Pico's School

The game was inspired by the Columbine High School massacre, and was released only three months after the event. It centers around the titular Pico, a young boy who must fight a group of stereotypical goth kids who have killed his classmates.

• Title — Pico's School • Developer — Tom Fulp • Released — July 25, 1999 • Genre — Point-and-click adventure • Modes — Single-player • Publisher — Tom Fulp, via Newgrounds • Composer — ThatJohnnyGuy (2016 version) • Programmer — Tom Fulp • Engine — Adobe Flash • Platforms — Browser • Series — Pico

During a school lesson, Pico's classmate Cassandra interrupts the class to denounce the American education system, which she believes to be "bullshit", before opening fire upon her fellow students. Pico blacks out during the chaos, managing to escape the classroom only to discover the majority of his classmates have been killed. As Pico fights the goth kids, he discovers they are being manipulated by Cassandra. Cassandra is then revealed to be an alien, and Pico must defeat her.

The game lets players choose multiple pathways throughout the school's halls, have conversations with surviving students, and engage in enemy fights, all driven by mouse clicks.

Tom Fulp stated in an interview that he was inspired to make the game following a variety of angry e-mails sent to his website Newgrounds following the Columbine massacre, many of which would blame internet websites for distributing offensive content. The game was developed in Macromedia Flash 3 prior to the advent of the scripting language ActionScript, which almost all subsequent Flash games would use. To simulate stored data, Fulp claims to have created a complex web of movie clips to simulate in-game variables, an innovative technique which created a considerable strain during highly interactive sequences, such as boss fights. The game was released in 1999, on Newgrounds, with an update releasing in 2006. On April Fools' Day 2021, the original Pico's School was replaced by Pico's School: Love Conquers All, a re-telling of the story in which the massacre never happens.

A sequel with the working title Pico 2 was under development for a number of years since August 1999, as a collaboration with part-time animator Jose "MindChamber" Ortiz, but was cancelled without an announcement sometime in the 2010s. Two prototype versions were made available to supporters of Newgrounds in 2016. The Kickstarter for popular rhythm game Friday Night Funkin (which features Pico as a recurring character) promised to finish and release Pico 2 should its Kickstarter reach $5 million in funding, though this goal was ultimately not achieved.