r/PlaydateConsole

I’m excited to share that my first game, GunCrank, is officially out on the Playdate Catalog. What do you think, guys?

Hey all!

I'm jontomato. I've made a lot of apps. The whole point of them is that I think the playdate is the perfect lil pocket sized antidote to doomscrolling on your phone. I personally now carry my playdate along with me and use it as my podcast player, e-reader of short stories, and lil desk toy and it's really been something I've loved. I'm not really big on posting big ol' ads for stuff so I'll just post my itch page here to download my stuff if you're one of those digital-minimalism types too. If I make just one more person go on a walk with their playdate instead of their phone I'm happy.

hello! quick post to let you know that my nice klondike solitaire game i've been working on will be coming to the catalog at some point in the future! i just got the acceptance e-mail today, so i don't have a concrete release date yet. but at an educated guess; i'd hazard to say maybe late october to early november? grain of salt, though.

it's all 100% human-done (art, sounds, code; the lot), it's got a HEAP of gameplay and graphics customization options (and even some amazing custom decks from guest playdate artists — thank you toadleigh for making the awesome reel-istic fishing-inspired deck in this gif!), and it's just generally good ol' solitaire fun that's perfectly suited for the playdate.

i hope you like it! if you wanna keep tabs, you can visit https://rae.wtf for updates and more cool stuff. have a nice day! xo

My playdate is my lil office toy that I keep on my desk. Seemed like the perfect lil mini photo frame.

Feel free to give it a download, free on itch:
https://jontomato.itch.io/knickknack

Just grab whatever photos and videos you'd like, connect your playdate, and go to knickknackpd.com and add them onto your device. It does all the conversion for you. I even put a mini editor on there to change em up a bit before adding em to your device.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! Hopefully it ends up like a fun memory filled screensaver for you to glance at during the day.

After seeing a few other posts about Cranko! here and on the discord I picked up this latest copy, it's amazing how much effort Pat puts in for a community project. With trading cards this time too!

Hopefully I'll see my own game in there one day too .

Hey! I started Locksmith with one question: can the Playdate crank make lockpicking feel genuinely tactile and satisfying?

The core mechanic is built around using the crank as a lockpick. I want every movement to feel deliberate and responsive, with enough tension and feedback that opening a lock is enjoyable on its own — not just something you do between upgrades.

It’s also an incremental game: you take jobs, crack different mechanisms, earn money, improve your tools, and gradually take on harder work.

The progression layer is still early, and the economy hasn’t had a deep balancing pass yet. Right now, I mostly want to understand whether the core mechanic feels good enough to carry a larger incremental loop.

I’d especially love to know:

• Does using the crank feel tactile and satisfying?
• Do successful actions and mistakes feel clear?
• Does the basic loop make you want to take one more job?
• Where did you become confused, frustrated, or bored?

Play it here: https://polyakovin.itch.io/locksmith

Feedback from actual Playdate hardware would be especially helpful, since the tactile feel is the whole point. Please be blunt — rough controls, unclear feedback, and “this just doesn’t feel good” are exactly what I need to hear.

I've been struggling to find a good light that works well with playdate. (I've currently got three different ones, including a necklight)

I just came over this: https://www.xteink.com/products/xteink-ereader-magnetic-reading-light

I wonder if this would work. It says it's magnetic, so with some luck it might cling on to the holes in the back of the playdate.

Has anyone tried this light?

I'm making this for myself as I wanted a PvZish game on the playdate - but leaning a bit more towards faster action - the game uses both the crank as well as a special 'shake device' event.

10 levels, one mini-boss, one final boss, fog mechanics, six defender types and six attacker, sound effects (some recorded by me on my phone), weather, endless mode with highscore table, etc.

Full disclosure: leaned heavily on AI for this but poking into the code myself more and more.
Fully free to download and potentially enjoy.

If there's any interest I'll throw it up at the end of the month as there's still a couple of weeks worth of work left - if not, I'll just battle vikings on my own :)

It took me way longer than expected, but I can finally show off some progress on my new game! Fire away with your comments… all welcome! Turn the sound on! - Pat
https://cranknockout.com
https://crankogames.com

It is name PlayMac, welcome to the test, you can find it here: https://irrwood.itch.io/playmac

More features will be added in the future.

• DJ turntable effect.
• On macOS, the adjustment display allows you to see the adjustment details clearly.
• On Playdate, there will be more playback interfaces, such as tape style and camcorder style. 
• On Playdate, there will be visual effects.
• Push messages to Playdate on Chrome.

This tool consists of two parts:

1. An installation package for Playdate;
2. A Bridge App installed on Mac, used to assist in controlling macOS media. The test version is unsigned, so you need to go to Settings > Security and open "Open Anyway". The macOS side of PlayMac is fully open source, allowing anyone to review its code, network communication, and permission usage to verify the app's security and privacy protection. https://github.com/irrwood/PlayMac

Are you folks still facing this issue? I don’t know what I could do, I read it was fixed, so any official way to fix this without wiping my data or avoiding a lot of shenanigans? It’s disappointing not being able to play it (1/2 days now)

Dig Dig Dino between watching matches!

I don't have a vast handheld collection but I do like the ones I have. I reflected on their use over the past month and this is how much, roughly, they got used in that time.

Devices:

• Ayaneo Pocket Ace: 50% - (Game: Slasher's Keep)
• Panic Playdate: 40% - (Game: Under the tree)
• Ayaneo Pocket Micro: 10% - (Game: Demolition Girl)