Is this more than just a gimmick? - Playdate

[@SquidGodDev]

I've been making games for the Playdate for the last 9 months now, and while I can say it's probably not for everyone, as a full-time software developer and game developer enthusiast, this thing is insanely fun to make games for. What's not super obvious is that there's a super fast iteration loop, where you can code something up and upload it directly to your Playdate to test it super easily. There are no words to describe how awesome it is to make a game and actually be able to test it on a piece of physical hardware so quickly. The processor is a little bit on the weaker end, but if you're smart with optimizing your code there's not much limit on how creative you can be with your games, as it has a full SDK that you can code in using Lua, or you can go down to C if you prefer/need more performance. Some super talented developers are working on some amazing stuff, so I'm really excited for the games coming on in the next year. Side note, I had the same idea at 5:36 and hacked a fishing game together. Can confirm using an accelerometer to cast a fishing line and reeling it in with the crank is very fun.

[@MsXynex]

i didnt read your stupidly long post. but your efforts are wasted and what your doing is not worthwhile

[@collinsey]

I checked out their SDK. I would be happy to understand how their game distribution works. Do developers release games to the public for free or do developers sell games to playdate so that they can push the games as updates on the next season ?

[@Cralax1Robot]

A game developer, a squid and a god

[@WaveGameStudios]

@@collinsey I know this is 7 months late, but the platform is open so developers can sell their games anywhere they like. Many opt to distribute via Itch, which is essentially an indie version of Steam. Some games are free, and others paid. There is also now the Playdate Catalog, which is an on-device store providing quite a bit of exposure. They take a small cut. Developers are permitted to sell via the Catalog, whilst also distributing elsewhere.

[@stormburn1]

@@collinsey Late update, but * They now have an on-device catalog/store where you can buy and download games directly after setting up payment for your account. * As before, devs can also release their games on Itch for both free and some price, you'd receive the game file, then upload it to your account and have it automatically be downloaded to your Playdate via wifi (alternatively, you could plug it in and transfer via usb). Based on price differences between Itch and Playdate listings, Playdate seems to take a standard 30% cut for games on their store (which is often still preferable for not needing to check Itch for manual game updates). They have yet to release or announce a proper new season, but have a lot of stuff developed for it (I think the catalog is at over 100 titles, with Itch having many more). I'm hoping for a new season soon (tm) seeing as they've finally caught up with pre-orders after ~50,000 units old.

[@Will-jd2br]

I was hoping that the crank could also charge the battery like an emergency radio.

[@tibor29]

Same. I'm disappointed now.

[@UyeGaming]

At first I thought that what this device was. Something you could play forever by just charging the battery with the crank

[@nickcampbell5626]

Same. Make that, get rich, and send me one.

[@EightPieceBox]

Those cranks have a lot of resistance which would be difficult for games and I imagine would add bulk to this tiny handheld.

[@firstdecade7703]

Rather than that, they should put solar panels (like on a calculator) on it.

[@silenceddd]

I love the aesthetic of the standby clock. It's a shame I'd never pay that much for a small desk clock but man it looks great.

[@TheSecondOne123]

Same. Super smart to make it look really nice, as it does add to the value for some (probably a lot of) people.

[@Bioniclema90]

yeah, I did a double-take when he said the price.That's insane

[@Scott-.]

I feel like this would be a great gift for someone like a video-game development student or something like that.

[@Daphoid]

100%. A tween/teen that's into this or wants to try their hand at it - this would be a great gift IMO.

[@rivix7546]

If this released when I was 13, learning Basic I would have been ALL over it.

[@Robstrap]

Could be the modern day scratch

[@Australiaisupsidedown]

At 180 no

[@SquirrelTheorist]

Absolutely, I love that it can be used to playtest games created on browser. Ended the 666 likes btw, it was too much.

[@WaveGameStudios]

Playdate developer here! This is a great overview of the system. It was touched on a little but the real beauty of Playdate (in our admittedly biased opinion) is the huge potential it has to be a home for indie games. There are a few on Itch already which rival the kind of games you’d have paid top dollar for on the Game Boy Advance, such as Tapeworm Disco Puzzle. I don’t think it’s a secret that a store is coming imminently.

[@ColonelNegative]

I had no idea about it, so may I suggest advertising?

[@paws27]

@@ColonelNegative Damn bro, why didn't they think of that?

[@spicesmuggler2452]

It doesnt have potential tho. Why would indie devs develop games for a niche console? They automatically limit themselves if they do.

[@EarnestWilliamsGeofferic]

@@spicesmuggler2452 That seems like nonsense to me. The Playdate is built on the STM32, like the Pebble was, and the API is *super* similar. Large chunks of porting the old games could be done programmatically. The 5:3 aspect resolution is interesting, it's the same as the old Ataris. Games, many of which, would do well on the Playdate. There have been WQVGA devices in the past, too. 3DS games were the same resolution, and the Playdate should be able to play them. It's also half the size of WVGA, so I imagine many games for those phones could be ported. Same for WXGA. Basically, the screen is not unusual. The device is powerful for what it needs to do. The API is not unusual. There's no reason to think that developing a game that could work on another small system, and could be played in black/white, wouldn't work. Obra Dinn, visual novels, old school RPGs, etc. Not to mention new games with retro styling that could take advantage of the crank.

[@jnonymous]

@@spicesmuggler2452 If you're first to a market needing content, then your game will get purchased regardless of whether it is good or not. It's low competition which is a perk, but what about the low player base? More than 10,000 Playdates have shipped as of June of this year and then sold more than 20,000 in July in the first 20 minutes of it becoming available. Even if half of that purchased your game at $5, you're still going to get $75,000. That's plenty to live off of even if you only make one game a year. I wouldn't rely on the income, but it's nothing to scoff at.

[@teebs90]

Neat little device. $179 seems insane though for what it is.

[@Daphoid]

Low yield device I bet. Hard to sell it for $70 if it costs $120 to make because they're only ordering 1000 from the manufacturer.

[@HerbaMachina]

@@Daphoid that could be solved by a Kickstarter though, even with 10k units that price to manufacture would go way down.

[@RedStripeMedia]

@@HerbaMachina this was a kickstarter a while ago

[@HearMeLearn]

@@RedStripeMedia yeah this device is “old” I’m surprised they’re just covering it now

[@jamesjohnXII]

I'd pay 50-70 dollars for it, if I had money And was allowed to set the proce for some reason

[@starrybook]

I think one of the reasons the price is so high is because the names working on it. One of the groups of people who helped is a synthesizer company called teenage engineering and they make some pretty high quality synths such as the OP-1 and the Pocket Operators. The other is an indie studio that made 2 REALLY good games. But then we also need to know that both these companies are releasing the API for free, you get 24 games from the start, AND you can make and share your own games for free. So in reality it's like paying for a physical version of a Pico8

[@shaunkellison1761]

“You wanna go on a date? You know… a play date console?? You wanna go on one of those?? Yeeaaa go on it while it’s in your hands yeeaaaa…” -Anthony’s first take they cut out

[@bevvyfischer4386]

why are all your comments on ltt so salty

[@TheRealWoofer]

He’s playin’, man. LTT as a whole is plenty salty 😂

[@infiniti4654]

I'm completely sure that some kids would absolutely love this. I spent hours on end typing on an old BASIC handheld computer when I was 12-13, just to giggle at basic games from the user manual. There's surely a kid nowadays who will spend hours on the web interface drawing and animating little shapes to upload them on his Playdate and show them to his family.

[@RobertHarnett]

As someone who has a Playdate and uses it regularly, aside from the obvious novelty appeal, what makes it really feel like something special is the lack of barrier to entry to start and play a game. With modern loading screens and hardware you really have to sit down and go ‘I want to play a game’ with this it’s literally seconds. I play it on the train to work, and when I’m at my stop I simply hit the lock button, no save, no pause, lock it , and put it in my pocket. Then on my way home from work, I just hit the lock button twice and I’m back in to where I was in less then a second. Ultimately the novelty and limitations is part of the appeal, it forces a unique breed of games that really have to behave and operate different to your traditional games. Also there is definitely a charm to new games randomly appearing on your device. I think people too often focus on pure function and capability in games and hardware, if that’s you then the Playdate is not for you. If you think devices can have something purely because the idea is fun, and not because it’s a revolutionary new way to experience games, then this is for you. If you see it and can instantly think of reasons it’s not for you, then this is very much not for you and you will only be disappointed, but if you view it and enjoy a novelty for the purpose of it being a novelty and think it’s quirks and limitations are interesting, then I think you’ll love it. It delights, it charms, it’s just pure fun.

[@obidean3964]

The product not really a problem, the price is ...

[@simhpl]

What do you mean it's good to go in seconds? As a dad of two little boys, the only good option for me is to be able to play in increments of minutes. But this is what I do on my 3DS, Switch and even steamdeck. They are also always at the ready... Assuming the battery is charged 🙂

[@CB-rv2lj]

you speak exactly like a commercial or a robot. congratulations.

[@simhpl]

I mean I think I get it, the idea (unfortunately not the price). But I also know it's not for me. I don't like simple, casual games to pass the time. I guess this is it. I don't play games to pass the time. I have to make time to play a game. But the device looks cool and I agree it does have an appeal 🙂

[@Freestylar]

Can confirm, this guy is not a bot. @Robert that playlist was "Chef's Kiss" Perfection.

[@nicknack125]

Been wanting to see a proper review of this thing for a while, glad to see one from y'all, especially with Anthony!

[@Aragubas]

same!

[@archetype2709]

Best guy for the job for sure!

[@DuckyDoGaming]

I would hardly call this a "proper review" this barely passes as first impression with less information than the promo videos for a product that has been in people's hands for many months already. I really wish they would've spent some actual time with it so we could have had an actual review

[@nonamebrand1633]

This is ShortCircuit. Hardly a proper review, much more an unboxing

[@Aragubas]

@@DuckyDoGaming same

[@sebastianjost]

Given the specs I expected this to be like $40-60. Then it would appeal to many retro game style enthusiasts as a very affordable and very portable additional console. But I understand how the low volume will drive up the price. Still hoped it was lower though. Especially since you could easily play those games on your phone if you had a suitable emulator.

[@playgroundsinc]

Problem is they payed a crap ton to indy devs to make games for it and now they have to make that money back on the consoles

[@dyscotopia]

Ah, yes, my s15 ultra pro max has a much higher refresh rate crank

[@Mark_LaCroix]

@@playgroundsinc No. It's that they can't harness the economies of scale that an established hardware manufacturer can, which would allow them to get components cheaper and pass on that savings to buyers. The fact is that they break about even on each console sold, and they're too small a company to sell hardware at a loss (like how Sony and Microsoft do).

[@LeftJoystick]

>the secs

[@vgamesx1]

@@Mark_LaCroix At least part of the problem appears to be their choice of parts, for example, I don't know a lot about it but the Cortex M7 appears to be rather expensive for the performance you're getting, I'm sure they have their reasons, but this could easily be made cheaper with cost-effective parts such as an off the shelf single board computer and sd cards cost almost nothing.

[@kolixq]

"The crank is not smooth, but its better than you might think for something that's yellow and plastic and not back lit." DAMNN.

[@13Sins]

Saw it one week, bought it from ebay the next week. No regrets, its such a great device to have in your bag and pull out whenever. Games are great. Support is great. There's a season 2 coming. SDK is also pretty fun, they have a great book on how to code for playdate with lua and C and if thats too much u can always use pulp. Definitely recommend.

[@Fastolph-]

"I really like it, I'm just not sure if I'll buy it" really sums up how I feel about the PlayDate ever since I heard of it. I want one, but mostly for the gimmick. The few hours of fun it'll give me make it hard to justify spending that much money.

[@PredictableEnigma]

I really like mine. Free games come out for it pretty often that you can sideload in.

[@Megabeans]

I know that the novelty of this is for how small and simple it is, but I would love to see a bigger version of this, still with the crank, a colour screen and backlight...it doesn't need to be the most powerful but dang would it be amazing!

[@kenshinbattousai374]

This is called a transflective display! You'll see it on older Garmin vivoactive watches, among other applications. It's super cool! Not the highest res, but quite decent colors, especially when backlit (compatible with the display layer) and very power efficient. The vivoactive 3 offered a mind blowing month of battery at max.

[@dyscotopia]

Came here to say this. It's not just some cheap LCD like implied. They spent a lot of time and money sourcing the screen. That said, they could have front lit it with some tiny LEDs without killing the aesthetic

[@Gigachad-hb7ji]

@@dyscotopia Even cheapo lcds are better than some illegible screen that only works under high levels of lighting

[@Xanthelei]

I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for a v2 of this thing, I think more games available, different color options and either a slightly lower price or a slightly beefier battery (to feel like I'm getting my money's worth) and I'd be super into it. This is completely pocket sized and the kind of thing I could see me pulling out over break or lunch at work if there were any pick-up-and-play type games on it. Very cool idea!

[@Pi22aPino]

You can already sideload more games into it.

[@Hot_Soupp]

If the price on this was 1/2 as much I would seriously consider picking one up. After watching a few reviews, it seems while the games themselves are often pretty simplistic, you can tell they're not shovelware garbage. Which was the complete opposite of what I was expecting. It's obvious the people developing the little games are passionate and know what they're doing. Makes me kinda sad the price is so steep for what is otherwise a fun little novelty system, even if the quality is very high. I'm extra sad as a programmer and hobbyist game dev. I could see myself having so much fun with developing small projects with this. I'm also about to start teaching my 12 year old nephew how to code, and I could imagine this would be such a cool tool in order to do that.

[@Movie_Games]

When this was announced, because of the steep price of $170, I just assumed the crank charged the device as well.

[@LeftJoystick]

Missed opportunity.

[@oliveoiI]

it’s not a “missed opportunity” LMAO a dynamo crank would make the system twice as heavy and be 100% worse to use for gameplay…

[@someweirdo9129]

@@oliveoiI at least it could justify the pricetag, imagine taking it on long camping trips where you dont have access to electricity, perfect use case for something so unbelievably niche and expensive, but nah, its just a stupid input method LMAO

[@SethIsTheBethst]

Only reason I’ve heard of it is because Lucas Pope (Papers Please, Obra Dinn), is developing a game for this thing.

[@RisingRevengeance]

I've been on the fence about this device for at least a year and I'm still not sure if it's worth it

[@nicknack125]

me too, I think waiting for more games or a price drop is the move for me, $179 is just too steep when I could get an Analogue Pocket for like $40 more

[@Michael-jn3kt]

well depending on which side of the fence you get off and when you'll have to wait another year+ because of the order backlog..

[@PhonePhone-sf8te]

buy a vita instead.

[@HarryPhillips1453]

Yeah this thing looks awesome but not at that price point.

[@RisingRevengeance]

@@PhonePhone-sf8te Already have a few

[@technichron]

In case anybody's wondering, the song in the game at 3:20 is If I'm Wrong by Home kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6OrdWmNp71shKM

[@PlaneAwesome]

I was so close to signing up to get one of these, so it's awesome to see Anthony take a look at it!

[@asa-punkatsouthvinland7145]

I heard in in an early review of the Playdate that they chose the B&W screen for retro aesthetic but that it actually was more expensive than a color screen would have been. If that is true it's kinda a strange choice in my opinion

[@ElizabethRS]

I absolutely love my PlayDate. It is really fun and cute, not to mention the games are surprisingly high quality and many are quite fun. I will regularly pick up my system to play some Whitewater Wipeout, which really utilizes the crank very well. Plus, there are some high tier developers working on games for the system, like Papers Please and Return of the Obra Dinn's devloper Lucas Pope. Bennet Foddy also made an incredibly difficult game for the system. And as it was mentioned in the video, it is really helpful that every unit is a devkit. I love the system very much, and I look forward to the system's future. As it stands, while it is expensive, I do not regret my purchase whatsoever.

[@googlewolly]

Glad that you like it. It's very niche, though. Definitely overpriced for your average consumer.

[@Gigachad-hb7ji]

The system will probably run out of games quickly. No developer wants to make games on terrible hardware that the masses can't even get their hands on

[@bbbbbbb51]

@@Gigachad-hb7ji quality over quantity is obviously the focus.

[@Gigachad-hb7ji]

@@bbbbbbb51 Big name studios can make better games than some crappy indie side hustle. The games in the playdate aren't even quality at the first place.

[@201hastings]

Lots of shill comments coming out of the woodwork.

[@ZenIsFluffy]

An Anthony vid is always a nice surprise :D

[@zilog1]

uwu

[@nishidohellhillsruler6731]

I honestly thought the crank was meant to recharge the battery, kinda like those emergency radios or flashlights. Which is not a bad idea, if you think about it.

[@Poluact]

If you think about the space and weight power generator would require - it's quite bad.

[@nishidohellhillsruler6731]

@@Poluact being heavy could be good for those of you who need to do more exercise. Advantages! Advantages!

[@darjanator]

So the crank doesn't charge the battery? That was my first thought when I saw it.

[@o4komodo]

My thought too. Like the crank LEDs. If it was crank to charge and play simultaneously that would've been cool and maybe worth the $180

[@RisingRevengeance]

It doesn't, that's what I first thought when I heard about it ages ago too

[@AlexMoffatPrime]

They said something about this actually. It would have to cost way more and also be way less fun to use.

[@TrimeshSZ]

I suspect that was the original plan, and the reason they picked that very expensive micropower memory-in-pixel LCD. Then as the development carried on the processor spec kept on being increased along with the memory sizes and the power budget exceeded what you could reasonably generate using the crank. Especially since they also had the idea that end-users could develop their own code for it - micropower platforms are generally frustrating things to work within the constraints of, and confronting a possibly novice developer with that sort of additional workload is very likely to end up annoying them.

[@kentslocum]

So now that they launched an on-board catalog of games and are working on the stereo dock, this game system has a bright future!

[@Johndoe-lx8sh]

Cool product, if it was sub 99$ it could do pretty well. I don’t see it doing much at the current price point.

[@donatj]

And that's where your wrong. Things been continually sold out

[@jomeyqmalone]

@@donatj that doesn't necessarily mean they're selling very many

[@VexingEnmity]

@@jomeyqmalone They sold more than 20k units.

[@sojourner4726]

And it comes with 24 games made by qualified developers. Each new user gets two games per week for 12 weeks. Say that the device only cost $90. Each game easily provides five dollars value.

[@Illuminationsfromtheattic]

I ordered one ages ago and am still waiting. Given the obvious demand, I think it would probably have been a better idea to produce at high volume and get it in stores at a lower price point. However, I can see why they chose the more cautious model since starting out they wouldn't have know if Playdate was going to takeoff.

[@Dygear]

A Cortex M7 @ 167MHz is actually pretty good. The M7 has a lot more instructions for complex operations that can happen in a single clock cycle unlike the M0, M3 chips.

[@felixman9691]

This is a sharp memory display just like from adafruit as far as I can tell.

[@ChrisCarlos64]

I like the looks of it and would get one, but more around $100 than $180

[@Jovanny_pcpp]

I was a mega early guy that bought one And tbh it's very dope Also about a game store They've been working on it for a while and hopefully it comes out in like January,I heard they're going to be selling only the best games from people that have been developing for it

[@perbox2123]

I agree its WAY expensive for the cost. $75-99 and I would have one but pushing $200 feels like a rip off

[@ninetendopesaitama2107]

Ordered an Analogue pocket for 185 $ + shipping. It has tons of value. This playdate is worth 20$ imo.

[@TheR00BIN]

The song at 3:15 is called "If I'm wrong" by "Home" They have a few very cool retro synth wave albums out.

[@kimberly4275]

Who wouldn't go on a playdate with Anthony

[@briannacluck5494]

I got my playdate a while ago, and very much enjoy it. Only thing missing is an in-console game store, but the itch games are easy to sideload and it fits my use-case perfectly - a cute little thing to tinker on and to load games on to to play for ~15 minute increments

[@chan4est]

Happy to see the Playdate covered here! I've had one pre-ordered since the day I found out about it since I want to get more into making simple games. I think it would be cool to bring to a friends house to show what I've made or let others tinker with. I also like the idea of it being a small desk ornament at my desk job as a software engineer - whenever they release the dock that is.

[@OfficialScottR]

The song at 3:14 is If I'm Wrong, by HOME

[@Narinjas]

For the price i will wait for a bit more expensive but "complete" version, that has a bigger battery , light , and other buttons maybe.

[@pierresakurai4812]

Steep price at 179...add 30$ and your in Analogue Pocket territory. A portable openFPGA cores (arcade, computers, consoles...) and gameboy/color/advance/gamegear/pcengine game cart player with an amazing screen. 99$ would have been a perfect price point!

[@BuzzaB77]

speaking of great platforms that encourage development, I'd love to see you cover Pico-8 the 'Fantasy Console'. its a very generous and cool project.

[@emberframe6994]

Saw this in German awhile ago, it looks very cool, it also has the ability to make and run your own games and add-ons which work with the console.

[@grhmhome]

I develop games for the system. Its very niche and fills that niche well. If you like retro indie games similar to the Gameboy then this is a wonderful console. If you aren't into retro indie games then you might not enjoy this console. Its very developer and beginner developer friendly. That is why I like it so much.

[@armLocalhost]

The display is Sharp Memory Display and they are awesome. They don't cost a lot to buy and have 30hz refresh rate and don't consume a lot of power, also, they have memory like EPD! So, it's almost like EPD display but with higher refresh rate.

[@jons6305]

you should be able to charge it through turning the hand crank

[@AllahDoesNotExist]

I thought that was the purpose, like the OLPC

[@hailcat7027]

I thought that's what it was for lol

[@Milamberinx]

My Playdate arrived about two weeks ago. It's very good, I'm expecting my next two games from season one today, but I have sideloaded a few freebies already. I'm a software developer so I'll have a go at making a game too.

[@hakes2]

The price is the problem for me, 75 maybe 100 would probably get me one then...great video

[@eiadithecoder620]

as a 13 year old who likes visiting what i missed out on who is trying to be a developer and loves surprises, this is a great device for me!!!

[@G0atR1d3r]

Playing "Settings" is literally the things LTT is most known for 😆

[@GeraldNunn]

I pre-ordered one for my son as it looks like something fun to code for. With the low-fi graphics I'm hoping it makes coding more accessible for folks who aren't artists.

[@Thebadbeaver9]

If this was like 79 dollars instead, I could see it. 179 is WAY too much for this.

[@enemyv]

How it gonna cost only $79 for manufacturing, R&D, support, marketing… you are comparing it to things that are mass manufactured and sold at a loss. This is a small indie company device.

[@timeimp]

NO WAY! I was not expecting an LTT video on the Playdate. Its an _excellent_ console.

[@GadgetAddict]

If only nintendo could make something like this, so that it would really take off. Designing games in the browser and then sharing them at school would have been amazing when I was a kid.

[@theoneonly9586]

I mean Mario builder is a thing

[@DiscipleOfMan]

Another epic review from Anthony and the LMG team, great stuff!. Anthony, is that your new sign-off? - "At the end of the day, it's your money"

[@sebastianapathy2716]

I thought for sure that the crank would be for manual charging

[@FluffyPuppyKasey]

3:25: Song is HOME's "If I'm Wrong" if you're interested, LMG team! I know David is

[@TheExcetto]

This video has gave me an idea LTT Plasters...

[@Berosta]

Am I the only one who thought that this would charge manually after seeing the thumbnail?

[@kuromiLayfe]

Feels like a cheaper alternative x-mass present you would buy for a younger nephew or niece.

[@aaronrobinson2121]

Yeah all except for the "cheaper" part. My son is working up to getting an actual old Gameboy so he can play the old Pokemon red/blue games, I could just see his disappointment now if I bought him something that cost 50% more and doesn't have those nostalgic games from the past.

[@wimberlytwins]

I mean, a date with Anthony wouldn't be that bad, I'd love to hear about the inner workings of retro game consoles

[@isaiahhonor991]

It might have been touched on, but I just want to say that as a developer, this thing is super great! The SDK is super nice and easy to use, similar to something like Pico8. They showed Pulp (the browser game maker) briefly, and it is a bit more limited, but still incredibly flexible!

[@arvs7356]

$199 (they hiked the price) is too much even for the free “seasonal” games. I also find it a bit overboard that most games for this thing is being sold at around $6-$10. The only saving grace for this would be the homebrew community. A cheap Anbernic/Retroid or a PS Vita will have tons more hours of fun at the same price.

[@Blaklyon0]

This looks like a cool device and, I would love to have one but, Panic is having distribution issues... So, there's no telling when This will become available for me to actually buy... Same problem with the gameshell...

[@chrisogrady28]

It's shocking that the crank doesn't charge the battery, even during gameplay, that way you could legit leave it in your bag and use it om the go and just not have to think about charging it. That's a big difference.

[@junyizou5943]

If you want to go on a play "date " with Anthony go buy it 😄

[@MsStephiy]

The backlight thing and the crank, when you spin it you move around the console, those are the biggest annoyances I have with it. Otherwise it's cute and fun

[@trbdann2]

Would be interested to see if any good games come out for it!

[@charthepirate]

So far some of them are pretty fun. I really like Bennet Foddy's zipper and Casual Birder.

[@liamsemicolon]

@@charthepirate damn you bennett foddy .....

[@ruffark]

With shipping and taxes to Europe Netherlands it will be around €285, that is almost 300 dollar. I hope they will setup a partner in EU in the future, so I can buy it for a lower price.

[@TheMrMarkW]

I ordered back in August and on the Wave 5 Pre-order so I'm destined to get one in early 2023 (they've pushed back production by a couple of months - when I ordered it was showing end 2022 but now spring 2023). Great review!

[@user-boxue]

man I can see myself buying that for my nephew's 10th birthday or something. And if I had one at that time I'd probably spend a whole summer developing a shitty monopoly-like racing game!

[@washaa]

3:59 these hot takes are what keeps us coming back

[@dangitnicky]

The Playdate feels like a Fischer-Price dev kit. A toy that is perfect for a budding game dev. I think it's a cute stocking stuffer. If you want pocket console a Miyoo Mini would give you way more mileage.

[@haaspaas2]

Who pays 180 for a stocking stuffer?

[@RichWhiteUM]

@@haaspaas2 My wife. She bought me a $180 Benchmade knife and put it in my stocking last year...

[@dangitnicky]

@@haaspaas2 I'm not a fan of purchasing cheap crap to fill stockings. Basically anything that has a small form factor usually goes in there. Small books, puzzles, art supplies, jewellery etc. Heck, the original stocking stuffer story had St. Nicholas stuff his host family's stockings with balls of gold.

[@nosville22]

I get the weirdest sense if Deja 'vu

[@sephirotic87]

So hipsters have ressurected as nerds? This is the most pointless pretentious tech I've ever seen. 180 usd dollars for this Back in the 90's we used to pay 20 bucks on those awful 1001 in 1 tetris handhelds. This is a hipster version of that. I give it at most, 30 bucks.

[@thrillhouse_vanhouten]

I got one, I'm 4 weeks in, and I'm enjoying it & the games being made for it very much. I love the variety of short, creative & fun games that can be played in short little sessions. If you're looking for a Switch or Steamdeck to play games, buy one of those instead.

[@VitorMach]

Pretty cool device, but this should be like $100 or so...

[@giuseppevgiordano]

A $100 is still too much, the rest of the world exist, in any other currency it's so much worse

[@VitorMach]

@@giuseppevgiordano yeah I'm Brazilian so I definitely know about that... Still, it's around the price of some budget retro portables like the Retroid Pocket so I still consider it a reasonable price given the uniqueness of this.

[@giuseppevgiordano]

@@VitorMach it looks cool and all, but it's $10 in hardware at most

[@beseakos]

I looked at the design and immediately knew it was teenage engineering. Their products are so awesome, god I wish I could afford them. I would practically kill for an OP-1.

[@zeta2209]

$179 is high, but the target audience for this wants those unique games and tinkering/developing possibilities. You can’t put a price on that. Also, Lucas Pope’s next game is on Playdate, and that’s worth every dollar.

[@brandonkey181]

Anthony what did you do to your fingers

[@Jonas-vx1mr]

I love the idea, I love the device and I also love the games. - What I don't love is that they are selling hardware that is worth less than 10$ for nearly 20x that price.

[@CodeNeonMC]

I mean, yes and no. Bigger companies could definitely sell this for drastically cheaper, but things get cheaper in bulk manufacturing. This isn't bulk, this is a niche product that would do great to sell more than 10,000-20,000 units. This has an included API that had to be developed as well. Realistically, the price IS the prohibitive factor here, but its not completely outlandish when you are talking a niche product that has to make its margins off a significantly smaller volume of sales. Again, don't get me wrong, the price is far too much on a market-wide scale. But, for what this product is meant to be, It makes more sense.

[@BrentBlueAllen]

I got some play time with one, got my fill, and sold it off at a slight profit (hardly any once eBay took its cut). The intro was the best part for me.

[@Toastmaster_5000]

Even $100 sounds a bit much for what's in this. You can get Cortex M7 boards for $20. I think if it were $75 for the device and $1 per game, it'd sell a lot better. It's too limited and too much of a novelty for that price point.

[@enemyv]

lol people are so skewed on how much things cost…

[@nicknack125]

@@enemyv ikr the cost makes sense for low volume + price of development for 24 games, on top of the chip shortage making it real hard to get Cortex M7 chips for a good price. It's still too much for me but I totally get the $179 price tag.

[@Toastmaster_5000]

​@@enemyv Says the one who doesn't actually know what these parts cost, especially if you've got direct access to vendors to mass produce. M7 SBC is $20. Battery can be bought for $4. Monochrome LCDs of higher pixel density can be bought for $4, though hard to know with something so reflective. Input controls probably close to $1; most going toward the crank. Case is probably worth pennies. Yup, that's $180 worth of hardware alright! /s

[@jarnobot]

@@Toastmaster_5000 There are so much more costs that go into a low volume device with custom games like these. It's not just some off the shelf parts and software thrown together.

[@ikbendusan]

@@Toastmaster_5000 ok now combine those hardware components into a product WHOOOPS now you have a bunch of overhead that is associated with running a company and it is reflected in the price ! ! !

[@TheGoukaruma]

Dunno what niche this should fill. You can play Minigames on your phone and you can buy a good retro game console for 100 dollars.

[@swankshire6939]

$179 is outrageous for something like this.

[@thegoldgatsby]

SquidGodDev has been a great channel for watching game dev content on the Playdate!

[@_mike]

For something you can build yourself for like $30, it's way too expensive.

[@pokemonbeing3283]

Then how come nobody has released a cheaper version when the sdk is free lol

[@AnityEx]

Can you though? The device sells a customized experience not just bare hardware, I'm not defending the price, but saying "you can build that" I don't think so

[@_mike]

@@pokemonbeing3283 well, it's a very niche market. They probably won't sell a lot.

[@_mike]

@@AnityEx I can, but I tend to go overboard with the specs, so I would probably exceed the cost haha. And well, I would most likely go with the emulators, since I'm not that into what they are offering, but it would be a totally different product then. You don't even have to be very knowledgeable about electronics nowadays. My first RPi project was a Switch-like emulator, and I was completely green back then.

[@oo0024]

Someone should make an OG Pokémon clone for this thing

[@LMacNeill]

One of the biggest challenges writing games (or any app, really) back in the '80s (when I was a teenager and first learning programming) was the fact that RAM, storage, and CPU power were all so limited. This thing -- and I 100% agree with Anthony when he calls it "charming" -- could be *hella* fun precisely *because* of its limitations. You'd have to figure out how to fit what you want to do into those severely (by modern standards, anyway) limited resources. What a fun challenge!! I'd be interested in it just for that alone -- the fact that its SDK is 100% free, and that you'd have to get pretty "old school" in your programming style to fit everything in there. Neat!!

[@the_echoYT]

If you really wanna toy around with making a Playdate game, there's nothing stopping you. You don't even need to buy one. There's a free Playdate simulator so you can make and test games with the SDK without ever touching the actual device. And if you need on-device testing, there's a dedicated section for it in the community Discord server (as well as a number of dev channels and resources).

[@thunderpeel2001]

The fact that Lucas Pope's next game is exclusive to PlayDate is not insignificant

[@bobbyhinner3225]

Seeing the ads I didn't think I'd want one, but it's super cute and charming. The price seems kinds steep but I have this weird like for reflective screens and little niche game things. Making my own games seems super cool as well

[@Respectable_Username]

Oh I think my friend has one of those! Showed it off briefly when the group went on holiday recently

[@Neoxon619]

Yeah, not that kind of date. Emily’s already happily married.

[@noenken]

0:22 Isn't that called pre-ordering then? I mean you shell out first and get the games later, right?

[@skipbreakfast]

Panic used to make the best Mac software in the late 90s. In fact, Steve Jobs tried to buy them and they refused. Glad to see they're still around and innovating.

[@meinnase]

I really thought this was gonna be a "crank to charge" kinda device, idk how feaseable that would be, but with these kind of low specs and for casual games youre only gonna play for like 10 minutes at a time it might even work

[@ubacow7109]

The OS for it is so amazingly designed. I honestly love the way the OS interacts