Playdate launched two years ago and is still tiny and yellow with a black and white screen and an adorable crank on the side. Today, the device has a built-in library of more than 100 titles, none of which are Call of Duty, Dark Souls, The Last of Us, or any other mainstream big-budget game – and that’s exactly what makes it so damn charming. The community that has sprung up around this palm hero is vibrant and creative, and scrolling through the Playdate tags on itch.io or github feels like you’re hanging out in a friendly underground clubhouse where crazy Video game geeks live.
It’s less disturbing than it sounds, I promise.
However, Playdate has actually gotten cuter and more relevant as she’s gotten older. Fire watch Publisher Panic and hardware studio Teenage Engineering introduced the device in February 2019, pitching it as a sub-$200 handheld with a monochromatic screen, a crank, and seasonal free games. Pre-orders for Playdate opened in July 2021 and deliveries were expected to begin at the end of the year. However, in November, Panic was discovered on its production line and the company was forced to change suppliers and postpone the release. Playdate officially landed in gamers’ hands in April 2022, and overall reviewers found it to be .
Playdate comes with 4GB of flash storage and 24 free games Crankin’s time travel adventure from Keita Takahashi’s studio Uvula and zipper by Bennett Foddy. Playdate has also always supported sideloading, meaning it’s easy to load titles from and other distribution sites onto the device. In March 2023, the Playdate catalog went live, offering a curated selection of 16 games for purchase. Panic also increased Playdate’s price from $179 to $199 at that time, citing rising manufacturing costs.
Today, Panic has sold around 70,000 Playdates and its catalog includes over 100 games, with more being added regularly. Panic hosted and headlined a software show in February a Playdate exclusive project by Papers, please And Return of the Dinn plant Creator Lucas Pope. Mars after midnight came out on March 12th and Playdate had one that week, as did an adult store.
Two years after release, it’s clear that there is no one formula for a Playdate game. , for example, turns the Playdate on its side and uses the crank as a helicopter-style rotor to turn the propeller cap of a demon trapped in a gothic tower. Cranking controls this horned fellow as he slices through flying enemies, dropping chunks of flesh and bone from the narrow frame. And then there are titles like , a simple but addictive letter-moving game that I would recommend to all Wordle fans. Playdate supports first-person shooters, detective mysteries, bullet hells, shoot-em-ups, puzzle games, RPGs, pocket pets, rhythm situations, action-adventures, racing simulations and all sorts of subgenres, including some that were invented just for the platform.
Across Playdate’s interface and games, the crank transforms into hundreds of different tools. There are the standard iterations like “crank to scroll” and “crank to buy,” but there’s also “crank” to pour a drink, “crank” to fly, “crank” to fish, “crank” to spin a record , “Crank” to build a city, “Crank” to control time, “Crank to”. crank, crank survive. Literally every game on Playdate reveals a new use case for the crank or helps demonstrate the absurd level of detail possible on a 400 x 240 1-bit display. Many games do both – and Mars after midnight Is one of them.
As a being in charge of a common room in a Martian colony, Mars after midnight Players crank up an observation window and identify the correct aliens for each session, while also providing snacks, cleaning up with two long tentacles, and planning future support groups. Players use the crank to open and close the room’s peephole, but the game also fully features Playdate’s A and B buttons, d-pad, and speaker, allowing new mechanics to be deployed at a steady pace. The game is full of adorable, clumsy aliens and cartoonishly cute set pieces, and even introduces an entire language.
Like the vast majority of Playdate games, Mars after midnight doesn’t feel like a scaled down version of a larger idea; It should just be a bland, crank-driven experience.
I encountered a persistent problem with Playdate, and when I first tested it in 2022, I didn’t think it would be a big problem. The lack of backlighting in the display is noticeable and occasionally annoying, especially in poorly lit rooms. I often tilt the screen toward a window or lamp nearby and the device is next to unplayable on a dark plane or bus or with no light source after sunset. If you remember trying to play an original Game Boy in the backseat of your parents’ car at night, waiting for the streetlights to periodically flicker past the window, it’s much the same. There’s a touch of nostalgia here, but mostly it’s just a bit frustrating.
Playdate’s biggest problem, however, might be its stereo dock. Panic introduced the Stereo Dock in mid-2021 – it’s a truly adorable charging stand, Bluetooth speaker and pen holder that matches the pleasant yellow tone of Playdate. I’ve been wanting to put one on my desk since it was announced, but the Stereo Dock has been “coming soon” for two years.
It’s really still coming, Playdate project lead Greg Maletic told Engadget.
“We apologize to everyone with a playdate who has been patiently waiting for the Stereo Dock. It was a more difficult project than we expected and we had a few false starts,” Maletic said. “We thought we would save some time on this project” by having our factory create the software for the Stereo Dock, but we learned that in some cases you don’t necessarily want that, we have the physical prototypes to do it to prove We’ll officially let you know when you’ll be able to buy one later this year.
If the worst thing about Playdate is the fact that people can’t get enough of it, then it sounds like things are going well. The device has not experienced widespread recalls or hardware issues, its sales offering is growing, the development pipeline is long, and people are still interested in buying it (and one day the Stereo Dock).
With Playdate, Panic has created a new group of curious gaming enthusiasts and provided a platform for innovation that will impact all areas of development. Playdate is a simple, small slot machine with a single spin – a crank – and has sparked creativity in the indie scene in its first two years on the market. By reducing graphics and adding a new input method, Playdate is changing the way we think about how games are played and created. With many of the industry’s most influential studios caught in a cycle of mass layoffs and regular crises, it’s a fantastic time to rethink what we’re all doing here. Playdate makes this process natural, accessible and fun.
A device like Playdate is no accident. I wouldn’t worry about revisiting this thing two years after release if it was underpowered, too complicated, or frivolous, but that’s not a fun gimmick from a company on a press tour. The sense of elegance, care and proper prioritization makes Playdate a blank canvas for so many different types of game development. Playdate is a little yellow inspiration machine; It is a physical reset button for the entire industry. Actually I suspect it’s a reset crank.
Come on, turn it over. It is so much fun.