Panic paused development on the official Playdate charging dock, but an enterprising character artist has swooped in with an open source kit (via Gizmodo) that turns the device into an interactive robot pet.
Playbot is the name of a cute addon by Guillaume Loquin that anyone with the right know-how can build. (For those without the know-how, don’t be shocked if you eventually see others selling their builds on platforms like Etsy.) Two wheels, a motor, a microcontroller, a 3D printed built in a built-in housing and leverages Playdate’s built-in features. Equipped with an accelerometer, microphone, and sensors, it turns your indie game console into an attractive desktop companion.
Guillaume Roquin / YouTube
Loquin’s day job is as a character artist at Ubisoft, and he used those skills to bring the device to life. He told Engadget that the console stood out as a unique creative canvas. “I fell in love with the Playdate console, its unique form factor, and the SDK developed by Panic,” he said. “And of course, its unique crank makes it a great platform to explore new possibilities.”
“Like many others, I initially wanted to build a charging dock for the Playdate,” says Loquin. “So I thought, why not add wheels to it?” Having worked in the video game industry for many years, I enjoy combining my gaming expertise with robotics. ” His previous projects include wheeled robots (apart from Playdate) and a bipedal humanoid robot that would look right at home in a Tim Burton movie.
Playbots don’t do crazy things like chatter, do wheelies, or play fetch, but Loquin’s video below shows them reacting to wake-up taps, turning corners, and cranking playdates. He is shown feeling dizzy after spinning the . You can also run around the desk, avoiding obstacles and plummeting off the edge.
The developers estimate that you can play for 45 minutes on a single charge. When you’re not playing with your device (in game console or robot form), the RoboDock charges your console.
Roquin told Engadget that he started the project in June. He said that while the hardware phase of development was relatively quick, the software was more of a sticking point. “Software development turned out to be much more complex than expected as the robot uses three different codebases: C++ for the microcontroller, Lua for the Playdate application, and exporting the animations from Blender. Python,” he said. “These three programs need to talk to each other, which requires a significant amount of code for the individual developer.” Also, documenting and formatting the project for open source release I also realized that it took longer than I expected.
Loquin said he would like to see someone build their own Playbot someday. “Then all these efforts will be worth it,” he said. The developer provides 3D printing instructions, companion app code, and firmware for the Teensy 4.1 microcontroller on GitHub.
Updated, December 17, 2024, 2:44 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a quote and background from the developer.
