Retro Gadgets

Released: Nov 30, 2022
Platforms
Last updated: 13 Sep 2026, 13:06 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

10 Sep 2026Developer post
Steam Programming Fest 2026: let's celebrate with two themed bundles!
Hello Gadgeteers! In occasion of the Steam Programming Fest 2026 , Evil Licorice has partnered with some exceptional developers for a special promotion that will last even after the end of the event. Two different bundles have been created, including Retro Gadgets and other mindb
Hello Gadgeteers!
In occasion of the Steam Programming Fest 2026, Evil Licorice has partnered with some exceptional developers for a special promotion that will last even after the end of the event.
Two different bundles have been created, including Retro Gadgets and other mindblowing titles about programming and puzzles.
Retro Gadgets x Zachtronics Bundle
Includes our own Retro Gadgets and two titles developed by Zachtronics:
SHENZHEN I/O, one of our favourite titles about building circuits and writing code
EXAPUNKS, an open-ended puzzle game with great hacking mechanics
Retro Programming
Includes Retro Gadgets and the latest game released on Steam by Thomas Hsu:
Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division, an incredible investigation game in which you'll criminal cases via SQL queries
In addition to these bundles, you'll also be able to purchase Retro Gadgets with a special 25% off for all the duration of the Steam Programming Fest 2026.
We'll talk you very soon with some updates regarding the features currently in development! In the meantime, enjoy some great programming games!
Original post
11 Aug 2026Developer post
Story mode is near, and it's been a long journey.
This post is here to tell you a little bit more about the development, the story mode and answer the most common questions we've received. What is Story Mode? At its core, the Retro Gadgets Story Mode is a new game mode that will complement the current Sandbox Mode. It will be re
10 Jun 2026Developer post
Retro Gadgets 0.2.2 now available: folders and paths!
Hello Gadgeteers! We're bringing to you a brand new update, this time focused on managing folders and paths, plus a few important bug fixes. 📂 It is now possible to create folders and use them to organize your Gadget's assets 📂In Lua you can specify a relative or absolute path
11 Dec 2025Developer post
Retro Gadgets 0.2.1 now available: new modules and buttons!
Hello Gadgeteers! A new update is now available, which will bring new some updates and news including: 🔦 New Led module with customizable symbol 📦 The keypad module is now smaller, so it can fit in a single motherboard 💡 The new LedButton has a similar aesthetic to the keypad
22 Oct 2025Developer post
Retro Gadgets Playground is now available on Steam!
We’re delighted to announce the launch of Retro Gadgets Playground , now available on Steam! Retro Gadgets Playground lets you download and use the creations made with Retro Gadgets completely for free, with more than 2000 Gadgets currently available for browsing. If you are a Re
16 Oct 2025Developer post
Retro Gadgets 0.2 is now available
Hello Gadgeteers! We're excited to share with you the new update of Retro Gadgets, available from today. In this new version you'll find: New WiFi Chip function: WebGetAudioStream – stream audio straight from the web! New property to list all open audio streams New GIF recorder:
Hello Gadgeteers!
We're excited to share with you the new update of Retro Gadgets, available from today.
In this new version you'll find:
New WiFi Chip function: WebGetAudioStream – stream audio straight from the web!
New property to list all open audio streams
New GIF recorder: when publishing the gadget on the workshop it's now possible to record an animated gif
WiFi Chip can now fetch images too – you can have PixelData as a response
New Video Chip functions: DrawCustomRenderBuffer and RasterCustomRenderBuffer for drawing only parts of a RenderBuffer
Fixed alpha blend in SetPixelBuffer and RasterRenderBuffer
Code editor can now run in fullscreen
Tons of crash fixes and stability improvements
To celebrate this release and join other incredible games on Ada Lovelace Day, we decided to discount Retro Gadgets with a special 20%!
But the updates are not over: the issues that were preventing the release of Retro Gadgets Playground have been solved, so we're almost ready to share it with you!
Keep following us on Discord and on social media, so you won't miss the release!
Original post
18 Sep 2025Developer post
Retro Gadgets Playground: release delay
Hello Gadgeteers! Unfortunately, we regret to inform everyone that the launch of Retro Gadgets Playground has been delayed due to some unforeseen circumstances regarding its submission, which we're currently dealing with Steam. The team here at Evil Licorice truly apologise for t
04 Sep 2025Developer post
Now Announcing: Retro Gadgets Playground Release Date!
Hi Gadgeteers! With further updates on the Retro Gadgets Story Mode coming soon, today we’re pleased to bring you news that the Retro Gadgets Playground will be coming for FREE on Sep 18th! Retro Gadgets Playground launches FREE on 🗓️ September 18th! Delivered as a separate Stea
03 Apr 2025Developer post
Live Dev Update: Retro Gadgets Playground
Hello Gadgeteers! As many of you know, part of our work on the game in the last months was to create the Retro Gadgets Playground. We're finally ready to share and comment with you an exclusive preview of how it works and looks like! Please join us for a new Live Dev Update on Re
24 Jun 2024Developer post
Community Game Jam: "Firsts in history"
We are very proud to bring you news about an awesome community-led event: The Retro Gadgets Game Jam Server is hosting their first big game jam and would very much like you to join them for this gadget creation contest! QuickHow does it work? Join the game jam on the RG Game Jams
08 Jun 2024Developer post
Future of Play Direct 2024
Hello Gadgeteers! It is this time of the year again, Summer Games Fest 2024 is here and Retro Gadgets will be featured in the Future of Play Direct showcase! Join the live now GLITCH YouTube channel and don’t forget to cheer for all the spectacular games! But that's not all! To c
10 May 2024Developer post
Mini Update 0.1.9 - RG Game Lib
We're excited to announce that we've just released mini-update 0.1.9 for RG! Introducing the "Retro Gadgets Game Libraries" You can now quickly import to you gadgets a set of selected libraries to simplify your development adventures! The first library is the RG Game Library . [
21 Mar 2024Developer post
Community Creations Showcase
While working on the new features and content for Retro Gadgets, delving into the multitude of awesome gadgets created by the community is our ultimate delight — we're completely enchanted by the continuous flow of creations from our players! ✨ Month after month, we look forward
20 Dec 2023Developer post
Mini Update 0.1.8 - Transparent Cases
Hello Gadgeteers! We are proud to present to you another mini-update for Retro Gadgets, this time focused on adding support for different case types for the Gadgets. In the motherboards drawer you can now select between transparent and opaque plastic for your gadget cases. Transp
Hello Gadgeteers! We are proud to present to you another mini-update for Retro Gadgets, this time focused on adding support for different case types for the Gadgets.
In the motherboards drawer you can now select between transparent and opaque plastic for your gadget cases.
Transparent cases can be painted with the airbrush and will maintain their transparency while stickers remain opaque. You can achieve some really cool aesthetics by combining the two effects!
Right now we only have two types of cases, but we have a bunch of ideas to add more if you like this feature.
But that's not all! We also:

Added a new motherboard shape that acts as a Y junction for 1x1 elements
Tweaked the art of the multitool port module in a way that is less visible and looks better when using the transparent shells
Fixed a bug that caused the game to crash when the cell size of the pixel editor was set to 0
Thank you all for your continued support of Retro Gadgets! We will be back soon with another mini update and Story Mode previews!
Original post
13 Nov 2023Developer post
Mini Update 0.1.7 - Rotary Encoder
Hello everyone! We are thrilled to release our first mini-update featuring the rotary encoder mode for our knob components. This is the first of a series of small updates we will be releasing while the big Story Mode patch is in the works (check previous news for info). With this
Hello everyone! We are thrilled to release our first mini-update featuring the rotary encoder mode for our knob components. This is the first of a series of small updates we will be releasing while the big Story Mode patch is in the works (check previous news for info).
With this update, any knob can now be set to have infinite rotation by setting its the hardware parameters. Setting a knob to infinite changes the behavior of the knob by removing the rotation limits of the default version.
We also added the knob.DeltaValue to all knob modules. This property returns the variation of knob.Value since the previous frame.
This update also:

Fixes a minor code completion bug.
Solves an issue that prevented CPU event channels to be set to nil.
Have fun with the rotary encoders! See you in a few weeks for another mini-update!
Original post
21 Aug 2023Developer post
Roadmap Update
Hello Gadgeteers , We hope you all are doing great! Update 0.1.6 has been out there for a while so.... It's time for a roadmap update! Since we released the Launcher Update , we have been working tirelessly on laying the groundwork for one of the biggest new features coming to th
Hello Gadgeteers,
We hope you all are doing great! Update 0.1.6 has been out there for a while so.... It's time for a roadmap update!
Since we released the Launcher Update, we have been working tirelessly on laying the groundwork for one of the biggest new features coming to the game: the story mode.
This update will add an optional mission-based gameplay loop to Retro Gadgets that will function as a much needed introduction to the game. We are working on new systems for jobs (think quests but in Retro Gadgets), complete with messages, funny characters, time-slots, money, components to buy, unlockables, magazines. It's a ton of work and it's going to take some time before it's ready for release. We are aiming to release the story mode during the first quarter of 2024 but nothing is set in stone.
The good news is, game updates will come while we work on the story mode. However, we have to finish building the core systems for the narrative layer before we can get back to adding features to the existing "sandbox mode".
Our plan is to have the core for the story mode ready by the end of October, and then split up and have the content-focused people in the team work on the content for the story, while the tech-people team returns to its rightful mission to provide you regular, awesome, updates for retro gadgets "classic" mode.
Why story mode? - you might ask - Was making the sandbox mode not complex enough already?
Well... Yes. But in order to be able to realize our grand vision for the game, we need more people playing the game.
While our current approach has been good enough for you bunch of beautiful and awesome nerds (we will never be thankful enough for all your love and support to the game and its community!), we really need to get the game out there to a lot more people if we want this project to thrive in the future years.
Right now there are two things we believe are keeping people away from the game:

To have fun playing Retro Gadgets, some knowledge of coding/Lua is mandatory
Retro Gadgets has no tutorial whatsoever and the only solution to learn how to play the game is "reading the fucking manual"
Providing an intro and a compelling narrative is also something we think has great potential not only to attract a larger audience, but also to improve the overall charm of the game by adding game-like rules, resources and systems that later could end up in the sandbox as well.
We are really proud of the launcher update, so we decided its release was the right time to commit several months to the development of an awesome story.
We are working around the clock to get a demo of the story mode ready to play at The Tokyo Game Show 2023 in late September. Retro Gadgets has been nominated for the "Selected Indie 80" portion of the exhibit so we will have our own booth there!
Can't wait to show you more of what we are building for Retro Gadgets!
Original post
13 Jul 2023Developer post
The Launcher Challenge!
A new🏅 Themed Challenge is live on our Discord Server ! We wanted to give you more time to explore the new patch and now it's your time to shine: The theme of this challenge is: The Desktop Gadget Launcher Your creation needs to be a functional Desktop Widget! Think of all the c
29 Jun 2023Developer post
The Launcher Update
Ready to bring back the desktop widgets ? Here comes Retro Gadgets 0.1.6 ! Build the most awesome gadget, add it to the launcher and BAM! It's 200X all over again! This new release is our first step in making gadgets exist outside the game itself. If you have at least one Gadget
Watch on YouTube
Ready to bring back the desktop widgets? Here comes Retro Gadgets 0.1.6!
Build the most awesome gadget, add it to the launcher and BAM! It's 200X all over again!
This new release is our first step in making gadgets exist outside the game itself.
If you have at least one Gadget selected for the Launcher, you can open it directly from you system tray without having to launch the game first. Your amazing creations will always be just a couple of clicks away!
But there is more! We also added a serial port component, the ability to read files from your system, touch screens, access to render buffers and game localization.
This is a comprehensive list of everything that is new in RG version 0.1.6

New Launcher that allows you to add Gadgets to your Windows desktop without opening the game. It is also possible to flag them to start at Windows startup
New Serial module to communicate through the PC serial port
The VideoChip now contains an array of RenderBuffers that can be set as a render target
Lua access to RenderBuffers and SpriteSheets content
AudioChip event sent when playback is finished to allow better management of audio channels
AudioSample now contains the metadata of the imported file
The RealityChip can now access files in the My Games/Retro/UserData folder allowing you to load AudioSamples and SpriteSheets at runtime
New RealityChip methods for reading date and time
Screens are now touch, interactions can be read from the connected VideoChip
The game interface is now translated in several languages (check the setting) and better supports different alphabets.
We added new gadgets for you to discover in the tutorials section of the game. These new gadgets are great widgets that you can use out of the box .
Several bug fixes and UI improvements
Check the Official Documentation for more info or join our Discord to talk about these new features with the community and the Dev-team!
Original post
16 Mar 2023Developer post
Spring Sales!
Hello Gadgeteers! Spring is coming, flowers are blooming, and the long-awaited Steam Spring Sale is finally here! We're happy to announce that Retro Gadgets is currently 15% off. Be sure to grab a copy for you and your friends! We are working hard to bring you a very big update i
17 Feb 2023Developer post
Update 0.1.5 and Roadmap!
Hello fellow Gadgeteers! You have been with us for a long, long time, especially during our release in Early Access in November. Now it's time to talk about the future and what we have in store for you, so here's a little roadmap to illustrate what you can look forward to, and wh
Hello fellow Gadgeteers! You have been with us for a long, long time, especially during our release in Early Access in November.
Now it's time to talk about the future and what we have in store for you, so here's a little roadmap to illustrate what you can look forward to, and what to expect throughout the year.
Bear in mind that there are no visible timeframes: that's because we don't want to set anything in stone for now, especially since our development team closely follows
community feedback and suggestions, and for that reason some features may get priority over others, or get scrapped completely.
If you read correctly (which we know you did), you realized new content is dropping TODAY and it's part of a big series of updates that aim to improve the core of the game.
We want to give you new parts, new components, and tools at your disposal to unleash your creativity and coding capabilities, sandbox-style.
But, we are also aiming to improve the gameplay aspects of Retro Gadgets, and ease new players into the intricacies of gadget-making with a brand-new story mode/tutorial mode.
Update 0.1.5 Coming NOW™️
This is what you get with today's update:
NEW CODE EDITOR

A new Code Editor, rebuilt from scratch
Much faster and simpler to use
A new, more advanced debugger
We heard your feedback, and this is going to be a big game-changer for all of you.
Coding will be faster and less cumbersome, in every possible way (even on lower-spec machines).
We implemented a slew of new features which include:

The editor now supports nearly infinite lines without slowing down, it will be more reliable and future-proof.
The debugger can now display the value of local variables and allows you to step through the stack-trace. This is also possible for runtime exceptions.
For the nostalgic, an optional VIM editing mode has been added.
MULTITOOL UPGRADES

It is now possible to export PNG and Lua assets.
When importing assets, it is now possible to directly replace any pre-existing ones with the same name, provided that confirmation is given.
Error, Warning and Info messages now will appear in a brand new bar.
SPRITE EDITOR
We added several functions to the sprite editor. Our main goal for this update was to improve and simplify the creation of custom fonts and sprites.

The sprite grid now supports non-power-of-two values This allows non-square, 100% custom for font sizes.
The editor can now display the pixel coordinates, cell coordinates and font index under your mouse cursor.
Using the selection tool you can now flip pixel areas horizontally or vertically.
When an area is selected, the selection button is now highlighted in the interface.
MOTHERBOARD VISIBLE IN LUA
Motherboards have been exposed in Lua code:

Introduced the new Motherboard type, it is a table containing the modules of a specific motherboard. Like gdt, the key is the module name and the value is the Module itself.
gdt.Motherboards contain the array of all Motherboards.
All Modules contain a Type property of type string which contains the name of the type ("CPU", "LedButton", ...)
All Modules contain a Motherboard property of type Motherboard which represents the motherboard they are on.
ENHANCED MAGNETIC CONNECTOR:

MagneticConnector contains a new property AttachedConnector of type MagneticConnector which contains the connector it is connected to.
MagneticConnector raises a new MagneticConnectorEvent when the connection state changes.
FIXES

Images that contained transparency but were not imported correctly have now been fixed.
Several annoying bugs were fixed in the sprite editor.
When the Steam connection is lost an Error message is displayed, while an Info message appears when the connection is back.
Original post