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Pixel Art Academy: Learn ModeNewsShoot 'em up project
In-game event

Shoot 'em up project

Pixel Art Academy: Learn Mode · published 13 Aug 2025, 08:02 UTC · build 19555708

All newsPlayers around this dateRead on Steam

TL;DR:

  • Invasion project (a shmup game for PICO-8) unlocks after you complete Shape language.

  • Customize the Invasion design document on the Pixeltosh.

  • Chronoscope, a magazine with science fiction artworks for inspiration and reference.

  • A new dynamic soundtrack song plays in Pixel art fundamentals and Invasion project.

After a bunch of theory around designing shapes, it's time to put things into practice by drawing sprites for a simple, single-screen shoot em' up.

It runs on PICO-8, so it's not a long project like the Pinball game, but it's not as simple as the Snake game either. The extra bit of functionality is that you have the chance to customize the design document for the game.

You can change every underlined word in the document …

… and adjust plenty of numeric properties.

The main thing is of course still to draw the sprites.

And you have a new magazine/book available if you choose to design your game with the science fiction theme.

Of course you get to play the game and tweak it until you're happy with the gameplay.

There was also a new song added to the game's OST (you can hear it when you don't have a cassette tape playing in the Music app) and I'm so happy with how it turned out. It appears at the end of the devlog as well:

I hope you will have fun coming up with creative ways to change the design. I can make it even more advanced in the future (multiple sprites for invaders, invaders that attack out of formation, rotating and animated sprites) as right now it's still quite limited, but of course there's a million other things to develop too, so I'll get back to new tutorials next.

Cheers!
—Retro

More from Pixel Art Academy: Learn Mode

Other announcements

All news
Game update15 Aug 2026Artwork preview fixIf you created any of your own artworks, looking at their fullscreen preview (clicking on the canvas while on the clipboard) made the game freeze. This small patch makes it work again. Sorry about that!Game update20 Jul 2026Patch for too many chess piecesSome of you were able to buy 9 pawns in Chess Academy. This patch will fix your save file and prevent any others from being too speedy in the chess shop. No more breaking the chess law!In-game event13 Jul 2026Chess art projectTL;DR: · An art project in which you draw small, 2D chess pieces. · Playtest your art on the Pixeltosh and learn the rules of chess. · A chess magazine with 90 references to get inspired by. · 4 chessboard themes and a dark interface mode to match your art style. · Play against the computer, a friend, or watch Pixeltosh play itself in 5 difficulty levels. Following Pixel Art Academy's typical p…