Shadow Hop

You are a small shadow spirit: two white eyes in a black body. White light erases you, so you have to stay in the dark, hopping from shadow to shadow until you reach the door.

The trick is the sun. Turn the Playdate's crank and the sun moves across the sky. Every shadow swings, stretches and shrinks with it. Build a bridge out of shadow, or stand on one and let it carry you across the light.

HOW TO PLAY

- D-pad: aim

- Hold A to charge, release to jump. The ring shows where you will land: a dot means safe, an X means light.

- Crank: move the sun

- B: restart the level

- Menu button: restart level / level select

Anything that moves (a cloud, a car, a swinging tower shadow) carries you with it while you stand in its shadow.

WHAT'S INSIDE

- 10 short hand-made levels. Each one adds a single new idea (clouds, crank bridges, riding shadows, cars, keys, street lamps), and the later levels combine them.

- Par stars: clear a level in par jumps or fewer to earn its star. Can you collect all 10?

- Your progress and best scores are saved.

HOW TO INSTALL (SIDELOAD) ON PLAYDATE

1. Download ShadowHop.pdx.zip from this page. You don't need to unzip it.

2. Sign in at play.date and go to Account → Sideload (https://play.date/account/sideload). Your Playdate has to be registered to the same account.

3. Upload the zip file there.

4. On your Playdate, open the Game Library (Settings → Games on older system versions), refresh, and download Shadow Hop.

No Playdate? Unzip the file and open ShadowHop.pdx in the Playdate Simulator, which comes free with the Playdate SDK (https://play.date/dev). Developers can also send it to a device over USB from the Simulator's Device menu.

VERSION

1.3.1 (October 2026). Tested on Playdate hardware.

CREDITS

Design, direction and playtesting: Chan

Made with the Playdate SDK (Lua) by Panic. Text uses the Playdate system font.

No third-party art, music or code assets: all graphics are drawn and all sounds are synthesized by the game's own code.

Thanks to my GAMEDSGN 530 classmates at Duke University for playtesting.

AI DISCLOSURE

This game was made with the help of generative AI. The first prototype of the core mechanics was coded with OpenAI Codex. Later versions were programmed with Claude (Anthropic), which wrote most of the Lua code (mechanics, levels, sound and performance work) and the in-game hint text, suggested level layouts that I chose from and revised after playtesting, and helped draft this page. The concept, the choice of mechanics, the playtests and the design decisions are my own.