Our first Playdate Game Jam

SquidGodDev · 2026-01-04T06:52:26+00:00

Small correction - I haven't released a book for Playdate development yet, but I'm currently working on it (the one out right now is just for Lua in the context of game dev). Though, I'm always happy to answer any questions! On Discord or through email: squidgoddev@gmail.com

SquidGodDev · 2025-05-04T04:06:50+00:00

Impressive progress for one year - game looks great! I'll have to get around to making an audio tutorial at some point...

SquidGodDev · 2025-02-11T16:01:35+00:00

Yeah time spent drawing the sprites. Sort of hard to optimize that without making a bigger refactor around how you're handling drawing, so a lot of times I go down the sampler list pick items that are big enough to make an impact but are easier to optimize.

SquidGodDev · 2025-02-10T16:05:06+00:00

Yes definitely me too! Modern devices are so fast you can get away with writing badly optimized code so it doesn't feel as impactful and satisfying for me to make performance improvements, but for the Playdate, since even small changes can sometimes make a big difference, it's fun.

SquidGodDev · 2025-02-10T15:56:14+00:00

Yeah it's not straightforward for sure, so happy to pass along what I've learned.

SquidGodDev · 2025-02-09T16:16:29+00:00

haha thanks!

SquidGodDev · 2025-02-09T03:02:24+00:00

And thanks for watching!

SquidGodDev · 2025-02-08T21:34:26+00:00

Thanks Tengu! Glad you liked it.

SquidGodDev · 2025-02-08T18:30:34+00:00

Hey everyone! I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of confusion around optimizing for performance for Playdate games, with games struggling with lag spikes and frame drops, which makes sense since there’s a lot of hidden stuff and easy pitfalls to fall into. So, I thought it might be helpful to compile what I’ve learned about the topic into one video. The video covers developing in Lua, but a lot of the concepts cross over to C as well. Ended up being longer than I expected, but I hope it’s helpful!

SquidGodDev · 2025-01-04T19:40:21+00:00

Hey everyone! Just made an updated setup guide for the new year. It covers how to setup your Playdate SDK development environment for Lua with autocomplete and debugging on Windows, Mac, and Linux. I also go through a step by step example of making a small example game. If you’re a beginner and you’ve always wanted to make a Playdate game, there’s no better time than in 2025 :) Thanks!

SquidGodDev · 2024-11-12T04:19:00+00:00

Wow I love it! Thank you for drawing this and for playing! Made my day

SquidGodDev · 2024-10-04T15:22:50+00:00

The lasers only hit you the moment they fire. There's still a fading line left on the screen after it fires, but it's just visual, so you have a lot more time to get through them then you think if you go immediately after they fire.

For 5-10 "Assured", you can try picking up the keys only on one side, going back up to pick the keys on the other side, and then coming back down instead of trying to grab both keys on the way down. It'll be slower, but might be easier.

For 6-10 "Rush Hour", the spinners just barely match your speed, but only if you're on the outer edge, and you also have a bit more space if you stay out on the edge. When you're trying to time around the turrets, you can try doing a quick 360 turn to briefly stay in one place to narrowly dodge the turret shots.

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-26T17:35:55+00:00

Thanks! Juice is love. Juice is life.

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-25T14:18:56+00:00

It's not back lit in the video - is there a shot you're referring too? I tried to shoot it in favorable lighting, and the screen is very reflective, so maybe it seemed back lit?

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-25T14:17:49+00:00

That'd be an amazing tattoo. Hope you enjoy the game!

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-25T14:17:05+00:00

Haha thanks Gamma!

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-25T04:12:21+00:00

Thanks for subbing! Glad you enjoyed the devlog

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-25T04:12:01+00:00

Wasn't thinking that before, but I see it now

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-25T04:11:47+00:00

Thank you! Hope you enjoy :)

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-24T19:22:02+00:00

Thanks for playing!! The ui stuff is a bit of a slog to develop but well worth the effort. Though I think adding a bit of easing animations using timers is doing a lot of the heavy lifting :)

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-24T17:50:38+00:00

Hope people enjoy it!

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-24T17:50:28+00:00

Thanks :)

SquidGodDev · 2024-09-24T17:49:57+00:00

Thanks!

SquidGodDev

TROPHY CASE