ShortOut (Playdate)
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ShortOut is a falling-block puzzle for Playdate. Blocks with wires fall into a well between two walls (+ on the left, − on the right). You lay the pieces so one wire runs wall to wall, the circuit closes, and two presses of B send a spark through it and burn it out — everything above falls into the gap. Bigger circuits score more; lamps double the score; chains kick in when a burn drops a new circuit into place.
Pieces are single wires with two or three ends that plug into any wired block they touch. A ghost shows the landing spot and flags "closes!" when a drop would complete a circuit. Stack over the line and it's Fuse blown — unless a circuit is already closed, in which case you get three seconds of Last Spark. Special blocks include lamps, pale (unwired) blocks, scrap, rails and plugs.
Modes: Endless on Easy, Normal or Hard (speed settles after an early ramp; later levels add pale blocks and scrap rather than more speed; Continue resumes a left run), plus 500 missions across 50 chapters and 5 acts (each mission is solver-checked). Local top-5 tables per difficulty, and optional online all-time tables per Endless difficulty via CrankBoard and Talo (opt-in; offline scores send later). It was published on itch.io on 5 Nov 2026 as name-your-own-price (suggested $1.99 per itch data.json; Download Now / min price $0).
Who made it
BitCaliberGames, per the itch.io page (also behind MonoTanks for Playdate). Sound effects credited from Pixabay (SoundShelfStudio, mikeaveloo, Mrstokes302, Universfield, FxProSound, EdR, freesound_community). Online scores: CrankBoard and Talo.
What others are saying
No coverage yet: we found no press or reviews. This overview is built from the game's own itch.io page.
Callout (?): No review yet. We haven't reviewed ShortOut yet. This page is an overview built from the developer's own itch.io page.
Sources
Checked 6 Nov 2026. Times on itch.io are shown in UTC.
- Official itch.io page (description, modes, controls, credits, tags, size, dates, AI disclosure). https://bitcalibergames.itch.io/shortout
- itch.io data.json (price $0.00, suggested_price $1.99, screenshots). https://bitcalibergames.itch.io/shortout/data.json
Not yet reviewed.
No score. This page is built from official and press sources.
Close the circuit, spark, burn: a falling-block puzzle with Endless modes, 500 missions and online high scores.