32blit

A cross-platform C++ API for building games, that was born out of the magnificent 32blit console

The Hardware

The 32blit was an adorable handheld console, from the folks atPimoroni.

With a surprisingly powerful processor, a beautiful (and generously sized!) screen, all the controls you could want and what has become a very well polished toolchain, it’s comfortably the best thing I’ve ever backed on Kickstarter.

Sadly, the latest news is that the device has been discontinued; it’s too hard and too expensive to get the parts and assemble them, so it’s just not commercially viable. More people should own one, and it’s a crying shame that it’s been discontinued (although I completely understand why).

The Software

The 32blit toolchain makes it easy to build to Windows, MacOS, Linux and browser targets - this makes development a lot easier, and I always try to publish at least desktop versions, but the focus for me remains the real, physical device.

The ecosystem is so good, that happily it outlives the hardware in the form of a powerful, flexible multi-platform API that obviously supports the 32blit itself but also it’s little brother the PicoSystem, a slowly growing pile of other (mostly RP2040-based) hardware projects and, of course, all the main desktops.

The Community

A combination of conversations on the official 32blit Discord and the very kind donation of the perfect domain name, BlitHub was born as a community repository for games.

Future plans include supporting the PicoSystem as well as the 32blit and other platforms too, and lots of other cool features but it has a lot in common with my other 32blit-based projects so lives in a permanent state of part-finished.