I will admit, I do kind of wish the official PlayDate had four buttons instead of just the two.
I am pleased it only has two.
That four button diamond on the clone doesn't look as comfortable.
I tend to prefer having two or six face buttons over having four. I've had very comfortable controllers with any number of buttons, but I generally find two button controllers are on average more comfortable then other controllers. Six buttons are nice because they let me play fighting games, but I'm not expecting a Street Fighter port on this, so two seems optimal.
I assume I'm in the minority on this, since four face buttons has been the standard for ages now.
My favorite four button controller is the Super Famicom controller, and even that one isn't really comfortable if a game wants me to hit A, B and Y regularly, like the Megaman X series does.
I think I can sum up the issues with this ā whether or not itās true, it feels like buying an iPod that only plays The Decemberists. Now, I really like the Decemberists, but I wouldnāt want all of the music in the world to be the Decemberists (or their friends!) (I am listening to Sufjan Stevens as I type this, so really ā I am the problem.)
I think the moment past the initial "cool" reveal where it became clear what this project "really" is put a bad taste in people's mouths, and @exodus already covered that rather well, but it lingers for me, particularly as I've seen like zero discussion of this thing or what I'd actually GET were it to materialize in the coming months.
I also know the pandemic exacerbates everything but another issue that's so daunting anymore regarding stuff like this and the Analogue Pocket (and SO much other stuff) is the "blink and you'll miss it" preorder windows. You need to make this decision to throw $200-300 bucks out your window at something without even an ability to really understand if it's going to be worth it, and that is kind of exhausting. Between things like LRG (and its clones) and board game Kickstarters and whatever all else, we live in this swirling mass of FOMO. I try not to let it get to me (and mostly succeed!) but it's tiring.
OK this is a funny thread because like everyone else I was about to type the obligatory "but hey if you like this I don't want to rain on your parade" but uh, this parade is VERY rainy.
To get things back on track (and because I am LAZY) does anybody know what GAMES are gonna be on this thing? I know Keita Takahashi was one of the signed-up devs. Anything else been revealed?
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@gyozaleaf#5197 Anything else been revealed?
A friend of mine ported Doom on the Playdate.
https://twitter.com/playdate/status/1293636196917055488
Originally they werenāt going to announce the games. They were only going to announce developers. The developers included Keita Takahashi, Bennett Foddy, and Chuck Jordan. They recently walked back from that position and announced they plan on revealing the season one games along with the release date. I kind of wish they hadnāt changed positions. I liked the idea of knowing who was making the games, instead of what games they were making.
I also hate āblink and youāll miss itā pre-order windows, and pre-ordering in general.
If this has pre-order shenannigans where you have to pre-order on day 1 of pre-orders and it doesn't ship for six months or more, then I won't get one. If they do a reasonable job of having them in stock at some point after it comes out, then I'll buy one. I want one, but I'm not 'afraid' of not getting one. If I don't get one, it's no big deal.
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@gyozaleaf#5197 it feels like buying an iPod that only plays The Decemberists. Now, I really like the Decemberists, but I wouldnāt want all of the music in the world to be the Decemberists (or their friends!)
I'd probably buy a nice Walkman that only played ŠŠ»ŃŃŠ½Ń.
Having a device with a limited scope doesn't exclude you from having other devices.
@Geoff#5205
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Having a device with a limited scope doesnāt exclude you from having other devices.
This is actually a great point. I think the original premise you describe is actually a nice one! But all of the problems with it soured people on it! The creators clearly see it as an adorable book of the month club for indie games and that's cute, but it's also an expensive device to put faith in and the whole Portland-ness (which I was trying to get at with the Decemberists analogy) is just kinda annoying (hence, like, Portlandia being a thing that makes sense!) This may be a thing that only bothers or makes sense to Americans of a certain cultural stripe and it's probably silly to even consider!
This thread actually reminded me I was initially really positive on this thing before I got really negative on it and now I'm just confused!
Yeah, I'm waffling in the middle of negative and positive because I want to see folks trying more things, I just wish they were more inclusive while doing it and less portlandy!!
Oh yeah, my one non-rich friend who's making a game for this now has a ko-fi to try to pay for their living expenses. so that's that!
@exodus#5264 Another point I should make is that I think there can be very cool things that get made that Iām glad that exist but that I still donāt especially want myself! I think itās a cool thing! Just not my exact kind of thing! But Iām excited on behalf of the folks who are excited for it!
@Geoff#5205 I'm also not a fan of the preorder feeding frenzy! I've been interested in getting in early on a bunch of things over the last few years that have had blink-and-you-miss-it preorder windows (often after talking up how there shouldn't be a shortage-- see the thread on the Analogue Pocket) that I'm pretty much just burned out on it overall.
@hellomrkearns#5154
That actually looks kinda nice, like a sleeker version of the (actually quite nice) LDK:
Curious about if itās running a variant of one of the open source operating systems for these things or one of the dodgier proprietary ones. If itās the former it might actually be worth the $20 they're asking for them.
@donrumata#5287 here's an AliExpress link for anyone interested.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_dXhGMRs
I like how they represented the emulator for the arcade with the King of Fighters 97 logo.
Here's the song they used to show it can play music,
Anyone here thinking about getting one of those Coolbaby Mini Handheld Game Players?
@Geoff#5309
Someone on a discord Iām in that tracks these kinds of handhelds ordered one but Iām not too optimistic about its chances of being an actually good handheld. Coolbaby doesnāt have a great reputation, although they might not actually be making this. The most recent thing Iāve seen from them is this though and it's got a lot going on.
@Geoff#5309 Oh damn, Dead Can Dance D:
Hollllllly smokers! lmfao.
Necro-bumping this with the new update from Panic, featuring some cool little GIFs of in-development games and stuff.
Poly's Roly Rumble seems cool, although I was slightly disappointed to realize that the rolling isn't controlled by the crank.
https://twitter.com/RNGParty/status/1296842756023820289
There's also a dungeon crawler in the works.
https://twitter.com/veubeke/status/1293216739111718913
There's a very cute little golf game for it and something that looks similar to No Brakes Valet, too. The big takeaway for me were:
Sounding pretty good imo.
I trust Caleb and Panic to deliver on at least a few seasons of interesting gamesā¦ but this should be compared to buying an LP set from an indie artist you really like. If it's the Magnetic Fields of games, I will be happy.
this thing is the NPR tote bag of video games
Necrobumping with the update stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeWGukDrc1U
After watching the update video I have to say the Pulp development tool looks really cool. I'm also curious to make music on it.