Now we’re smokin
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Hello fellow playdate enjoyers. I had a great time with my recent play-through of The Fall of Elena Temple. The gradual introduction of new mechanics and greater complexity kept it interesting. Puzzlers are definitely an area where the console shines.
I only wish it were a bit longer…
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New game from me. One button high score chaser with a bunch of modes and secrets.
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That’s a fun game!
There was a Playdate showcase yesterday that had some new games on it that looked neat. Office Chair Curling was the stand out one for me, in so much as it made me audibly laugh out loud.
Panic also announced another sale that’s running for a couple of weeks. I picked up a bunch of stuff from it but I tend to find myself gravitating to word or maths games for some reason. They also briefly repped itch.io as somewhere to get games so at least they’re not obliviously protective of anything other than their own store.
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Some news about my game YOYOZO (previously recipient of a GOTY 2023 from Ars Technica) is that it has been nominated for another award (a surprise to me; I never submit my games to awards!)
Best Indie Game Made in the North of England 2024 Award
I mean, you could vote for Worms Armageddon, or Broken Sword, or Thank Goodness You’re Here, …but I think you really want to vote for my game YOYOZO for Playdate 
Cheers!
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Sadly just learned that the stereo dock is no longer expected to happen as they couldn’t get the final product working right. That’s a shame, it would have been a cool thing to keep on a desk at work and maybe have some relaxing tunes playing when working late.
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I just picked up a used Playdate and trying out some of the Season 1 games.
So far I’m really enjoying Whitewater Wipeout the most!
Crankin’s time travel adventure is pretty fun but I don’t like the (domestic?) violence at the end of each level… Kinda gross…
Some of the games have kind of way too wordy and flowery intros that lose me before the game even starts (Esp on a device like this, I just kinda want straight to the point, quick, fun games.)
Liking the device a lot so far tho and looking forward to digging deeper into the library of existing games
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You might find it interesting that the game is autobiographical, allegedly. Crankin is Keita Takahashi and the lady is his former boss at Funomena. So, erm, yeah.
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A friend of mine sent me his Playdate as a little gift since he wasn’t using it. So generous! I’ve been enjoying playing games on it over the last few months. It’s super chill and really at its best when outside in natural light.
I was curious about how to make games for Playdate, and it turns out it’s really developer-friendly. You just install the free Playdate SDK and plug in your console to your computer to load your game on it. The SDK uses Lua, which is quite approachable. And the API Panic provides is really quite nice and thoughtful.
As I’ve been dabbling and learning, I noticed there are a few video tutorials on YouTube but basically no written resources on how to make games for Playdate in Lua. So while the babies have been asleep, I’ve been writing a book on just that!
It’s in Early Access right now and about 1/3 of the way done. Each chapter is its own project, with the complexity increasing each chapter and concepts building upon one another. In a bit of a surprise, it’s already sold 26 copies in the first week of Early Access! Kind of neat and exciting to see the support.
The first non-trivial project is a Pong like game where you control the paddle with the crank:
Then ya code up clock with a custom font. 
The chapter I just finished this morning is how to code Snake with high-score tracking and the ability to reset it.
The book is sliding scale price. There’s a free sample of the book with the Pong chapter titled Tennis if anyone wants to check it out. If you have a Playdate and are interested in coding games, I think it’s a great place to get started. The SDK is free to download even if you don’t have a Playdate, as it comes with a Simulator you can run your game on.
Gonna keep writing the book and making little games and apps for Playdate. Got a few ideas for what I want to cover: sokoban, a simple 2D platformer, a Pomodoro timer, minimalistic Vampire Survivors, and some others that’ll be good for learning.
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This is great and kinda what I think I needed to get started!! I’ve been tinkering with Pulp which is really cool, but so limited compared to what this machine can actually do. I decently know my way around lua, but really didn’t know how to get started applying it to playdate, so I’m really excited about this! Thank you!!
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I recently picked up my playdate for the first time in a couple of months and installed Mars After Midnight. It’s a great example of the quirky-game-with-cool-artwork-for-when-you-have-10mins-to-kill genre at which the Playdate excels.
The premise is charming and the artwork really shines on the console’s excellent display.
I know a lot of people want a backlight, and I appreciate that would make it more versatile. But there is some magic that happens when the ultra-crisp screen catches the light that would be totally lost.
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Pleased about the news that season 2 is confirmed, I recall in the podcast Frank lamenting that, due to the staggered shipping, Playdate wasn’t this kind of shared experience of thousands of people all getting the weekly games at the same time. With season 2 that dream will hopefully be realised!
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Oh, I didn’t even realise that had been announced. I ended up in the second batch of playdate orders and was a bit disappointed at the thought of not getting the games at the same time as everyone else, but in the end, it was fine. The game-a-week thing was still a lot of fun.
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I’m one of the folks who wants a backlight (cough cough, aging eyesight) but I got a head lamp for when I can’t get the light just right in bed, and that’s been wild.
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I released my first game for Playdate, it’s a free version of Snake called PDSnake:
While it may seem a bit trivial/basic/unoriginal, it was a good learning project! And there wasn’t a no-frills Snake version I could find for Playdate. Now there is. 
The code is public domain to help anyone learn who wants a decent starting place with scene switching and structured code.
Major learnings so far:
- The Playdate SDK is quite simple and nice. It’s like a little bit bigger Pico-8
- I’m enjoying writing Lua
- The community of Playdate players and developers is awesome and supportive, kind of nice! I guess you’d expect that for a premium weird handheld
- I have lots of ideas for games I want to make for Playdate that aren’t trivial clones, but gotta learn some more
If you have one of those little yellow bricks, give the ole PDSnake a try and let me know what you think! My latest high score is 45.
I’ve continued to write the book that I shared earlier in this topic. Sales are at around 60 copies! Pretty awesome. I realized though that I needed to do some deeper learning myself as I got beyond the basics. I’ve been trying to publish new updates monthly.
Now that PDSnake is done, I’m going to make some other small, simple, free, open source games. Got a whole honking list of ideas. A Barbuta clone might be what I’m most excited about. Or a platformer inspired by 1001 Spikes with two separate jump buttons.
I have two Dream Games for Playdate:
- A Mystery Dungeon Roguelike, inspired by Shiren GB and Cave Noire
- A JRPG the scope of Dragon Quest 1 on NES
Playdate doesn’t really have either of those done to my liking yet. And I want to make them. I can do this! Gotta build up to it.
I guess the obvious 3rd game would be a Pokemon-inspired game. I want one. Anyone who grew up playing them wants one on Playdate. Maybe??? I also was thinking I’d just make a slice of it, open source it, and see if anyone wants to collaborate on it.
My intent is to port my non-trivial Playdate games to PC eventually. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
I’ve been playing a lot of Playdate games lately for reference and fun, figured I’d share what I’m enjoying.
- Sketch. Share. Solve. - great picross version
- Move & Match - limited-turn puzzle solving, perfect fit for the device IMO
- Binary Dungeon - roguelike where you can only move right and down, carving your path through the board. interesting concept. well done. hasn’t fully clicked yet where I’m like Heck Yeah but very intrigued
- Summit - Slow Celeste, basically. More plodding platformer but nice and polished
- Xtris - fast-paced twitch game, reminds me of Super Hexagon in a way, just sort of challenging fun
Also, I have been playing Bennet Foddy’s Zipper from Season 1 quite a bit. I haven’t played most of Season 1, idk why, something about them scare me a lil. But I love Zipper. I found it hard to understand at first. But once the gameplay clicked, everything came together. Really like its atmosphere.
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Congrats on the release! I will try it this weekend and report back. Also been meaning to pick up your book.
If I can carve out some time for it, I wanted to build off of GitHub - SquidGodDev/untitled-roguelike: Broughlike for the Playdate for 7DRL and maybe trying to produce that open slice to invite collaboration is a good enough goal!
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Regarding backlight, I think the Playdate has bigger problems.
Every summer I get my NGPC out and have an amazing time despite the lack of back light. I only play it in the park.
I tried the same thing with the playdate but so many of the games were obviously not designed for this screen. Tiny fonts, thin pixel art, and generally artwork that seems like it was intended for a monitor.
Also, the battery on the playdate sucks at holding its charge. This is a crime for a handheld. I still have my Playdate with the broken face buttons. I should probably sell it.
Would you buy an upgraded Playdate with light?
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Just sideloaded, will check out in the morning!
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