Setting timers in simple games (feat. the frame rule)

A walkthrough of a simple two-line timer system for game-jam games in Lua/PICO-8, using a metatable-backed table that counts down each frame. The pattern covers triggering effects for a duration, scheduling future events, and per-object timers. The post then connects this to Super Mario Bros.' NES timer implementation, explaining how a two-tier tick system (fast timers every frame, slow timers every 21 frames via IntervalTimerControl) gives rise to the famous 'frame rule' in speedrunning.

Source: https://lynn.github.io/blog/pico-timers. 8sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.