Flipnote Studio is an app for the Nintendo DSi game console where users can create flipbook-style animations with the touch screen, microphone, and cameras. These animations are called Flipnotes.

That would be me, James! But this wouldn't have been possible without a whole *bunch* of favours from very cool friends and members of the Flipnote and Playdate communities, you can find all of their names in the credits!

Little else has single-handedly fueled my penchant for making things quite as much as Flipnote Studio. In a roundabout way it was influencial in pushing me towards a creative career, so this app is a love-letter to a weird little animation tool that inspired me and many others.

It also just so happens that using the Playdate's crank to scroll through one of Kéké's animations is pretty fun!

It can't, sorry! The Playdate doesn't have a touchscreen, so I came to the conclusion that trying to create detailed animations on it wouldn't be very fun. However, Dustin Mierau's Playmaker might be up your alley!

Yes! I previously built a free web-based Flipnote player which can play animation files from both Flipnote Studio and Flipnote Studio 3D. There's also fan-made communities like Sudomemo where people are still actively posting Flipnotes!

Flipnote Studio 3D - the Nintendo 3DS sequel to Flipnote Studio - uses a much more complex animation format. I already had to use a lot of tricks just to get the DSi Flipnote format playing well on the Playdate, and I feel that the 3DS one might be too complex.

The Flipnote parsing and playback timing code needs to be compiled specifically for whatever platform the Playdate Simulator is running on. I decided to avoid that to save space, since the app is already quite big.

Maybe! You should follow me on Bluesky to keep up to date!