IBS Runner: A PICO-8 Parkour Game
I made a video game. I was at the Winter Tech Forum last week, and someone shouted out this idea for a game. So I made it. It’s a rooftop parkour game for the PICO-8 fantasy console, and the premise is exactly what it sounds like: someone doing parkour… with IBS. It’s called IBS Runner, and you can play it right now in your browser.
You burst out of a porta-potty that, for some unexplained reason, is on top of a skyscraper, and start sprinting across a procedurally generated city skyline. Jump from building to building, and don’t fall. When the gaps get too wide, hit the boost button; brown and orange flames shoot out of your butt as you rocket across the gap.
How it plays
You run to the right. Buildings scroll by. Gaps appear. You jump. If you land on a rooftop, your character does a somersault and keeps running. If you miss, you plummet to your doom. The longer you survive, the harder it gets; gaps get wider and platforms get narrower.
The “fun” mechanic is the IBS Boost. While you’re airborne, press X to activate it. You get one boost per jump, and it gives you a burst of extra thrust with a trail of brown and orange flame particles shooting out behind you. It’s disgusting. It’s hilarious.
Hard Mode
If normal mode isn’t stressful enough, there’s Hard Mode. Select it from the title screen and a Godzilla-like kaiju appears behind you, stomping through the city and destroying buildings as it goes.
It reminds me of that scene in Goldmember:
Japanese Man 1: RUN! IT’S GODZILLA!
Japanese Man 2: It looks like Godzilla, but due to international copyright laws - it’s not.
Japanese Man 1: STILL, WE SHOULD RUN LIKE IT IS GODZILLA!
Japanese Man 2: [looks to the camera] Though it isn’t.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| ← / → | Move left / right |
| ↑ or Z / C | Jump |
| X / V | Boost while airborne |
| ← / → on title | Toggle Normal / Hard mode |
A couple of tips: you can’t jump while you’re in the landing roll animation, so time your jumps carefully. And boost is one shot per jump — once you let go, it’s spent until you land again.
Why PICO-8?
PICO-8 is a fantasy console. It looks and feels like gaming consoles from the 1980s, with all their limitations, but it never actually existed. It has a deliberately constrained environment with a 128x128 pixel display, 16 colors, and chippy sounds.
Play it
You can play IBS Runner at the Lexaloffle BBS. It works in any modern browser — no install required. Just click and play.
Fair warning: it’s addictive. And yes, the boost sound is exactly what you think it is.