Written for the PICO-8 development platform and first released in 2018, Minima is a miniature version of the early Ultima games and runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Raspberry Pi. It’s a tiny RPG with exploration, a scrolling overworld, first-person dungeon crawling, turn-based combat and movement, and NPCs to talk to.

You begin the game in the scrolling overworld, with your character always in the centre of the play window. Every time you move, the monsters also move, but time is paused while you’re pondering your next move. Like most games of this type, the first port of call is to a town to find some weapons and armour (you begin with none – just some food to tide you over for the beginning), but they cost Gold Pieces (GP). More GP than you have to begin with.

To earn more GP you have to start killing monsters, which is pretty tricky initially. There are some monsters roaming the overworld, but you need to go into dungeons to find the real action. Before you can begin exploring dungeons you must first find and buy some torches (the town to the south of the start), and make sure you have enough food to keep you going for a while.

Inside a dungeon the view cuts to first-person, and in here you have to be very careful. One wrong move and you’re dead. The best tactic at the very start is: short visits, and leave if you’re low on HP and MP. One tip is to use ‘C’ (Cast) to heal yourself using MP (Magic Points) when you need to. MP regenerates as you walk around, whereas Hit Points don’t. It takes 5 MP to cast “Medic” (to heal yourself), and you should only re-enter a dungeon when you have enough for one or two casts of that. There’s nowhere to rest in the game, so you need to heal by yourself using Medic and Cure (for poison, requires 7 MP).

Gaining a foothold in Minima is difficult, but it’s worth having a go at because the game is fun to play, and the challenge considerable. You have to make sure that you use the save game option carefully, and not save yourself into a corner (because you only have one save slot). Gradually, with a bit of success in combat, you might finally have enough money to buy a decent weapon and some armour. It takes a little while (and you have to find a shop that will sell you a decent weapon), but it’s a satisfying goal to achieve.

You’ll probably be around level five or six by the time you reach the bottom of the first dungeon, and around level eight or nine before you can walk around in there with impunity. When you reach level nine or ten you should then be strong enough to explore the eastern area. The town of Lynn (opposite the starting area – across the water) is the place you need to go to finally get a proper weapon. Until then, you just have to make do with your fists, which are effective enough against most monsters.

Minima is a great little game overall. Enjoy it for what it is, and you’ll no doubt have a good time. I did.

Minima also has a spiritual successor, called Anteform, which uses the same engine, and was written by the same developer.

More: Minima on itch.io
More: Minima on Moby Games