Files
playdate-kit/Examples/HelloPlaydate

Hello Playdate

A minimal game built on the play-date bindings: a bouncing box, a crank-aimed needle, button handling, a system menu item, and an FPS counter.

Build and run (Playdate Simulator)

With the Playdate SDK installed (and the one-time Scripts/install-pkgconfig.sh setup from the repository root done):

./build.sh
open -a "$HOME/Developer/PlaydateSDK/bin/Playdate Simulator.app" HelloPlaydate.pdx

The script compiles the game as a dylib, places it in Source/ next to pdxinfo, and runs the SDK's pdc to produce HelloPlaydate.pdx.

Device builds

The Makefile cross-compiles the game with Embedded Swift and packages a HelloPlaydate.pdx containing both the device binary and the simulator dylib. It needs:

  • the Playdate SDK (PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH, or the path in ~/.Playdate/config),
  • the Arm GNU toolchain (arm-none-eabi-gcc) on PATH,
  • a swift.org development-snapshot toolchain (Xcode's toolchain does not ship the Embedded Swift stdlib for the device target). A toolchain installed at ~/Library/Developer/Toolchains is picked up automatically; otherwise pass TOOLCHAINS=<bundle id>.
make

Swift code is compiled with -Osize by default; use make SWIFT_OPT=-O to favor speed over size. Sideload the pdx from the Playdate Simulator (Device > Upload Game to Device) or with the SDK's pdutil.