HOME ABOUT PICO-8 MUSIC

Oh no. Kat made a thing.

Why, yes. I am camera shy.

if you're reading this, your internet must be slow

Hi. I'm Kat J. I do stuff.


I'm a psychology major, and that means my passion is mental health. But of course, being an advocate of mental health means that it is far from the only thing that I care about. I love learning and trying out new things every day. I like reading about history, tech and paleontology (that's dinosaurs and ancient dead things, yes) among many, MANY other things. I've dabbled in programming just a bit. But mostly, I enjoy reading, writing, playing and composing music, drawing, the occasional origami model, and playing video games. On this webpage, you'll find some of the PICO-8 demos I've done for tutorial purposes, and some of the piano compositions I've written. The demos hardly classify as games, but they work on both desktop and mobile. The music will be played using your device's terrible default MIDI soundfont, because Neocities will not let me upload file types beyond the bare basics of web design unless I cough out the cash, of which I have none. I would have put my chiptune (8-bit, "pixelly") music on here, but alas, I have no power in this world.

PICO-8 Demos


Now, what is PICO-8?

PICO-8 is a "fantasy console", which means it is software that emulates a game console that never actually existed. It's often used for educational purposes and for programming challenges, as it is modeled after the 8-bit computers of the 1980s with a severely limited color palette, memory, and processing power. Perfect for making small games or wastes of time such as these!

Hover over or lightly tap each picture to play each demo.


Music


Here, you'll find some of my piano solo compositions rendered in your device's awful MIDI soundfont, along with a download to the piece's sheet music. Click or tap the respective icons to start or stop the playback.


 A Hero to Look Up To

This is one of the music tracks that I composed for my friend's animation thesis Player, Too. The original, like the rest of that soundtrack, is a chiptune track, but like I said, I have no power in this world.

                     

Download the sheet music here.


 Crab Bagatelle

I wrote this because a business illegally set up shop in the apartment next to mine and they annoy me very much. They wouldn't stop trying to spy on us, so we started calling them the crab clan.

                     

Download the sheet music here.


 Sentimental

This is the first piece of music I've ever written. I was eleven, and it shows. I cleaned up the score last year in honor of its 10th (holy heck!!) anniversary.

                     

Download the sheet music here.


 Unrepentant

An angrier(?) reprise of Sentimental that was written a few years later. Still kinda janky, but also got the rescoring treatment.

                     

Download the sheet music here.


 Wit's End Waltz

A waltz-ish type thing written after much, MUCH frustration in a certain class. If you know, you know.

                     

Download the sheet music here.



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