Sick Leaves

Keep your patio clear of falling leaves. ⬆️⬇️⬅️➡️ to move the broom. ❎🅾️ to sweep left and right. Relax and live out your patio sweeping dream with the zen mode. During challenge mode, if the leaves build up too much the ants will swarm and you will no longer build your score. Clear the leaves to make the ants go away and start scoring again. Try to top your last high score.

Made during Falling Block Jam 2026

(link to download the pico 8 cart)

I've been trying to up my pico-8 game and was inspired by this breakout tutorial to attempt a physic sim. 

I failed terribly, completely abandoned the everything-in-one-table-elegantly-reacting-with-each-other thing that tutorial had going on, and just said a prayer and brute forced it. But it still ended up being a workable game!

And I'm always cleaning these goddamn leaves off the patio so it just made sense. There are several blue gum (I think?) eucalyptus trees in our back yard. They are towering, majestic, and sick. There's a parasite called the blue or red gum psyllid that eats the sap from the leaves. The leaves get covered in lerps (not the programming lerp, the waxy-sticky-sugar-ball lerp) and then drop all over our patio. During the heat of the summer it's the worst. Sticky leaves constantly snowing down, and it is truly sisyphean to try to stay on top of keeping the place clean. The sticky leaves attract ants (argentine ants I think, another invasive species that is a total nightmare), making the whole situation even more maddening.

A few things that I wish had made it into the game but I didn't have time for:

1. My very nice neighbors gave me a hand-me-down leave blower, it would have been badass to level up from the broom at some point.

2. There is actually another gross invasive parasite! The eucalyptus beetle. They're everywhere and it would have worked like the ants, but pink and in the air flying around. I've stomped so many of these fuckers and they just come back by the thousands. They have a yellow are black larva stage that is gross too. Maybe it could have been three steps of difficulty- ants, larva, beetles

3. More music! I would love to have a more energetic song for the challenge mode but it's 12:38 AM and I need to sleep

4. Some mechanic where you can get your landlord to do something about the trees.