picoCAD

This is such a cute 3D modeling program, and I adore it for what it is. When you consider that it was made in Pico8, you realize that the developer HAS to be a wizard! You can do some serious low poly work in PicoCAD if you put forth the effort. However, there are too many limitations to make it a "fun, easy, and accessible way into 3D modelling." For that, I sadly can't recommend it as I don't feel new users would appreciate the program as much as I do. You have a Top, Front and Side view, as well as a rendered view. This is most of what you need, but selecting vertices in the north western corner becomes more and more difficult as your model becomes more complex. Texturing is fine, but you must texture the model 1 face at a time, resizing/stretching the UV for every single face. Etc. Now, I could list a bunch more basic features that this program is missing but that would defeat the point. This is a cute minimalist 3D modeler and I enjoy it for that. Figuring out work arounds to make more interesting and complex models is half of the fun. If you love low poly and you're looking for a fun, different, or challenging way to make low poly models then I think you'll love PicoCAD. For everyone else, especially beginners, I recommend Blockbench or possibly the sequel PicoCAD2!

id like to preface the review by saying that i refunded this. that isn't to say i don't recommend it, as clearly i would and am. half of the reason i refunded it is because i've found that with this software, i think your brain has to work a certain way that mine doesn't. you can see even from the trailer that you use the blueprint-y things in the corners to extrude, move, etc. your project. as someone who isn't used to that, trying to figure out how to do that when what it's showing me is that pixelized was incredibly frustrating. however, i can imagine that if you're used to that sort of thing from other software, it wouldn't be as hard to get used to it being pixelized in this one. also, i spent far too long trying to make a texture in another program and import it just for it to be the wrong dimensions somewhere every time. that brings me onto the next point though, which is that that's an inbuilt feature in picoCAD 2 (to my knowledge). i fully intend on buying picoCAD 2 as soon as it comes out. looking at the trailer, it removes basically everything i disliked here. that being said, if you're more adaptable and used to 3d modeling software than me, those barriers may not exist for you, in which case, i think you should absolutely buy this. there's a distinct look of picoCAD projects that reminds me of animal crossing wild world, which is graphically one of my favorite games of all time.

It's basically a toy, but it is a fun one. Limitation breeds creativity, and this was fun to use when blender was overwhelming.

Easy tool to play with and experiment with. The limitations surprisingly force you to think outside of the box to make something cool.

bought it on itch.io and have roughly 80 hours on there (only an estimate since itch.io doesn't track hours played/used lol). if that doesn't say I like it then idk what would. also really helped clear my art block with how intuitive it is to use, and helped me develop my art style due to the limitations. im still getting the hang of making textures, and i can't wait for being able to do that in-house with picocad 2, but even then I'm getting better at it with every new model I make! [b]protip[/b]: delete hidden faces when you can, and/or use flat double sided objects to reduce lag. it's incredible a program like this can be made in the pico8 engine, but that also means it has the limitations of the pico8 engine. trust me, lag reduction is vital when using this program. picocad 2 likely won't need this, but it's still a good practice to develop to keep your models clean. happy modelling y'all! ^u^ Edit: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ i actually managed to crash it. so uhhh a warning to y'all, making faces double sided uses up more memory than you might expect. making faces double sided while near the project limit may crash it lol Edit 2: ok nvm, doing anything in the face properties menu adds memory to the file. crashed it again from making faces textureless near the project limit. ig my advice is to use as few faces as is reasonable and make squares of a solid colour in the texture for faces you want to be solid colours. with every new project i make the program feels more and more like it's held together with duct tape and dreams. that's not a bad thing, it's actually more impressive the program works at all with such little memory lmao, especially with the scale of projects in mind and with how little you need to break it lol. remember to save, and save often (thank you ben)

Can't save the projects because there's no linux support, even though the itch.io version has a dedicated linux build. I really want to like this software. Really cool idea, but it doesn't work at all.

I'm new to 3D modelling and picoCAD has been an excellent tool to make my first lowpoly ideas come to life. The App is minimalistic and easy to learn, after a couple of tutorials i was already finishing my first model. picoCAD has very strict limitations when it comes to file size and color palette but ultimately i found creative workarounds for these situations. I think at this point I've made over 30 models on it and I can't wait to test my skills further once picoCAD2 is out. Great App <3

I'm too dumb to play/use this.

Quite simple, that's both a good and a bad thing. If you just wanna mess around and try to create cute things it works. Don't ask for more

I love the game, yet I wonder why don't the game devveloper(s) make a gam engine. (to buy on Steam, I would buy it.) I know how hard it is to program such a project, yet I hope.