3D On The Playdate Handheld

The Playdate is a small handheld console with a dedicated fanbase. Among them is [Cristina Ramos], who recently decided to try and push the limits of the hardware by implementing a 3D renderer for the platform. [Cristina] began by implementing a raycaster.

This is a very simple way to do 3D on limited hardware, and this technique was used by some early games like Wolfenstein 3D. However, for [Cristina], it was more a test to get an idea of the performance limitations of the Playdate. After getting her feet wet with that, she stepped up to implementing a renderer that relied on binary space partitioning, which could load map files in the same format used by the classic Quake engine.

There was naturally plenty of work to do to handle things like texture mapping and lighting, too, particularly given the vagaries of working with the Playdate’s 1-bit monochrome screen. Using a simplistic, cel-shaded like approach for textures gave things a good look while preserving visual readability on the low-resolution screen. The 3D engine and associated game remain a work in progress for [Cristina] — we look forward to seeing where the project goes next.

We’ve seen similar projects on resource-limited platforms before, too. I was told you couldn't do 3D on the Playdate, so I did it.Then I was told there was no way I could create exterior levels like those in Mirror's Edge, so I proved them wrong again.

— Cristina Ramos (@saffroncr.bsky.social) 2026-07-22T08:57:09.

594Z