go
to
the
website.
There's
a
way
to
message
me
on
the
website:
you
can
email
me
directly,
the
emails
below
or
even
reach
out
to
me
on
twitter
and,
of
course,
the
discord
channel
and
again
just
for
me.
A
One
of
the
things
that
I've
tried
to
do
is
actually
just
build.
My
childhood
and
that's
like
the
thing
I
think
I'm
the
most
proud
of
when
I
look
back
at
the
last
five
years
of
working
on
this
project,
because
some
days
it's
frustrating
when
I
don't
feel
like
I'm
making
the
progress
but
other
days
when
I
can
sit
down
and
I
can
play
with
the
operating
system,
I
can
go
into
the
tools.
I
see
things
work,
I
see
other
people
creating
stuff
with
it
and
it
really
gives
me
that
sense.
A
At
least
I
feel
like
I've
captured
what
really
got
me
into
computers
to
begin
with,
and
that
was
that
curiosity,
the
fascination
of
opening
up
an
empty
text
file
and
turning
it
into
a
game
using
my
ability
to
create
art,
mixing
it
with
sound
doing
coding,
even
writing
the
story
that
goes
along
with
it.
All
of
these
things
have
now
become
the
art
outlet
that
I've
always
had
as
a
child,
and
it
makes
me
so
happy
just
to
be
able
to
play
around
with
something
that
really
reminds
me
of
my
early
macintosh
days.
A
So
that
being
said,
I'm
going
to
wrap
up
just
a
little
bit
early,
but
I'm
going
to
hop
on
over
into
the
chat
and
I'll
hang
out
for
a
little
bit.
It's
a
little
bit
late
here
in
new
york,
but
please
feel
free
to
reach
out.
Even
if
you
don't
make
games
now,
I'm
always
happy
to
point
you
into
the
right
direction.
I've
done
lots
of
linda
courses.
If
you
go
to
lynda.com
or
I
think
it's
called
linkedin
learning,
I've
done
almost
30
courses
now
on
game
development
and
programming.