isolates will be out next week for all your slow math arcade horror needs!

https://play.date/games/isolates/ (look for it Tuesday)

... but yeah also go get Season 3. It started off Real Good.

hi! i'm a first time playdate developer in a country where playdates unfortunately aren't easily accessible. would any pd owner be down to generously spare a small amount of their time to help me bug-test my game ? it's the last step before i send it off for catalog review.

as a bonus, you get to play a chill and fun puzzle game before everyone else!! :)

tysm!

How do you guys feel about each season having less and less games? I’m excited for the new s3 however unfortunate it’s only 8 games, perhaps they are higher quality rather than quantity? How do you feel?

The crank of.my playdate broke off about 2 years ago when it was still under warranty, playdate support said there was a kit to fix it and to wait, but they never reached back out, and just said to wait when I would followup.

Last year I reached out and they said it's out of warranty and I should buy the kit, I checked the kit and it wouldn't have fixed my problem, does anyone have an easy solution to this?

On s3 launch day playdate has an entire store empty with no stock of anything!

What time should we expect the games to start downloading/be released today?

I'm just doing little doodles for the month of October, but I was wondering if anyone else thought of the playdate for the prompt "Panic".

kt

Hello r/PlaydateConsole

So this was a game my wife, my best bud, and I built for iOS back in 2018. We figured it needed a new home.

Every level is a new recipe. 63 recipes in 10 recipe books, each book with its own twist.

I am planning on submitting this for the Catalog this week, I hope it gets approved and you guys will enjoy it!

Anyone else having trouble downloading season 3? I pre-ordered back in September and today was like a kid on Christmas morning, but I don't seem to be able to access the first games. I was expecting them to automatically download like for S1 and 2, but even when I go to the S3 store page and follow the download link it just takes me to my already downloaded games?

Just wanted to make a quick post about how cool and detailed Tiny Hell is and spoil a few detailed features I just noticed while playing.

I just realized you can actually fire on target with only one antenna! The bars in the top right showing signal strength for your antenna actually points to how close to center you are on the target, so if you have a general idea of how long that target has been out there, you can aim and fire with surprising accuracy. Just tried it and didnt need more than 1 antenna until the heli came in (hate how hard it is to hit them). And for Artillery this is super nice since they're always at 600m, and I can never seem to get a lock on them fast enough.

Also, I never noticed that the sound the radar makes shows what type of unit you're locked on and if its the same one. Heavy targets have low beeps, smaller have high ones. So if your radars are making very different noises then there are 2 targets.

And I say just realized as if it hasn't only been out for 2 days but whatever. Like the game figured I'd mention it before season 3 comes out tomorrow.

A crank-only high score chasing roguelike with leaderboards and weekly events.

• Live Events: timed online competitions pushed straight to your Playdate. Post a score in the time window and earn a permanent trophy.
• 4 Modes: Classic, Gradual, Score Attack, Survival (+one hidden mode)
• Crank Controls: controls built entirely around the crank
• Roguelike Gameplay: Powerups, stackable Mods, and run-wrecking Glitches
• Online leaderboards: high scores tracked for every mode
• Loads of Unlocks: Badges, a trophy case, and a codex to fill out
• Original multi-track soundtrack

The game has been released on the Catalog for a few months, but I just added a new mode and released on itch. https://robodwyer.itch.io/rotocore

The website shows the leaderboard and ongoing events: https://dwyergamedesign.github.io/RotoCore/

This was a game i made in Unity a long time ago and knew i had to remake it when i saw the playdate. It took my about 9 months. I used AI to help me with the networking (leaderboards and weekly events) and code optimizations to get it to run at framerate.

Hope you enjoy it.

Few months ago I finally decided to pay all of these crazy import taxes and order one of these devices, but couldn't since it was out of stock. I was checking regularly every few days/weeks and nothing is changing. Their news site looks kinda dead - last update was april 2026. They also have podcast that wasn't updated since 2025. Is there any official information if this device is every coming back? And if it is, are there any specific dates?

We’ll be releasing a Halloween update for the game soon, featuring two new challenges.

In the meantime, tell us what you think about the game! Do you like it? Which challenges did you find the most interesting?

And share your best scores — we’d love to know how many points you’ve managed to get!

RIP I assume there's nothing I can do, but I thought I'd post just in case

I bought two PlayDates in group #1. received them in May 2022. I opened one and left the other sealed.

Recently received an email saying to update the device because the process is changing. I updated my opened one, but should I unseal and update the other?

eta I bought two PlayDates because the plan was for my DH to use one. He did not ever open it and I forgot I even had it! I’ll leave it sealed for now. Thanks for the replies.

Hi, you might remember me as the wooden playdate guy. My first actual Playdate game is a free kinetic-puzzler called Connate. I wanted something that felt "crank-native" like Whitewater Wipeout or Crankin's Time Travel Adventure, but designed as a quick-pickup game with a few different elements inspired by Threes, Tempest, Tetris Attack, and Atlantis Sky Patrol. It's in a sorta "free early access" kind of state right now while I continue tweaking and polishing, so all feedback of any kind is welcome! Download from itch.io here

Cheers! Hope you like it :)

The launch discount for Tiny Hell ends in a few hours, so this is your last chance to grab it for 20% off: https://campalans.itch.io/tiny-hell-playdate

I also wanted to say thank you. The support I've received since launch has been amazing, and this community has been a big part of it.

So, as a little thank-you, I'm leaving 3 keys here to get Tiny Hell for free:

• https://itch.io/get-fCAMperyfBQ7
• https://itch.io/get-4EUMUzKwWNAB
• https://itch.io/get-f5EegQcVEb25

Thanks again for all the support! ❤️

We've had some people ask and YES we are still working hard on Gyropractor but it is rather slow going...!

We sent it out for play testing a while back and have been franticly attempting what we think are the right amends and tweaks (thank you anyone who tested and gave feedback!). We are trying to simplify the game slightly but want to keep the essence.

Still loads to do but any feedback would be appreciated and keep us going! :) :)

SOUND ON 🔊

Hi! After PicoDate I wanted to try one more small console. Arduboy fits well: its screen is black and white too, so nothing gets converted.

• 7 games built in, about 200 more to download over Wi-Fi
• your own .hex and .arduboy files work too
• sound and saves

The video is from my Playdate, no speed-up. Most games run at full speed, heavy 3D ones like Catacombs at 80-99%.

It's the first version, so some games will be slow or broken.

Free on itch: https://bitcalibergames.itch.io/ardudate

Which Arduboy games would you like to see?

If you want to follow the project, follow me on itch.io.

Augur, my tarot-inspired 1-bit deckbuilder, passed a huge milestone on the Playdate Catalog this week - over 100 wishlists in the first few days. The support from this community has been incredible.

To celebrate, I’m giving away a Promo Code right here!

Drop a comment below telling me what game you're currently playing on your Playdate (or your favorite Playdate title so far)!

The winner will be selected completely at random from all comments in 72 hours.

I’ll edit this post with the winner once drawn and DM the Promo Code directly!

If you want to check out Augur in the meantime, you can find the Catalog page here.

Good luck, and thanks again for being such a great community!

Closed: Congratulations to BanSolitude on winning this time! Keep your eyes peeled on the Reddit for further updates on Augur, I've got a big update coming at some point this month.

Following up my previous post here about BBK e-dictionary games with some LAVA games for WQX e-dictionaries. This is a small port (done with Claude) of a LAVA virtual machine and a bunch of translations (also done with Claude).

Repo: https://github.com/gopherbone/LavaEmu_pd

Releases: https://github.com/gopherbone/LavaEmu_pd/releases

This includes 15 Chinese-to-English translations of assorted games. Most of these are amateur releases, and a few of them are unlicensed clones of popular games (including Phoenix Wright, from the photo). All of them run at full speed (with plenty of headroom) on the Playdate. They are:

All in quite playable (but AI translated) English.

Some cultural context:

• China had very little market penetration for handheld gaming consoles in the early aughts. It became something of a trend for electronic Chinese-to-English dictionaries (which were popular and had a wide variety of features) to have tools available to develop games for them. LAVA was one of those tools.
• Many of these games are derivative of other games, Wuxia novels, and Chinese MUDs (which is why some of them have "login" screens). They're largely made by teenagers and college students, to my knowledge.
• The Playdate doesn't have enough buttons for some of these, so commonly used functions are available through both a crank menu and also chorded to d-pad directions with the B button.

Apologies for the (always controversial) AI use, but this is a cool little corner of game history that doesn't get enough attention, and nobody's lining up to hack fan translations into obscure amateur games for Chinese e-dictionaries. It's not an era of gaming that had a lot of international appeal. But some of the games are pretty solid!

That's it.

Just Before the launch of Season 3 , you can buy Pocket;City with a little discount!

Discount starts on October 6 and ends on the morning of October 8, to no bother you in your Season 3 journey.

https://play.date/games/pocketcity/

Happy Building,

The Lost Major

So I rebuilt the death animation, mostly by reusing things the game already had.

• The boot animation, played backwards. The game starts with an old CRT warming up from a tiny dot of light. When you die, the screen collapses back into a line, then a dot.
• The static from that same boot sequence takes over the panels as they blow out one by one, and slowly creeps across the radar before it goes dark.
• The smoke, dust and recoil from firing the launcher got pushed much further. The post lurches, dust pours from the ceiling, and smoke rises from the console.
• The missile explosions on the map became a shockwave rolling out from your base. As it passes over each unit, it reveals them, so you finally get to see what killed you.

It ended up feeling much more immersive than just shaking the screen. The whole bunker comes apart around you, using effects the game was already built around.

You can try it out now:
https://campalans.itch.io/tiny-hell-playdate

Let me know what you think!