Unofficial mod transforms the Playdate into a charming robot pet

Although Panic paused development on its official Playdate charging dock, an enterprising character artist has swooped in with an open-source kit (via Gizmodo) that transforms the device into an interactive robot pet. PlayBot is Guillaume Loquin's name for the cute add-on, which anyone with the right know-how can build. Loquin, whose day job is as a character artist at Ubisoft, put those skills to use in bringing the device to life. Although it won't do anything crazy like have a chat, pop wheelies or play fetch, Loquin's video below shows it reacting to a wake-up tap, navigating around a corner and getting dizzy after spinning the Playdate's crank. The developer estimates 45 minutes of play per charge.