Player wiki

Questions and answers

The questions that actually get asked, with the answers that are actually true — including the one about saves, which has an unpleasant surprise in it.

Where does my save live, and can I lose it?

Your save lives in the console's Data/ folder, in a directory named after the game's bundle id. Renaming the .pdx file does not touch it — only the bundle id names that folder, and it is frozen by a test precisely so nobody changes it by accident.

If you played for hours and a new install starts you at zero, that is almost certainly what happened. The fix is to install the same way every time. Moving a run between profiles is a file copy, best done with a backup of both.

Which version am I running?

It is always on the home screen, in the corner, and again in the settings. It is read from the bundle, never typed into the code, so it cannot lie. This matters because a sideloaded Playdate game has no automatic updates: nothing tells you a new version exists except the game itself and the devlog. What's new is on What's new, and inside the game under NEW STUFF — which reads from the build, so it works offline and on first launch.

What languages does the game speak?

6, completely: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian — 1203 strings each, with no gaps. English is the default. You can change it from the Playdate system menu and from inside the game, and the choice is saved with the rest of your progress. The Playdate system itself only knows about English and Japanese, so the game never guesses your language from the console — it asks.

What are gift codes?

Codes like CRNK-GOLD-2X7Q, typed on the console keyboard from the settings screen. They unlock cosmetic things: a skin, a palette, a sound pack, a title.

• Nothing a code unlocks touches the balance. Ever. It would make records incomparable.
• Codes are checked for typos offline and instantly — the last character is a checksum — but a real redemption goes to the server. Offline, it queues and retries at the next launch.
• Once granted, the unlock is written into your save and never depends on anything again.

Do I need to be online?

No. The whole game is playable with no connection at all. The network is used for optional things only — sending a crash report, checking whether a newer version exists, redeeming a gift code — and none of them ever blocks a screen or a run. Nothing personal is ever sent. No nickname, no typed text, no IP: the only identifier is the console's own pseudonymous id.

The game shows as a black rectangle in Trophy Case

That was a real bug, reported by a player, and it is fixed. Trophy Case draws a black block when a game does not declare an icon and a card for itself. CRANKWORKS declares both, and a test now checks they exist, have the right dimensions, and carry no alpha channel — so it cannot come back silently.

Is ZEN mode for beginners?

No — it is a different game with its own records. It cannot overheat, and it pays ×0.85 for that. Plenty of long runs are played in ZEN on purpose: the heat gauge is the thing that asks you to keep watching, and some sessions are not for watching.