Programming the Panic Playdate in Lua

Have you ever wanted to develop programs for the Panic Playdate handheld game device, but didn’t know where to start? I looked for a book about this and didn’t find one, so I wrote one. The Lua programming language may be new to some, so the book includes 10 simple examples to get the reader started. Included are brief sections on setting up the Playdate SDK, compiling programs, side loading programs, and 15 programs that make use of the Playdate crank, draw sprites, play music, use fonts, and use tile maps. Included are 5 games from simple ball bouncing games, to 2 player games like 4-in-a-row and Tic-Tac-Toe, and 2 tile map games. The tile map games include a pellet chasing maze game and a side scrolling treasure hunt game. The Playdate hardware is not necessary since the simulator can be used, so you can learn to write programs and later buy the device.