Article on editing Pulp game metadata using the Playdate SDK

Pulp
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Some Pulp authors have asked how to add advanced features to their game, specifically around the game's presence on the Home Screen. SDK-based games can have animated launch cards and list view icons—what if you could bring those to a Pulp game?

I wrote a Help article describing how to edit a Pulp-generated .pdx bundle of your game to add some of these features. Read it here:

I hope you find it helpful!

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Hi Neven,

I was wondering if you could clarify something for me regarding compiling my Pulp game. I've read this article and the "Inside Playdate" manual, but I still do not understand this compiling step (#3). Obviously I am not a game developer by trade.

I've completed all of the other steps in this article: my PNGs are all in right place, the metadata edited, etc. I just don't know how to convert the files into .pdi/.pda. I'm using Windows if that matters.

Thank you so much!

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Your audio and video files will be converted when the game is "built" or compiled. This is what turns code files and other assets into a runnable game.

The procedure for doing so will depend largely on your setup. This is where we enter "desktop game development" territory :slightly_smiling_face:

Would a tutorial like this be of help? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ufxinp7No

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Thanks for your response.

I'm not sure if the video you linked is relevant to my situation. Maybe I wasn't clear. I have a Pulp game I am trying to add a custom title cards and icons that will appear on the Playdate home screen, rather than the default Pulp ones.

The "Editing Pulp game metadata" article under step 3, it says "In this step, the SDK does the conversion." My question is how. The "Inside Playdate" manual's compiling section mentions using the command line:

export PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH=<path to SDK>
$ pdc MyGameSource MyGame.pdx

Is this how I convert the files to pdi/pda?

Thanks again for your time and patience with me!

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The pic line you quote is generally the correct way to build a Playdate game.

Note that there's no specific, separate step to convert files to pdi/pda. This is all part of building a game, with the line above—when that is done by the compiler, assets are converted to pdi/pda (and other Playdate formats). You will then have those files to add to your Pulp game bundle.

If you go back to step 1 in my writeup, it has you create and build/compile a blank game. If you need more info on how to do that—it varies based on your OS and local environment—step back to Using the Playdate SDK.

This whole process has many steps, and it includes the installation and setup of the SDK. While you don't need to understand all the aspects of the SDK and use it to code Lua/C games, it'll need to be properly set up to build games. I realize this can seem like a lot :slightly_smiling_face: