getting-started.md

Getting started

Prerequisite knowledge

This documentation assumes you're familiar with the following:

• Playdate Lua API
• Love2D
• Lua
• Github
• git

Dependencies

Required

Install the following dependencies:

• Latest Playdate SDK
• Lua 5.3+
  • NOTE: Playbit runs Lua via lua at the command line. Depending on your platform and installation method, you may need to rename the binary e.g. rename lua54.exe to lua.exe.
• Love2D 11.x

Add love.exe and lua.exe to your PATH variable

• Windows instructions
  • Check your installation with where love and where lua in a Command Prompt.
• macOS and Linux instructions
  • Check your installation with which love and which lua from the command line.

Optional

The following are not required for general use of Playbit, but required if you use the related features:

• Aseprite for .ASEPRITE export during build-time. For more information, see Aseprite file processor.
• FFmpeg for automatic conversion of audio to the Playdate supported format at build-time. For more information, see Wave file processor.

Setup your environment

1. Add the PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH to your environment variables. For more information, see Panic's documentation on how to set the Playdate SDK variable.
2. Add Lua to your Path environment variable.
3. Add Love2d to your Path environment variable.

If you're using any optional dependencies you'll also need to add them to your Path environment variable, unless you specify the path to the executable when setting up file processors.

Next steps

1. Read about Playbit's limitations
2. Learn about core concepts
3. Add Playbit to your project
4. Add metadata to your fonts
5. Configure build scripts
6. Build & run your project