Art Resources

This page lists resources that are available to help you with developing games on Playdate, both paid and free. It focuses on Art resources. More resources can be found at Developer Resources.

Sites

• https://jspaint.app/ - Online art program
• https://www.piskelapp.com/ - Online art program
• https://avatarmaker.com/ - Online portrait maker
• https://kaasiand.cool/tophat/ - For creating fonts for PlayDate
• https://dev.playdate.store/tools/gfxp/ - in-browser pattern editor

Various 1-bit conversion tools:

• https://kaasiand.cool/oven/
• https://www.pixelicious.xyz/
• https://potch.me/demos/playdither/
• https://29a.ch/ditherlicious/
• https://gazs.github.io/canvas-atkinson-dither/

Tutorials

• https://saint11.org/blog/pixel-art-tutorials/
• https://pixelparmesan.com/fundamentals-of-isometric-pixel-art/
• https://c6y.github.io/tilix-reference/

Programs

• BitCam - paid; a one-bit camera for iPhones
• PixelBasher - paid, a "kitbashing" program
• dotpict - free; for iPhone and Android
• OneBitDitherTool - free - PC
• Pixen - free with paid options; for Mac and iPad
  • Article on using Pixen to create Playdate graphics
• aesprite - paid - multiple platforms - the "gold standard" of pixel art programs.
  • https://twitter.com/Gogolitus/status/1634596725045198850?t=dwcjGHKH7IhUw0_LxkCQ8Q&s=19 add-on for Aseprite; dithering brushes.
  • https://noesteryo.itch.io/aseprite-isometric-guidelines add-on for Aseprite; isometric guidelines
  • https://github.com/dzuk-mutant/playdate-palette add-on for Aseprite; a playdate pallete.

Assets

A variety of assets available for use.

A lot more can be found at https://itch.io/game-assets/tag-1-bit , but here are some commonly used ones.

Fonts

• http://www.pentacom.jp/pentacom/bitfontmaker2/gallery/ - Online font-maker; has various bitmap fonts.
• https://kaasiand.cool/tophat/ - Converts font files into Playdate font format
• https://gingerbeardman.itch.io/st-din-playdate-font - Ready-to-use Playdate fonts
• https://crabaret.itch.io/8x8-fonts-for-playdate-pulp - two fonts for Pulp development

User Interface

• https://andelrodis.itch.io/1-bit-game-ui-pack
• https://minalien.itch.io/playdate-16px-input-icons
• https://kenney.nl/assets/1-bit-input-prompts-pixel-16

Tile Sets

• https://winglesspenny64.itch.io/playdate-platformer-tileset - Useful for platformers

Music

• https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html
• https://musmus.main.jp/
• https://onemansymphony.bandcamp.com/

Misc

• https://jayjay99.itch.io/1-bit-portraits - Portraits