Playdate chat thread | Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Mars after Midnight)

Yeah they're still working through the preorders, currently finishing group 3 (orders 20k-30k) and with groups 4 and 5 to go afaik. They're getting quicker but it's still a long way from general availability.

rinks wrote:RKN - just a suggestion - have you tried removing the shading/pattern from inside the text, so it pops a bit more? Might stand out more in a storefront situation.

Yeah it's definitely a consideration, I quite like the texturing for the in-game title screen and the launch card but I may use a higher res cleaner logo for the store page!

PostRe: Playdate - the REAL Switch Pro by **jawa_** » Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:04 pm

OrangeRKN wrote:(Playdate owner)

Hey, Orange, I think you've had the Playdate for about six months now... what is your verdict from a hardware perspective? Perhaps there are aspects you really like? Any things you're maybe not so keen on or that could be improved?

PostRe: Playdate - the REAL Switch Pro by **jawa_** » Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:29 pm

To someone not really familiar with PlayDate, the scene seems to be very quiet. I just checked out the main PlayDate website and the "news" section has stuff from April last year and then August last year (an offer which ran for a week and expired early in September). I'd kinda thought that Panic would be really pushing the boat out with news updates... but seemingly not.

Fake edit: I did some digging and Playdate's Twitter account (@playdate) publishes far more frequent updates. Excellent, I'll take a look at the recent news!

There's plenty going on in the scene! Panic themselves are still concentrating on getting through the preorders, but they're also soon launching Catalog which is going to be the official storefront for non-season games. Currently itch.io is the defacto place for sideloaded games and there are 410 games tagged "playdate".

The Playdate Community Awards show was a really well put together event from December which did a great job of highlighting some of the best games from the Playdate's first year. I got asked to be one of the judges and it was very cool to be involved!

Tiny Yellow Machine has just started a Playdate news show too, the summary is in the description and gives an idea to what's going on in the scene:

In a similar vein there is a podcast called Hello Playdate that highlights new releases. There's an official podcast too which has been concentrating more on the season one games and devs.

jawa_ wrote:Hey, Orange, I think you've had the Playdate for about six months now... what is your verdict from a hardware perspective? Perhaps there are aspects you really like? Any things you're maybe not so keen on or that could be improved?

I'm impressed with the hardware overall! It feels suitably premium. The screen and the crank are the two most notable aspects of it and both are great - the screen is super crisp while the crank feels solid with a satisfying amount of resistance. The console has crashed on me a few times but nothing that wasn't easily fixed. I don't have much else to say really - it's an oddball handheld and I'm down with that! Having a backlight would be an obvious improvement but it's not a dealbreaker for me.

PostRe: Playdate - the REAL Switch Pro by **jawa_** » Sun Feb 05, 2023 9:06 am

OrangeRKN wrote:There's plenty going on in the scene!...

Orange, thanks for sharing the info, dude. I've been looking over it and, yeah, I do like the enthusiasm; there are clearly plenty of folk passionate about the system and developing for it.

I'm interested enough that I'm looking further into the system. I've stumbled across @SquidGodDev who makes regular Playdate vids. I'm gonna go explore more, too!

Interesting read about the limited global availability of the console, especially that it is manufactured in Malaysia but not available there: https://www.theverge.com/23581099/playd ... h-malaysia

twitter.com/playdate/status/1631340327205314588

PostRe: Playdate - the REAL Switch Pro by **jawa_** » Tue Mar 07, 2023 6:51 pm

An on-device store - called Catalog - is now available for Playdate!

Eurogamer wrote:Catalog, which Playdate creator Panic describes as a "boutique digital on-device and web based storefront", arrives today and marks something of a departure for the company, which has so far only distributed Playdate games through a seasonal release model.

With the arrival of Catalog, however, players can purchase individual titles on-demand either directly from their Playdate or via the Catalog website.

Unfortunately the cost of the system is increasing, though.

Eurogamer wrote:Panic has announced it'll be increasing the price of Playdate from $179 USD to $199 starting on 7th April. "That $20 delta," the company explains, "is largely because our factory recently gave us the inevitable news that in 2023, the price of building a single Playdate is going up."

twitter.com/playdate/status/1633155286801473536

PostRe: Playdate - the REAL Switch Pro by **rinks** » Tue Mar 07, 2023 7:01 pm

Some of those prices seem... optimistic. Tapeworm Disco Puzzle is great, though.

Dat $20 delta :datass:

jawa_ wrote:An on-device store - called Catalog - is now available for Playdate!

Oh yeah! Thanks for the nudge!

PostRe: Playdate - the REAL Switch Pro by **jawa_** » Tue Mar 07, 2023 8:26 pm

chanticleer wrote:Oh yeah! Thanks for the nudge!...

Hehe! Amazing stuff, chanticleer - a cool shot featuring the Playdate, the new Catalog *and* my image

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Eurogamer wrote:Panic has announced it'll be increasing the price of Playdate from $179 USD to $199 starting on 7th April. "That $20 delta," the company explains, "is largely because our factory recently gave us the inevitable news that in 2023, the price of building a single Playdate is going up."

I don't run a manufacturing facility, but I honestly believe they should be looking to build more than one at a time at this point. The demand is clearly there and this is just generating artificial scarcity, which in turn only ever benefits scalpers.

By employing assembly process that can be employed in parallel to one another, I think they could make significant savings.

It's an exciting update! Two new free games and some cool new ones otherwise, as well as seeing some games that I have already played getting on the store. A few made in Pulp too which makes me optimistic about submitting Resonant Tale to it once done!

EDIT: Oh and jawa - catalog has shop music :toot:

OrangeRKN wrote:...optimistic about submitting Resonant Tale to it once done!...

I'm looking forward to seeing Resonant Tale arrive in the shop, Orange. Please don't launch with three editions or have a battle pass

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OrangeRKN wrote:EDIT: Oh and jawa - catalog has shop music

... All the best online game stores play music :toot:

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I finally released my first playdate game, Daedalus Versus Minotaur, on Itch!

It's simplistic but I think fun, and was a challenge to get performing acceptably in Pulp (the in-browser editor that is meant for little top-down adventure games). I really wanted to get something finished and released ahead of Resonant Tale so that I can iron out all of the problems now and give that game the best chance when it does release. For example Itch won't immediately search index the first paid-for game someone releases until it gets a manual review, so getting that out of the way with this game will mean instant search indexing for Resonant Tale (and that's why I have the game set up as paid with a free demo rather than pay-what-you-want).

OrangeRKN wrote:I finally released my first playdate game, Daedalus Versus Minotaur, on Itch!...

Orange! I'm so dang pleased to see that you have a game out on the Playdate store, dude! Tremendously well done indeed!

I watched the vid and it looks to be a cool and fun idea. I had to look Daedalus up to check what (who) it was, though :oops:

. Spoiler for dummies like me: Daedalus was , in Greek mythology, a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix.

I hope that the game is very successful and I'm excited to see what you produce next :-)

.

jawa_ wrote:I had to look Daedalus up to check what (who) it was, though . Spoiler for dummies like me: Daedalus was , in Greek mythology, a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix.

More relevant is that he built the labyrinth that housed the Minotaur.

Hang on, why are we spoilering ancient mythology?!

Nice work, RKN.

YouTube

That's a really cute and clever game, cool gooseberry fool!

rinks wrote:Hang on, why are we spoilering ancient mythology?!

Thanks guys :toot:

Playdate chat thread | Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Mars after Midnight)

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