Odin-Playdate

Up to date with Playdate SDK version 2.6

Odin-lang API bindings for the Playdate SDK, used to develop games for the Playdate handheld game system.

Additional features

• Custom allocator for Playdate memory allocations (new(), make(), etc should work as expected)
• Custom logger for Playdate logging system (core:log procedures should work as expected)

Prerequisites

1. Download the Playdate SDK for your development platform.
2. Make sure you have the PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH environment variable set to the directory you installed it to.

Creating a Playdate application

WIP - Expected to change

Export the Playdate event handler procedure:

@(export)
eventHandler :: proc "c" (pd_api: ^playdate.Api, event: playdate.System_Event, arg: u32) -> i32 {}

Create a context that uses the Playdate's allocator:

import "base:runtime"
import "playdate"
import "core:log"

global_ctx : runtime.Context

// Call on eventHandler .Init
my_init :: proc "contextless" (pd: ^playdate.Api) {
    global_ctx = playdate.playdate_context_create(pd)
}

// Call on eventHandler .Terminate
my_terminate :: proc "contextless" () {
    playdate.playdate_context_destroy(&global_ctx)
}


update :: proc "c" (user_data: rawptr) -> playdate.Update_Result {
    context = global_ctx

    my_slice := make([]string, 99) // allocates using pd.system.realloc
    delete(my_slice)

    log.info("Hellope") // logs to Playdate console

    return .Update_Display
}

From here, follow the official Playdate C guide for Game Initialization.

Compiling for the Playdate

WIP - Expected to change

Option A: Build scripts

1. Copy the build scripts from playdate/_scripts to the root directory of your project.
2. Add the directories out_sim and out_device to your .gitignore file.

Option B: Manual

1. Create an intermediate directory that the shared library will be compiled into, and an output directory, e.g. "./intermediate/" and "./out/"
2. Compile your Odin project into your intermediate directory as a shared library with no default allocators

odin build . -out=intermediate/pdex.dll -build-mode:shared -default-to-nil-allocator

3. Compile the intermediate directory using the Playdate Compiler, into your output directory

$PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH/bin/pdc intermediate/ out/Game_Name.pdx

4. Run the simulator with your game

$PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH/bin/PlaydateSimulator out/Game_Name.pdx

Note: if you don't need a temporary allocator or you need as much memory as possible, the following Odin build flags are available:

• -define:NO_PLAYDATE_TEMP_ALLOCATOR to not create a temporary allocator with playdate_context_create (you can provide your own later)
• -define:DEFAULT_TEMP_ALLOCATOR_BACKING_SIZE=<n_bytes> to resize the default temporary allocator arena (default: 4MB, with provided build script: 1MB)

Contributing

Please feel free to contribute! Here is the current implementation status of each API feature:

• ➕ Implemented
• ➖ Partially implemented (see Notes)
• ❌ Not implemented

Package	C bindings	Tests	Notes
display	➕	❌
file	➕	❌
graphics	➕	❌
json	➕	❌
lua	➕	❌
scoreboards	➕	❌	Only approved games can use Scoreboards API
sound	➕	❌
sprite	➕	❌
system	➕	❌