We cannot rebuild PlaydateSimulator, as we are not provided with its source code.
I tried using libs (libgtk-3, libgdk-pixbuf, libpng, libjpeg) from ubuntu 20.04 but could not get it to work either, libgdk-pixbuf seem tricky. My attempt failed approximately at the same place (libgdk-pixbuf trying to load an icon), but it failed in a slightly different way:
(PlaydateSimulator:40187): Gtk-WARNING **: 20:25:56.584: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.
**
Gtk:ERROR:../../../../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:494:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/16x16/status/image-missing.png: Fatal error reading PNG image file: Invalid IHDR data (gdk-pixbuf-error-quark, 0)
Bail out! Gtk:ERROR:../../../../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:494:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/16x16/status/image-missing.png: Fatal error reading PNG image file: Invalid IHDR data (gdk-pixbuf-error-quark, 0)
Aborted