1-Bit Fantasy

JRPG prototype for Playdate by Brett Chalupa. Coded with Lua with maps made in Tiled. Inspired by Final Fantasy, SaGa, and Dragon Quest.

1-Bit Fantasy is public domain and aims to be a starting place for developers to make their own JRPGs. It's an example of how a non-trivial Playdate game in Lua can be structured.

Watch the play-through and code review to help you get started!

Download the latest build:

• itch.io
• GitHub Releases

Learn Playdate Development

Want to learn the fundamentals of game programming and how to build upon this prototype? Check out my book Makes Games for Playdate with Lua!

Built with Sunny.

State of the Prototype

The foundations of a JRPG are all present in the game:

• Maps
• NPCs
• Party members
• Turn-based combat

Where to Go From Here

If you want to build upon this prototype, here are some ideas for what you could add:

• Add spells
• Adding items
• Adding equipment
• Expanding the world
• More complex battle system like Bravely Default or adding ATB
• Job system like Final Fantasy V or Dragon Quext IX

Assets

• Monster Sprites: Hexany's Monster Menagerie (CC0)
• Map Sprites: Kenney's 1-Bit Pack (CC0)
• Gymnopedie No.1 MIDI: BitMidi
• Flight of the Bumblebee MIDI: BitMidi
• Clair De Lune Opus 46 Nr 1 MIDI: BitMidi
• Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Morning Mood MIDI: BitMidi
• Beethoven — Symphony No. 5, 4th Movement MIDI: BitMidi

Developing

Prerequisites

• Playdate SDK - developed against 3.0
• git
• Tiled - for editing maps
• Optional
  • tile_picker - to look at tiles
  • just - for convenient commands
  • Ruby - for release script
  • itch.io butler - if you want to release on itch.io

On macOS and Linux you can install all prerequisites via Homebrew by running:

brew bundle

Setup

After cloning, initialize the vendored submodules by running:

just setup

Reference

• Playdate SDK docs
• Designing for Playdate - best practices guide

License

1-Bit Fantasy is released into the public domain. See UNLICENSE for more details.