PICO-8 Starter LUA code (save this as starter.p8)

starter.lua

-- pico-8 starter code
-- by @hypirlink

-- _init() is called when 
-- you 'run' the program
function _init()
 -- states: menu, game, end
 state = "menu"
end

-- checks if player 0 
-- is pressing a or b
function pressing_button()
 return btnp(4) or btnp(5)
end

function start_game()
 state = "game"
 timer = 300
end

function end_game()
 state = "end"
 timer = 0
end

function update_game()
 timer -= 1
 if (timer <= 0) then
  end_game()
 end
end

-- _update() is called once per
-- frame, before _draw()
function _update()
 if (state == "menu" and pressing_button()) then
  start_game() 
 elseif (state == "end" and pressing_button()) then
  _init()
 elseif (state == "game") then
  update_game() 
 end
end

function draw_bg()
 rectfill(0,0,128,128,0) 
end

function draw_console()
 print(state,0,0,11)
end

function draw_game()
 print(timer,0,12,11)
end

-- _draw() is called once per
-- frame, after _update()
function _draw()
 draw_bg()
 if (state == "game") then
  draw_game()
 end
 draw_console()
end