This repository contains snapshots of intermediate lua files from the build process for PICO-8 Nebulus.
It should give a somewhat readable insight into how Nebulus is coded. However it does not contain the tools, build scripts or source data needed to actually build the game.
Note that PICO-8 uses a customized version of Lua 5.2 with modified syntax such as short-if/whiles. Also PICO-8's token limits, code size constraints and memory mapped APIs inevitably lead to code golfing with heavy use of globals, undeclared variables, _ENV manipulation, obscure pokes, etc that purists wouldn't necessarily consider the "cleanest" of code.
To add to the obscurity, the Nebulus build process extends PICO-8 syntax with macro invocations inside backticks, allowing build steps to insert (or remove) customized code. Further, Nebulus uses Picoscript to store some of the code logic as data in ROM space to get around PICO-8's token and code size limits, which required a peculiar brand of code gymnastics.
Lastly, this code wasn't written with an audience in mind, so expect a stream of consciousness of FIXMES/TODOS/DEBUGs and temporary code etc.
Good luck!
- The hand-written code concatenated from all lua source files.
- The code after macro expansion.
- The code after a custom minifier, as it appears in the final cart.
- Minification was needed to slide in under PICO-8's code size limit.