This guide is written on macOS Monterey (v12.3).

Here are instructions on setting up & running the most barebones app possible on macOS. There are probably better ways to do this, but here’s one way that works for me.

1. Download & install the SDK via https://play.date/dev/
   
   
2. Update your ~/.zshrc file with the following line:
   
   export PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH=/Users/rex/Developer/PlaydateSDK
   
   Obviously you want to replace “rex” with your username.
   
   
3. Create a new folder for your project (anywhere)
   mkdir playdate_hello_world
cd playdate_hello_world
   
   
4. Create a VS Code folder & settings file
   mkdir .vscode
touch .vscode/settings.json
   
   
5. Put the following into your new settings.json file. Make sure to replace the 2 instances of “rex” with your username
   
   {
"Lua.runtime.version": "Lua 5.4",
"Lua.diagnostics.disable": [
"undefined-global",
"lowercase-global"
],
"Lua.diagnostics.globals": [
"playdate",
"import"
],
"Lua.runtime.nonstandardSymbol": [
"+=",
"-=",
"*=",
"/="
],
"Lua.workspace.library": [
"/Users/rex/Developer/PlaydateSDK/CoreLibs"
],
"Lua.workspace.preloadFileSize": 1000,
"playdate.sdkPath": "/Users/rex/Developer/PlaydateSDK"
}
   
   (Apologies for the formatting. WordPress & code doesn’t mix well). You can copy & paste above (and make sure to replace the 2 “rex”s)
   
   
6. Create a simple file for your app
   mkdir source
touch source/main.lua

   Copy the following into main.lua:
   
   import "CoreLibs/object"
import "CoreLibs/graphics"
import "CoreLibs/sprites"
import "CoreLibs/timer"

function playdate.update()
print "Hello world"
end
   
   Obviously this code does not do very much. It’s super, super basic, but it compiles & runs!
   
   
7. Install the following VS Code extensions (sumneko.lua, jep-a.lua-plus, and Orta.playdate)
   
   
8. Run your app on the Playdate Simulator with VS Code.
   
   Press Cmd + Shift + P and select & run [Run app in Playdate simulator]
   
   
9. That’s it! Your app is now running on the Playdate sim. You can view print statements by using Window > Console.
   

For more comprehensive details, refer to the SDK documentation: https://sdk.play.date/1.10.0/

For the sample files discussed here, see repo: https://github.com/xta/playdate_hello_world