Portugues
Bicho
Saved games stay in this browser only.
About the game
Bicho is a cat, and he is the real Bicho, the cat of the person who made the game. He lives in a small, pixelated world where everything is a little too big and a little too eager to bite: balloons, birds, ants, spiders, snails, bats, mushrooms, mice and a rather menacing teddy bear. He answers with claws and a lot of jumping.
It is a metroidvania in the classic mould: one connected world, split into a handful of areas (Home, the Fields, the Underground and the Mountain), where the way forward often depends on something you have not found yet. Along the way you find upgrades with names that suit a cat (Life Up, Purr Up, Paw Up, Fur Up, Zoomies and the Feline Jump), meet a few much bigger enemies, such as a Great Fish and a Great Worm, and collect fish that you can eat when you need your health back.
This is an early version, 0.1.0 alpha 9, and the author still calls it that. We have played the first areas and the fights work; we have not played it through to the end, so there may be rough edges and the world may feel unfinished.
Playing it here
Bicho was written for TIC-80, a fantasy console: an imaginary 1980s-style computer with a 240 by 136 screen and 16 colours, for which independent developers write new games. It runs here in the official TIC-80 web player.
Click Play, wait for "Click to start" and click again. The first screen asks for a language (English or Spanish); pick one with Up and Down and press Z. Then choose one of the four save slots and press Z to start. A slot is saved in this browser; it is not shared between browsers or devices, and clearing the site's data erases it. Esc opens the TIC-80 menu. The game has sound and music.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Left / Right | move (in menus: choose) |
| Z (button A) | jump (in menus: accept) |
| X (button B) | attack (in menus: cancel) |
| Up | activate things in the world |
| S (button Y) | use a fish (in the save menu: delete the slot) |
| Esc | TIC-80 menu |
A gamepad works too, and on a phone the page shows an on-screen pad.
A few things worth knowing
Jump onto everything. Hills and ledges that look like walls at first are usually only a jump or two high, so hold Right and jump in the middle of the climb.
Fish are your health. Keep one for a bad moment and press S when your hearts are low.
Come back later. Some places only open once you have found an upgrade, so a closed way is not a dead end.
Frequently asked questions
Is my progress saved? Yes, in one of four slots, in this browser. It does not follow you to another browser or device.
Is it finished? No. It is version 0.1.0 alpha 9, and its author is still working on it.
Does it work on a phone? The page shows the TIC-80 on-screen pad on touch devices, but we have only tested the game with a keyboard.
Is it free? Yes: Bicho is free software under the MIT License.
Credits and licence
Bicho was made by Diego Martínez, who wrote the code and drew the graphics, sounds and music inside the single cartridge file; the repository credits nobody else. It is released under the MIT License, whose text is linked from this page. The cartridge served here is exactly the one in the author's repository, converted from the text format he publishes into the binary one the player loads, with nothing changed. It runs in the TIC-80 web player (MIT licence).