Pico's School

Last updated
Pico's School
Pico's School (1999) screenshot.png
Developer(s) Tom Fulp
Publisher(s) Newgrounds, Tom Fulp
Programmer(s) Tom Fulp
Composer(s) ThatJohnnyGuy
Engine Adobe Flash
Platform(s) Browser
ReleaseJuly 25, 1999
Genre(s) Point-and-click adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Pico's School is a 1999 Flash game developed by Tom Fulp for his website Newgrounds. At the time of its release, it was "one of the most sophisticated" browser games, exhibiting "a complexity of design and polish in presentation that [was] virtually unseen in amateur Flash game development". [1] [2] It has been widely credited with kickstarting the Flash games scene and helping launch Newgrounds "as a public force". [1] [3] [4]

Contents

The game is a point-and-click adventure/shooter that was inspired by the Columbine High School massacre, putting the player in the shoes of the titular Pico, who has to fight a group of stereotypical goth kids who have killed their classmates. [4]

Plot

During a school lesson on apples and bananas, Pico's classmate Cassandra interrupts the class to denounce the American education system, which she believes to be "bullshit", before opening fire upon her fellow students. Pico blacks out during the chaos, managing to escape the classroom only to discover the majority of his classmates have been killed. [5] As Pico fights the goth kids, he discovers they are being manipulated by Cassandra. Cassandra is then revealed to be an alien, and Pico must defeat her.

Gameplay

The game lets players choose multiple pathways through the school's halls, have conversations with surviving students, and engage in enemy fights, all driven by mouse clicks. [2]

Development

Tom Fulp stated in an interview that he was inspired to make the game following a variety of angry e-mails sent to his website Newgrounds following the Columbine massacre, many of which would blame internet websites for distributing offensive content. [6]

The game was developed in Flash 3 prior to the advent of the scripting language ActionScript, which almost all subsequent Flash games would use. To simulate stored data, Fulp claims to have created a complex web of movie clips to simulate in-game variables, an innovative technique which created a considerable strain during highly interactive sequences, such as boss fights. [1]

On April Fools' Day 2021, the original Pico's School was replaced by Pico's School: Love Conquers All, a re-telling of the story in which the massacre never happens.

Reception and legacy

Official banner for the yearly Newgrounds event "Pico Day", named after the protagonist of Pico's School, depicting Pico shaking hands with the other Newgrounds mascot, Tankman, with various other popular Newgrounds characters in the background Pico Day 2021 Banner.png
Official banner for the yearly Newgrounds event "Pico Day", named after the protagonist of Pico's School, depicting Pico shaking hands with the other Newgrounds mascot, Tankman, with various other popular Newgrounds characters in the background

An article published by Spin referred to the game as the work of a "sick genius". [6] Andrew Lerner of Troma Entertainment commented that when he first saw the game, he laughed so hard he almost wet his pants. Troma Entertainment were reportedly at one point in talks with Tom Fulp about making a movie based on the game. [6] A contemporary write-up of Newgrounds on the Japanese tech site Impress Watch by Mie Aoki recommended the game and called it a good way to test how stuck your mind is in elementary school. [7] In a 2020 article, Wired called the game "irreverent pulp". [8]

Tom Fulp, the game's creator, has referred to Pico's School as a "real defining moment for Newgrounds". [9] The game was "hailed by many as the pinnacle of Flash ... 'programming'" and is said to have "offered a first model for the type of point-and-click interactivity that would become a standard". [1]

The titular Pico would go on to become essential iconography for Newgrounds, being featured in a number of games and animations. [lower-alpha 1]

Sequel

A sequel with the working title Pico 2 was under development for a number of years since 1999 [15] as a collaboration with part-time animator Jose "MindChamber" Ortiz but was cancelled without an announcement sometime in the 2010s. Two prototype versions were made available to supporters of Newgrounds in 2016. The Kickstarter for popular rhythm game Friday Night Funkin' (which features Pico as a recurring character) promised to finish and release Pico 2 should its Kickstarter reach $5 million in funding, though this goal was ultimately not achieved.

Notes

  1. ↑ Attributed to multiple sources: [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

Pico may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Browser game</span> Video game played in a web browser

A browser game is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Alternative names for the browser game genre reference their software platform used, with common examples being Flash games, and HTML5 games.

Newgrounds is an American company and entertainment website founded by Tom Fulp in 1995. The site hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and offices in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stick figure</span> Simplistic drawing of a person

A stick figure is a very simple drawing of a human or other animal, in which the limbs and torso are represented using straight lines. The head is most often represented by a circle, which can be filled or unfilled. Details such as hands, feet, and a neck may be present or absent, and the head is sometimes embellished with details such as facial features or hair. Simpler stick figures often display disproportionate physical features and ambiguous emotion.

<i>Alien Hominid</i> 2004 video game

Alien Hominid is a run and gun video game developed by The Behemoth and first released as a Flash game on the multimedia website Newgrounds on August 7, 2002. It was originally developed in Adobe Flash by programmer and Newgrounds founder, Tom Fulp, and animator and artist, Dan Paladin. It has since been re-released in several expanded and enhanced iterations for home consoles and computers.

The Behemoth is an American video game development company that was founded in 2003 by John Baez, artist Dan Paladin, and programmers Tom Fulp, Brandon LaCava, and Nick Dryburgh. Dryburgh and LaCava later left the company. The Behemoth development studio is located in San Diego, California. The company is known for producing simple games with Paladin's signature 2D style. Its games are also known for their heavy arcade inspirations, especially among their early games, emulating genres common on the Neo Geo in particular.

<i>Home Room</i> (2002 film) 2002 American film

Home Room is an independent film starring Erika Christensen, Busy Philipps and Victor Garber. It premiered in the Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival on 12 April 2002, and made its limited theatrical release on 5 September 2003.

<i>Super Columbine Massacre RPG!</i> 2005 role-playing video game

Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is a role-playing video game created by Danny Ledonne and released in April 2005. The game recreates the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Columbine, Colorado. Players assume the roles of gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and act out the massacre, with flashbacks relating parts of Harris and Klebold's past experiences. The game begins on the day of the shootings and follows Harris and Klebold after their suicides to fictional adventures in perdition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Fulp</span> American programmer (born 1978)

Thomas Charles Fulp is an American programmer known for creating the website Newgrounds and co-founding the video game company The Behemoth.

<i>V-Tech Rampage</i> 2007 video game

V-Tech Rampage is a 2007 action video game created by Australian amateur video game developer Ryan Lambourn, aged 21 at the time. The game recreates the Virginia Tech shooting, and was released less than a month after the shooting occurred. The Flash-based game came to light when it was uploaded to Newgrounds using Lambourn's screen name Master PiGPEN.

Fancy Pants is a series of free side-scrolling Flash games created by American developer Brad Borne. Four worlds have been released so far. World 1 was released on March 14, 2006 and World 2 was released on January 9, 2008. After the 2009 Comic-Con, Borne announced he would officially start working on World 3. It was released on April 5, 2012. A console version developed by Borne and Over the Top Games was released by EA 2D for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade on April 19 and April 20, 2011, respectively. An iOS version developed by Chillingo, Over the Top Games and Borne Games was released on the Apple App Store on March 4, 2012, with an Android version released on May 22, 2017. In 2017, Brad Borne made a fourth entry, Super Fancy Pants Adventure, which was later ported to Adobe Flash in 2020 as World 4.

<i>League Bowling</i> 1990 video game

League Bowling is an arcade game released in 1990 by SNK for the Neo Geo console and arcade systems. The players controls characters with red and blue hair and can select balls from 8 to 15 pounds. It is the only bowling game released on the Neo Geo.

<i>The Room Tribute</i> 2010 flash video game

The Room Tribute is a point-and-click adventure game released on September 3, 2010, that serves as an unofficial adaptation of the 2003 film The Room directed by Tommy Wiseau. It was programmed by Newgrounds founder Tom Fulp, with artwork by Newgrounds staff member Jeff "JohnnyUtah" Bandelin, and music by animator Chris "OneyNG" O'Neill. The game was designed in the style of 16-bit graphics, much like similar games based on the films Tremors and The Hunger Games for Newgrounds' own 2010 and 2012 April Fools jokes.

<i>Canabalt</i> 2009 video game

Canabalt is a one-button endless runner designed by Adam Saltsman for the Experimental Gameplay Project in 2009. The 2D side-scrolling video game was originally written as a Flash game, then ported to iOS, Android, PlayStation Portable, Ouya, and HTML5. An authorized version for the Commodore 64 was released on cartridge. Canabalt has been credited with popularizing the endless runner subgenre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SFB Games</span> British video game developer

SFB Games Limited is a British video game developer based in London. The studio was established in 2002 by brothers Tom and Adam Vian, who, as "The Super Flash Bros.", produced browser games and animations in Adobe Flash for websites such as Newgrounds and Armor Games. At SFB Games, Tom acts as technical director, while Adam occupies the role of creative director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruffle (software)</span> Open source emulator for Adobe Flash

Ruffle is a free and open source emulator for playing Adobe Flash (SWF) animation files.

<i>Friday Night Funkin</i> 2020 video game

Friday Night Funkin' is an upcoming rhythm video game developed by Funkin' Crew Inc. and released on Newgrounds in 2020. The game is developed by a small group called The Funkin' Crew Inc., which consists primarily of Cameron "ninjamuffin99" Taylor, David "PhantomArcade" Brown, Isaac "Kawai Sprite" Garcia, and evilsk8r. The game is also open-source. It shares some gameplay features with Dance Dance Revolution, PaRappa the Rapper, and the "Dance Contest" minigame from Club Penguin, and borrows aesthetic influences from Flash games. The game has been credited with driving users back to Newgrounds, a site that rose in popularity in the early 2000s.

The 21st Game Developers Choice Awards was an annual awards ceremony by Game Developers Choice Awards for outstanding game developers and video games held on July 21, 2021. The awards ceremony was held alongside the Independent Games Festival awards, with both events presented through virtual streaming video due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Hades was named as Game of the Year.

Tyler Glaiel, also known by the moniker Glaiel Games, is an American video game designer and programmer known for games such as Aether (2008), Closure (2012), Number (2013), Bombernauts (2017), The End Is Nigh (2017) and Mewgenics (2025).

<i>Nightmare Cops</i> Upcoming video game developed by Newgrounds

Nightmare Cops is an upcoming 2D platforming brawler video game developed by Tom Fulp and Jeff "JohnnyUtah" Bandelin under Newgrounds. The game takes place in a town overseen by a police force tasked with entering and combating the inhabitants' nightmares. The game has seen an over 10 year long development cycle and has no tentative release date currently set, however as of 2024, development is more than halfway to completion according to the development team.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Salter, Anastasia (2014). Flash : building the interactive web. Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp. 74–75. ISBN   9780262028028.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. 1 2 Williams, Andrew (2017). History of digital games : developments in art, design and interaction. Boca Raton, FL. ISBN   9781138885530.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ↑ Moss, Richard C. (7 July 2020). "The rise and fall of Adobe Flash". Ars Technica. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  4. 1 2 Salter, Anastasia; Murray, John (29 November 2014). "How Flash Games Shaped the Internet". The Atlantic. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  5. ↑ Fulp, Tom. "Pico's School". Newgrounds.com. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 SPIN (magazine) February 2000, p. 54
  7. ↑ "とにかく殺っとけ！ バカゲー勢揃いの「Newsgrounds」". internet.watch.impress.co.jp. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  8. ↑ D'Anastasio, Cecilia. "The Ragtag Squad That Saved 38,000 Flash Games From Oblivion". Wired. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  9. ↑ Fulp, Tom. "Pico". Newgrounds.com. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  10. ↑ Wery, Jackson. "Friday Night Funkin' Fondly Recalls Flash Games". TechRaptor. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  11. ↑ "Flash game portal Newgrounds turns 20 years old today". Destructoid. 25 April 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  12. ↑ Lee, Jared (13 January 2018). "How Newgrounds Changed the Game". Super Jump Magazine.
  13. ↑ Psycho Goldfish (4 May 2007). "100th Review!: Pico's Surprise Party". Web-Game Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 July 2008.
  14. ↑ "Flash Games as told by Flash creators #15: Shawn Tanner". Medium. 10 January 2021. In the early days, flash games were usually just interactive stories. Click a button, watch an animation, then repeat. For me, it wasn't until Pico's School came along that I realized things could be pushed further. It had a map and a (somewhat) persistent game world. You could open and close individual lockers in the hallway. There were small cutscenes, interactive battles, and even secret items.
  15. ↑ Fulp, Tom (26 September 1999). "September Updates!". Archived from the original on 28 November 1999. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.