12 ms·
Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System
- ninjakeyboard 7y agoTeenage Engineering make really cool stuff too! :)
- slantyyz 7y agoIt would be cool if the crank was also used to charge the device's battery.
- stOneskull 7y agothat's what i thought it was for, and then maybe it could be used to charge something else with crank-power through usb
- chaostheory 7y agoYeah same here. I'm not sure I really buy it as control mechanism for playing though.
- snazz 7y agoIt looks uncomfortable to spin the crank while using the other controls, which means you’d want it to be used exclusively if at all.
- monk_e_boy 7y agoIt looks so dumb. I wonder who they are marketing this at? Not your typical Fortnite / CS / Wow gamer. I love indie games and experimental story telling, but $150 for 12 games, and one of them uses a crank... not buying it. Sorry. $50 on steam gets me a whole lot of weird, and I got a ton left to invest in a case of craft beer to enjoy along with it.
- joezydeco 7y agoThen you do you. But you don’t have to be a buzzkill about it.
- kkarakk 7y agoit's not even accurate - nintendo labo has shown there is a market for high spec high quality non standard games(as long as there is an assurance of quality behind it) biggest hurdle for playdate is word of mouth - nintendo has that trust, i don't trust the company behind this. Same reason that android console failed - hell nvidia couldn't get enough support behind it
- eridius 7y agoI trust Panic. They have an extremely long history of producing really high-quality Mac software, and they published Firewatch (which was excellent).
- kkarakk 7y agoPanic is, ironically, a "moral panic" type of company. When e-culture shifts, they shift their policy accordingly. I would not trust them for stability.
- eridius 7y agoWhat do you mean by this? What has Panic shifted on? The only example I can think of where they've shifted on anything is they released Transmit for iOS, then after a while they discontinued it, and that's because it simply wasn't making enough money for them to justify the cost of maintenance.
- joezydeco 7y agoI don't see Panic approaching this as a "console" and looking for outside platform support. This is more like ten $15 Game-and-Watches bundled together. If they offer more games after the fact that's cool, but at this price point I think most customers will love it for what it is.
- ddingus 7y agoThere was a great fishing mini game in one of the N64 Zelda titles. This crank would have ruled.
- hombre_fatal 7y agoI had one of those dedicated fishing games back in the day with a crappy LCD display and a crank. Played it to death. https://i.imgur.com/tdESids.jpg https://i.imgur.com/tdESids.jpg
- pvg 7y agoThe Dreamcast had a game and controller to go with it. https://i.imgur.com/6AGrtRy.jpg https://i.imgur.com/6AGrtRy.jpg
- ddingus 7y agoAhh, the Dreamcast. I love those consoles. Recently picked up one basically new. It's archived for the grandkids, along with some 8 bit machines and a six switch Atari VCS (2600). In a few years, we are going to revisit the golden era again, and it's going to be as fun as it was last time.
- ddingus 7y agoI've seen those things. Had no idea they were that engaging.
- bredren 7y agoThe Digital Crown on Apple Watch is a thing though. I’m ready to give it the benefit of doubt.
- cududa 7y agoMost apps don’t use it and Watch OS 2 introduced the ability to scroll with your finger instead of the crown, since no one was using it
- unicornfinder 7y agoI'm surprised you say that - I have an Apple Watch and I genuinely love the ability to scroll with the crown - I don't block the display with my finger and I get tactile feedback.
- xondono 7y agoI’m more concerned with how long this thing is going to last.
- chaostheory 7y agoI view it more as a collectible art piece that you can interact with.
- kokojie 7y agoYeah, if the crank charged the device, it would have been an instant buy for me.
- jonshariat 7y agoDitto. Missed opportunity to charge while you interact. Imagine if the buttons also squeezed out charge as you hit them. Would be a fun concept.
- gameswithgo 7y agoit wouldn't be a meaningful amount of charge. same with solar panels on electric cars.
- muthdra 7y agoNot a meaningful amount of charge from gameplay, I agree. But it could have a "charging mode" where the screen goes off and you just turn the crank for 5-10 minutes to get a substantial charge because it already has the hardware thingie built-in.
- revax 7y agoYou overestimate how much energy you get from cranking
- cududa 7y agoTell that to the Boeing 737 Max geniuses that included a handcrank to restart the engines.
- yedpodtrzitko 7y agoThe crank looks a bit delicate for this purpose and I can imagine its lifetime would dramatically decrease for no real benefit.
- Reedx 7y agoThat was my first thought as well. But would it actually be practical? Anyone have an educated guess as to how much cranking it'd take to get 30 minutes of play time?
- marcinzm 7y agoApparently the issue is torque for such things, the OLPC was originally going to have a crank but the force was too much for the laptop body to take long term.
- samplatt 7y agoOLPC would have needed a lot more power than this device, plus due to its small size the whole thing could be machined aluminium. Especially if there's games that utilise the mechanic. could just have a much lower torque (and therefore lower-current-generation) since it's going to be used a lot. Missed opportunity.
- acomjean 7y agoThey need to put a handle on it. Then it could be like those handheld fishing games. https://www.amazon.com/Radica-Games-Bass-Fishing-Handheld/dp/B000TG7QJ8/ https://www.amazon.com/Radica-Games-Bass-Fishing-Handheld/dp...
- sethish 7y agoIt was removed because it wasn't going to generate enough power without cranking it constantly. And the ergonomics weren't great for kids. They did end up making an add-on crank at one point, but I don't think it ever was widely distributed
- war1025 7y agoIs OLPC still around? I feel like I haven't heard much of anything about it for quite a few years. Maybe at this point it's supplanted by smartphones?
- wayanon 7y agoI thought at first that was the only reason to have the crank.
- bufferoverflow 7y agoWould not work very well, you can only produce a few watts of power with a crank. And I bet it consumes tens of watts of power.
- _bxg1 7y agoI personally love weird single-purpose hardware. Unfortunately it tends not to do very well commercially. Anybody remember this guy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiReader https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiReader
- minimaxir 7y agoIf we're talking single-purpose gaming devices that failed, there's always the Gizmondo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmondo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmondo I don't think Panic is involved in organized crime, though.
- kawsper 7y agoGizmondo is such a crazy story, LazyGameReviews did a 30 minute video about them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv6UaHZxUys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv6UaHZxUys
- HeWhoLurksLate 7y agoAnd now I know what a Ferrari Enzo is. Yeesh. https://www.xkcd.com/214/ https://www.xkcd.com/214/
- girvo 7y agoI miss the GP2X and related...
- alexvaut 7y agoI remember hacking my gp2x adding an USB port, plugging a gps on it, porting driver and a gis/map lib.. so much time to waste and learn new things!
- alxmdev 7y agoI remember someone back then wrote a script to scrape Google Maps data and make it viewable on the GP2X, so you'd have offline portable maps. This was in 2007 or so, before smartphones became mainstream (not that as a student I could have afforded one anyway, or a data plan for that matter).
- filoleg 7y agoSlightly off-topic, but the website design looks like a worse version of Teenage Engineering website (https://teenage.engineering/products/po https://teenage.engineering/products/po) with larger font size (a bit too large imo). Not dissing the website though, it isn't that bad overall, just thought it was interesting, since I haven't seen many others attempting that. EDIT: after a closer look at the page, I realized that they explicitly mentioned partnering with Teenage Engineering on parts of the device design. The website resemblance makes more sense now :)
- OJFord 7y agoBottom of page: > By the way, the crank came from our friends at Teenage Engineering. They were our partners for Playdate’s design. Isn’t it nice? Edit: you took a closer look while I was typing. You're excused. ;)
- filoleg 7y agoUpon closer look, they got some nice game development partners too, like Keita Takahashi of Katamari fame. This partnership (with both Teenage Engineering and the likes of Keita Takahashi) seems like a perfect synergy in my eyes. While I am still not super excited about the product yet, I am very glad someone out there is going for stuff like that.
- andrewstuart 7y agoI like the visual style.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoYa, it works as an ad, even if I wouldn't want this kind of design for more serious content.
- voldemort1968 7y agoAgreed. It's a great design.
- 7y ago
- wvenable 7y agoImage links are broken for me.
- msvan 7y agoI think it's cool. I'm not that old, but games these days mostly seem to be about squeezing every last dollar out of the consumer through shady means. I think this is part of why I don't play video games anymore. It's nice to see something different.
- jarfil 7y ago$150 for what looks like 12 simple games isn't that much different.
- msvan 7y ago1) I don't mind paying for games. I just don't want the game mechanics to be designed to divert me towards spending more money on the game. 2) It's 12 games to start with. I'm sure there could be more later on.
- wccrawford 7y agoThey say that the production run will be very limited. Which means there isn't much incentive for gamedevs to make more games later, as the audience can never expand beyond the initial sales.
- jamesgeck0 7y agoThey've clarified that the _first_ production run is very limited. There will be more production runs after that.
- thedufer 7y agoThey claim to have an SDK. Assuming that goes public (why wouldn't it?) it's 12 games + anything else they release + anything the community comes up with.
- mortenjorck 7y agoPoint taken, but this is the difference between $12 for a Bud Light at a huge sports venue versus $12 for an interesting and memorable cocktail at an out-of-the-way bar. Both are expensive, but the latter is something you can't get anywhere else and might barely even turn a profit when everything else is factored in.
- foxhop 7y agoI like the crank idea only if it also charges the battery as you play.
- chrisseaton 7y agoHave you ever tried a hand-cranked radio or torch? They need a lot of cranking. I'm not sure it would be tractable.
- p1necone 7y agoThis kinda looks like it has an epaper screen? Or at least a simple black and white lcd. Potentially uses a lot less power than a torch.
- soulofmischief 7y agoAt that price, it likely wouldn't be e-ink. But even more so, the framerate of e-ink tech currently on the market isn't suitable for moving graphics. There are a few companies working on different ways to solve this problem but the existing e-ink patent is quite a thorn.
- bduerst 7y agoThe demo was definitely not an e-ink screen, but then again, it was a simulation so who knows for sure. I tried to find battery specs on the page but couldn't.
- ebg13 7y agoThat's because they all crank so easily. Surely if they used gears and required more force to convert from few rotations to many it would be better?
- tomcam 7y agoI think it would add unacceptable weight. And the mechanical stress would probably cause a redesign of the whole product. You don’t want the screen to crack the first time your 8 year-old gets a little enthusiastic about winding it.
- sexyflanders 7y agoDesign wise this looks similar to something teenage engineering would make. Which I think is cool, I like their stuff. Specifically the op1 with the hand crank functionality
- kraftman 7y ago"By the way, the crank came from our friends at Teenage Engineering. They were our partners for Playdate’s design. Isn’t it nice?"
- vlunkr 7y agoThis looks pretty cool! There have been some horribly misguided niche consoles lately, (see the Amico), this one looks great by comparison. I can see it working as kind of a novelty product. I think the price point is a little high, since it's close to Nintendo handheld prices.
- crooked-v 7y agoThe going rate for a used 3DS XL is about $110.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoI'm wondering if that crank would work for a leftie?
- intpbro 7y agoMaybe they have a version just for you ;)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- jolmg 7y agoIf it was a problem, wouldn't game controllers in general be a problem? There's always the assumption that left things (buttons, joysticks, etc.) are for movement and right things are for actions. Would it be better for a leftie if there were mirrored versions of game controllers?
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoYou can get used to a game controller, or well, most of us do eventually. At anyrate, you can find left handed game controllers on the market. But that is a crank, it requires a bit more dexterity, like holding a pen.
- beenBoutIT 7y agoThat crank better be detachable in a slick way that keeps it from inadvertently popping out constantly or it's going to annoy the hell out of anyone who isn't a hardcore fan of the crank-based game genre. IRL it's probably not detachable and it's going to jangle around and annoy while gradually self-desructing in a way that leaves it useless yet permanently attached/annoying.
- frosted-flakes 7y agoIt folds into the side. That's why there's a hole.
- 7y ago
- orliesaurus 7y agoThis is gonna be fun: "Every Monday, via WiFi, owners receive a new game, the notification light on top of the case blinking to announce its arrival. Whenever you have five spare minutes, you’ll be able to reach into your own shirt pocket, and make time for your Playdate."
- TehCorwiz 7y agoThis looks neat. It reminds me of what you might get if Nintendo built the GameBoy today with similar tech constraints (BW screen, only two buttons, motion controls, etc.)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- z3t4 7y agoIt would be cool if the 3d model was also an emulator.
- RandomGuyDTB 7y agoWhere's the SDK? That's what I'm interested in. I don't wanna be limited to just twelve games. Edit- looks like an SDK exists, it's just not available quite yet: https://play.date/media/ https://play.date/media/
- Causality1 7y agoIs this cute? Yeah, absolutely, but there are actually a lot of cute little handheld gaming devices just like it, except they have nicer screens and don't cost $150. Like the Bitboy, Pixel Classic, PocketGo, Pocket Sprite. Even the Micro Arcade series which are credit card sized single-game handheld with full color screens.
- nickloewen 7y agoThose all appear to either emulate other consoles, or come with games built-in, though. This seems to be closer to the MakeCode consoles discussed elsewhere in these comments, since it sounds like it will allow you to make your own games for it (although it's not clear yet how easy that will be). In that respect, it seems fairly unique to me, if only because it is beautifully designed and polished. It seems like the other options for making your own handheld games are either a bit clunky (eg Adafruit's PyGamers) or require quite a lot of know-how and effort (eg Gameboy or DS homebrew). I hope that this will result in a bunch of new high-quality indie games. It seems that people are unlikely to invest a lot of effort in making spectacular games for the PyGamer, because the audience is small... Nintendo-handheld homebrew has the potential for a larger audience, but requires so much work that I imagine a lot of potential creators are dissuaded. I'm on the lookout for a shiny indie-friendly portable that's easy to develop for, because I think that could lead to some exciting new things. Maybe this is it.
- beenBoutIT 7y agoIt only works for this crowd if it's either impossibly rare and hard to come by or expensive enough to keep it out of the hands of most non-hipsters.
- Causality1 7y agoHow do you know any of that? There's no photos on the site to indicate how polished it is, no mention of being able to run homebrew on it.
- nickloewen 7y ago
- steve_adams_86 7y agoI love this so much. I'm such a sucker for simple gaming mechanics, and I have some faith that these specific people could make this work. I know devices like this often fail to thrive in the market, but Teenage Engineering has some experience making this sort of single-purpose device work for customers. Panic seems to be very passionate, quality and delivery oriented, and good at doing an exceptional job on familiar products. There might be some potential here. I'd absolutely take my chances on this thing if I could get my hands on one! My kids would love it too.
- liquidzoot 7y agoPersonally the association with Teenage Engineering makes me more concerned that this will not be as exciting as it sounds. TE's Op-1 is a fine piece of kit, but their recent offerings have been very underwhelming. Also the placement of the crank and the form factor look very un-ergonomic.
- bduerst 7y agoCan you comment on the Op-1 and what makes it great?
- GuiA 7y agoThe OP-1 is a well built, self contained musical instrument (sequencing, synthesis/sampling, effects, mixing) with a very clean industrial design and solid construction. The main issues people have with it are 1) long-standing software bugs that don’t get fixed 2) TE doesn’t seem that focused on producing it anymore- it was out of stock for a couple years, and they raised the price significantly on the new batches.
- liquidzoot 7y agoNot from personal experience, but it seems that it's an all around decent synth/sequencer/sampler that makes a good musical scratchpad. People like it, and if I had a g to spare, I might join in.
- mortenjorck 7y agoIt's an opinionated piece of hardware, designed and manufactured more or less uncompromisingly for a specific musician experience. I decided it's not for me (though its follow-up, the OP-Z, is a lot closer), but I absolutely adore Teenage Engineering's approach to pretty much everything, even when it's not personally my style.
- vscr 7y agohttps://streamable.com/ued04 https://streamable.com/ued04 made this in bed at 3am last night. sampled the vox straight from my phones headphone output into the line in on the op-1. its a beautiful piece of hardware that i take with me wherever i go.
- cjdaly 7y agosort of related to this (indie gaming hardware), I recently got the Adafruit PyBadge. You can program it with CircuitPython, Arduino or MakeCode (a microsoft visual coding IDE). fun if your idea of fun is making the game and then playing it, or figuring out how to port some existing game.
- tty2300 7y agoIts interesting but for these kinds of projects its the software library that will mean everything to how well this goes. I'm not going to spend that much for a device to play tech demos when I already have handheld gaming devices
- russellbeattie 7y agoThis is interesting, but I can think of lots of things I'd put on the side of the device to make it unique besides a crank. It's an oddly specific way to provide analog and/or constant input (if it does indeed crank 360 degrees) from the player. An actual analog stick? A dial? A trigger? A switch lever? A touch sensitive pad? A trackball? Maybe these guys are really into fishing?
- Rebelgecko 7y agoI think they were trying to do something really different. I'm interested to see what Bennett Foddy does with the crank. If you aren't familiar, he's a master of making games that really emphasize the control scheme. Check out out QWOP, it's lesser known cousin GIRP, or Getting Over it (which is one of those games that sounds horrible but is actually really fulfilling to play)
- 781 7y agoThe crank is all about "hipster" and "conversation starter". You're supposed to look like a weirdo cranking that, thus be super-cool.
- beenBoutIT 7y agoHipster couples everywhere will have the crank to thank for bolstering their courage up to a level where it was possible for them to talk to one another. Eventually it will come to be viewed as an integral part of the tragic grand hipster narrative. That's the idea anyway.
- mahgnous 7y agoThis thing gonna have an SDK?
- justfor1comment 7y agoIsn't $150 expensive? Or may be I am just too poor, to throw money at anyone who asks for it.
- chc 7y agoThat's the same price as a Nintendo 2DS, which is about as cheap as mobile gaming comes. So I mean, you might have opinions about how good a value it is, but it is not a very high price point for its market.
- crooked-v 7y agoUsed 2DSes or 3DSes are ubiquitous and around $110 or so.
- hombre_fatal 7y agoBut $20-40 for each game.
- frosted-flakes 7y agoA $40 game provides 20-100 hours of high quality gameplay, which I think is a good value.
- mortenjorck 7y agoPlaydate is not in the same market as the 2DS, or really anywhere near it. It's not trying to compete on any of the games-industry metrics, nor could it. It's like comparing the latest Avengers movie with a niche YouTube show. You can compare the price of a movie ticket with a Patreon subscription, but what are you even comparing?
- hombre_fatal 7y agoNo, it doesn't. It only might. You or your kids might play it for 10 minutes and never touch it again. How many people on HN have $100s spent on Steam games they haven't even installed once and probably never will? Or games they finally played but didn't like, yet too much time elapsed for a refund?
- Reedx 7y agoThis looks really cool and would be great for a fishing game. I wonder about the lack of backlighting though? Hopefully the screen is much better in this regard than the original non-backlit GBA, which was difficult to see in low light conditions. It was tricky getting light to hit the screen in just the right way: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/06/13/lame-boy-advance https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/06/13/lame-boy-advan...
- dstaley 7y agoThey're using a transflective LCD, so it should be plenty visible even in lower-ambient light conditions. Nothing like the original Gameboy.
- rossy 7y agoDoesn't a transflective LCD have a backlight? The media/FAQ page says pretty clearly that the device has a reflective LCD with no backlight, same as the GBA, which the parent comment was referring to.
- Doxin 7y agoAs far as I'm aware these LCDs switch between black or very reflective silver and not so much black and white. Doesn't really matter what the ambient conditions are since the black is always reflecting way less light than the silver.
- fendy3002 7y agoIf the crank orientation can be changed, it can act as ship's navigator wheel and valve
- RugnirViking 7y agothat... would be so cool. I'd love to see ship games, or a u-boat game. Heck even operating the crank to elevate and/or turn an anti-aircraft gun or tank turret
- 7y ago
- bullfightonmars 7y agoIt would be so awesome if this worked with Pico 8 or a similar fantasy console. I will be much more interested if the barrier to entry for making my own games is as close to zero as possible. I want to make my own games for fun, but also to expose my son to the creativity and exploration of programming. A physical console would make this experience so much more real. https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
- RodgerTheGreat 7y agoGo on ebay and dig up a PocketCHIP; it's as close to a first-class mass-produced physical Pico-8 as anyone is likely to see.
- darzu 7y agoHave you seen https://arcade.makecode.com https://arcade.makecode.com ? It's a free, open source, web-based editor for making games, and you can download games to a number of hardware boards, or play on your phone or any web browser. The cheapest hardware right now is $25 from Adafruit [0], but more hardware is coming out all the time. Also this audience might be interested to know that soon there'll be Python support in MakeCode. More details on our language toolchain here [1] Disclosure: I work for MakeCode :) [0] https://www.adafruit.com/product/3939 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3939 [1] https://makecode.com/language https://makecode.com/language
- tyleo 7y agoThis is awesome! Is MakeCode a subsidiary of Microsoft? It looks like it’s based on some Microsoft tech similar to Google’s Blockly I hadn’t seen before. I’m curious because I’m working on a product in this space.
- darzu 7y agoYeah, we're a team at MSFT (same org as VS Code). All* our code is open source. We use Google Blockly, and we've made a number of contributions upstream to them. What's your product? * Our server code isn't open source, but it's basically just a node app serving a SPA. Everything is client side. Works offline too.
- stackzero 7y agoWhy the name playdate?
- simongr3dal 7y agoIt's part of the "gimmick". After the device is released and is available for sale, a new game will be released for it and downloaded automatically each week for the first 12 weeks, when downloaded a little light will light up and you can have small play date with the Playdate.
- beenBoutIT 7y agoThat's IMO the only clever part of the device, the syncing up with users everywhere anticipating the minute a new game drops. It'll work great until a game fails to resonate with any particular user at which point negative sentiment and disappointment get attached to the device.
- simongr3dal 7y agoI'm sure it's a fun challenge for the game designers with the limited screen, and a crank mechanic. But I'm really hoping they are also able to make some games with some depth and replay value to them for the players, a la the early mario, spyro, sonic or pokemon games.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- wgjordan 7y agoFrom the linked Edge article [1]: > Then there's the contemporary modus operandi that gives the console its name. Every Monday, via WiFi, owners receive a new game, the notification light on top of the case blinking to announce its arrival. Whenever you have five spare minutes, you’ll be able to reach into your own shirt pocket, and make time for your Playdate. [1] https://play.date/edge/ https://play.date/edge/
- duxup 7y agoI love seeing products like this, but I fear 150 is a bit beyond the impulse buy price that probably is needed to get big sales. Having said that it looks neat.
- huhtenberg 7y agoThe audience with required cash reserves is there. It just that it has higher standards and needs to see consistently glowing stream of reviews to trigger an impulse buy. Not impossible by any means, but still rather unlikely.
- azhenley 7y agoThis looks awesome. I wish I had made it. Makes me wish I had finished writing my book on making your own video game console!
- someexgamedev 7y agoThis will sell to indie gamedev scenesters and they have the perfect designer roster to hit that audience. From a commercial success standpoint, I'm bearish. Common pitfall in comedy is to make jokes for comedians. This scene has a similar problem where they love to make games for game devs.
- rincebrain 7y agoI don't think they intended for it as anything but not a substantial cost loss because they wanted to make it, not because they wanted a 3DS IT PRINTS MONEY GIF of it, so that's probably a feature, not a bug.
- Deimorz 7y agoThis was a good Twitter thread on that topic from a couple of weeks ago: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1126531195666411521.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1126531195666411521.html
- meheleventyone 7y agoI totally agree and as a gamedev really want one. A decent handheld with development as easy if not easier than PICO-8 will be a lot of fun even if the community is niche.
- msie 7y agoI hope this becomes popular. Unlike iOS and Android it has physical controls and hopefully I can develop for it cheaply.
- keyle 7y agoPanic never stops surprising me. You'd think you had them figured out, they keep jumping onto another shelf. It must be fun to work at Panic. It reminds me of how tech companies were in the 90s. Clear mission, but open horizon.
- lostgame 7y agoI've been using their software for easily 14 years. It's really cool to see them expanding like this.
- closetohome 7y agoIt says something that their primary product is a $50 FTP client and I actually don't mind paying for it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- littleweep 7y agoTo me it seems like very unclear mission
- culturestate 7y agoTheir mission, as far as I understand it, is to make software that they enjoy making and do it really well. They had an idea for a software gaming platform and decided they needed hardware to support it, which seems to fit nicely within that goal.
- larrywright 7y agoYou’re assuming that their mission is something narrow, like “Build world class software for MacOS and iOS”, when it’s probably something much broader like “Build really cool stuff”. To me this is the dream: a company that is so successful that you get to take risks and build cool things that you want to exist.
- duncancarroll 7y agoWow! I was not expecting this at all. Exciting!
- 14 7y agoMy feelings are not positive on this one. Trying to be for the sake of the guys making this but here is my problem...besides being very let down that the crank has nothing to do with charging, the price is just too much. Canadian here so 150USD is just over 200$CAD. For 200$ I can very easily pick up a used ipad or iphone and my kids would love to have either one of those. They play lots of games, they watch videos, they surf the internet, they make video calls, and 100 other uses I am sure. So though this device might be cool, it would be a pretty hard sell for me and my kids. The value just doesn't seem to be worth it.
- m1aw 7y agoYour kids aren't the target market. This is for a young or older adult who has been into gaming his entire life and wants to pay a premium for a very well game (hopefully) device with can offer a unique experience. It's somewhat of a novelty item, but I see there's definitely a market for it.
- ddingus 7y agoWhat those devices do not do is deliver a likely novel game experience. This one does 12 of them. That is 12 opportunities to put the gadgets down and focus on the new game. Each of those are roughly $16 each. It is hard to get through McDees for that sum. So when it is time, the idea is to set the world aside and have a bit of fun. You may be surprised. The kids may groove on it, and just trade those times with fast food or something. Maybe an hour or two spent exploring the games, talking about the experience, seeing who likes what, why, etc... with Dads full attention plays better than you might think.
- tein 7y agoI dont know how much it costs to make specialized hardware. But i think there was a missed oportunity in cartridge based handhelds. There were a couple of games for GB,GBA and DS that had gimmicky controls that came from the cartridge. As the gyroscope for Yoshi Tipsy Turvy, Wario Ware Twisted and Kirby Tilt n Tumble. Another one was Guitar Hero for the DS and i think there was one with a light sensor for the GB? This feels like it has the same spirit. Wish them good luck.
- new4thaccount 7y agoDon't forget "Boktai The Sun is in Your Hands" for GBA. It came with a solar sensor on the cartridge that required the gamer to go outside to charge their solar gun in order to kill vampires. Very cool, but it grew annoying fast.
- gricardo99 7y agoReminds me of Ouya[1], which was $99 console and I think did not have much luck as a gaming platform. 1 - https://www.ouya.tv/ https://www.ouya.tv/
- alphast0rm 7y agoOuya is reaching its end of life on June 25th, 2019. [1] [1] https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/22/seven-years-later-the-ouya-is-dead-for-real/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/22/seven-years-later-the-ouya...
- salsadip 7y agoI am really excited about this. Firewatch is an amazing game with amazing execution. Teenage Engineering's OP1 is supposedly really good hardware (from what i heard and saw on youtube). Single purpose devices like this are more enjoyable to use since you aren't always itching to use a different app etc. The gradual "rollout" of games with a new one each week sounds like an exciting thing to look forwards to every week actually! Although the price is steep (for a student), i'm pretty sure i'll get it as this sounds like a well crafted and enjoyable experience
- m3kw9 7y agoThe crank must be an analog of the Apple Watch crown.
- umvi 7y agoLove the compliant mechanism buttons (I just recently learned about compliant mechanisms - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97t7Xj_iBv0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97t7Xj_iBv0)
- thih9 7y agoWikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliant_mechanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliant_mechanism .
- sara7262 7y agoSee the video of most dangerous bird and how he killed owner https://howto105.blogspot.com/2019/04/most-dangerous-bird-killed-owner-in-usa.html https://howto105.blogspot.com/2019/04/most-dangerous-bird-ki... Funny dog driving own car See his video on link below http://bit.ly/2WdSKpA http://bit.ly/2WdSKpA Cute dog going for school like human baby see his cute video I am sure you can't stop laugh http://bit.ly/2Wq6Ynr http://bit.ly/2Wq6Ynr United nation recently showed the real face of india See what they said in report After knowing this I am sure you will hate them if you have soft heart https://youtu.be/oUskNtdWeIY https://youtu.be/oUskNtdWeIY Best way to get rid from face moles with the help of home remedies its easy and simple way You don't need to waste money for this https://zoomtips.blogspot.com/2019/05/easily-get-rid-from-face-moles-with.html https://zoomtips.blogspot.com/2019/05/easily-get-rid-from-fa...
- toastking 7y agoThe crank is really interesting. It's such an off the wall choice for a user interface. It will be cool to see how developers take advantage of it.
- beenBoutIT 7y agoFishing games, although judging by the appearance it probably isn't capable of offering any real variable resistance UX unless they have some clever patents attached.
- thrax 7y agoThey should have made it a Dynamo charger. Apocalypse GameBoy.
- favadi 7y agoI don't see how it is better than a traditional joystick. And I think it might easily got broken.
- egypturnash 7y agoIt's in addition to a d-pad and two buttons.
- favadi 7y agowell, most modern controller has joysticks in addition to d-pad and buttons too. It doesn't invalidate my point.
- RugnirViking 7y agothings that have cranks: Ships bridges (speed, turning etc) Large gun emplacements (Anti-aircraft?) Tank turrets Submarine periscopes Cranes (old fashioned ones) Fishing I think it will specifically work if it's giving the feeling of moving something big and heavy. It doesn't need to have the resistance, most of the above are pulleyed and geared so they are easy to turn.
- ungzd 7y agoJust remember that company that made this was abusing DMCA to take down videos just for SJW vocabulary policing [1]. Be warned if you want to make games for it, even if SDK will be free and available without signing agreements. Maybe this company is not directly related to this incident and they're just publishers, I don't know. [1] https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/10/16285188/pewdie-pie-racist-slur-firewatch-retaliation-dmca https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/10/16285188/pewdie-pie-racist...
- dpedu 7y agoAre you talking about Panic? I don't see them mentioned anywhere in that article so I'm pretty confused as to what you're talking about.
- landric 7y agoPanic published Firewatch, partnering with Campo Santo, the developer quoted in the article. https://kotaku.com/the-people-who-published-firewatch-are-now-making-a-gam-1834958316 https://kotaku.com/the-people-who-published-firewatch-are-no... I'm not arguing that the person you're replying to is right in their assessment of Panic, just that they're not _totally_ out of left field.
- sergiotapia 7y agoThanks for bringing this up, what were they thinking?
- egypturnash 7y ago"we don't want racist idiots making money off of our hard work"?
- sergiotapia 7y agoYou're judging a whole person over a single uttered word. Thankfully normal people don't operate at that insane level. My son's elementary school friends are not racist. Rappers are not racist. The latinos in my miami neighborhood are not racist. Twitter has given loons a public platform to spew their garbage and websites encourage it because outrage sells. Enjoy your 2 minutes of hate.
- azhenley 7y agoIf anyone wants to do a startup together designing a cheap, retro-style handheld game console with an open app store, please email me :)
- Impossible 7y agoIt looks cool, I was at Funomena when Crankin was being developed and helped Akira Thompson with some Lua code, didn't realize it would end up on a new handheld 3 years later :).
- habosa 7y agoThis is really cool. I might buy one if I am feeling impulsive. I love purpose-built hardware like this! Would feel more comfortable if I knew they'd allow people to build and sideload games though. Aside: this website is very choppy in Chrome on Ubuntu.
- nathanvanfleet 7y agoMan they worked with Teenage Engineering for this? That's a pretty incredible team. I am amazed.
- avinium 7y agoSuper ambitious, but I love/respect the fact that there's still people out there driven by sheer passion and originality, rather than money. I've ranted many a times about the hypercapitalistic race-to-the-bottom approach that Valve/Epic/etc are taking. This is a breath of fresh air and they have my full support.
- RenRav 7y agoNot too sold on the price but it will download 12 games every month for you, if I read that correctly. That is pretty cool. The crank mechanism seems silly but with some creativity perhaps you can do interesting things with it, like fishing.
- speps 7y agoI thought it was for charging it on the go. Is it just an input knob?
- eridius 7y agoIt's an input device. Charging is presumably over USB.
- unwind 7y agoGame releases for Season 1 are said to be weekly, not monthly. I didn't see mention of more Seasons. They say they have a C/Lua-based SDK which sounds interesting. Personally I think it would be cool if it had an FPGA on board for offloading and being a bit more consol-esque (=fun) but logically it's probably just a big old ARM core SoC driving the display directly.
- trashcan_ 7y agowhy is every comment saying how cool this thing is?
- BsMeter 7y agoSurely HN has been taken over by bots. 800+ up-votes for some cheap looking dysfunctional "gaming console" that has no real hardware available yet. And there is nothing exciting or cool about it. Some days I think the time of HN has passed because of posts like these being up-voted that much.
- centizen 7y agoBetween Panic and Teenage Engineering I actually have faith in this being a worthwhile endeavor. From the face of it I would expect this to go the way of the Ouya, but with those two at the helm it could actually be something cool. It's a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant casual mobile gaming space.
- binaryblitz 7y ago> stagnant casual mobile gaming space Between Switch and a lot of great mobile games I'm not sure how it's stagnant.
- Zenbit_UX 7y agoDo people consider the switch a mobile platform? I mean it sort of is but... It's really a console. Depends how you define mobile, if mobile === carry in your pocket it's not. If mobile === independent from a TV then yes.
- adangert 7y agoyeah, I bring it around with me, as a portable gaming device. I consider it a mobile platform, plus I have big pockets.
- miranda_rights 7y agoAs a single data point, I've only played the switch with a TV once or twice, when I was playing with friends.
- ninjin 7y agoIn London, it does not appear to be treated like something mobile – but in Tokyo it certainly is. You will see kids – mainly boys – huddle together around Switch screens or playing using the wireless wherever you go in suburban Tokyo.
- tommorris 7y ago
- quacher 7y agoFrom the Media Kit page, it looks like this device will use a Sharp memory LCD display (LS027B7DH01), which is similar to an e-ink display, but without refresh issues. The same display as in the SwissMicros DM42 [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ong91Ji3iDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ong91Ji3iDk
- borgel 7y agoSame tech as the Pebbles too!
- lostphilosopher 7y agoRIP. I miss Pebble.
- max0563 7y agoI think they might have just revolutionized gaming.
- quickthrower2 7y agoI can't wait for my turn.
- max0563 7y agoMe too. I really like their spin on the Gameboy.
- quickthrower2 7y agoYeah but they are reinventing the wheel
- lostmymind66 7y agoThis is going to be a tough sell. $150 dollars is very expensive for a portable game system, which will compete with any tablet/phone that can play games that have better graphics and game play. The problem is that this is competing with entire ecosystems of games that have been around for almost a decade.
- robertAngst 7y agoThis isnt hard for Nintendo, but Nintendo fans are fanatics.
- pushpop 7y agoNintendo have had their fair share of failed consoles as well
- ehsankia 7y agoThis isn't meant to compete or be "the best". I think your comment is entirely missing the point of what this is. This is more of a play on nostalgia and classic bulky simple handhelds. It would be in the same category as the NES Classic Edition or the Sega Genesis Mini. It's fun and almost a collectible honestly.
- lostmymind66 7y ago"It would be in the same category as the NES Classic Edition or the Sega Genesis Mini. It's fun and almost a collectible honestly" The NES class edition and Sega Genesis only work because of people that remember playing these games as a kid (like me). I have the NES classic edition and my teenage nephews were bored pretty quickly after they played it. Nostalgia isn't usually there for something new that looks like the games I used to play when I was younger.
- ehsankia 7y agoI don't fully agree, there are many games that manage to imitate the "old school" look and feel pretty well, I don't see why this couldn't pull that off too. But I could be wrong, we'll see how well it sells once it comes out. By referring to it as a collectible, I also meant that this will most likely not going to be a huge success, but more of a niche product. I see it as an indie hardware; the Cuphead of Gaming Systems if you will.
- djfergus 7y agoWhat a fascinating concept. Makes me feel out of touch with consumers these days, I'd have imagined the appeal of this would be very low but since the Panic team has a great track record and volume manufacturing is not cheap I guess they have assessed their demand. I'm curious who is buying this instead of e.g. a GPD XD (full android clamshell with dedicated game controls).
- gowld 7y agoWhat's the benefit of that kind of Android console vs getting a clipon controller?
- reilly3000 7y agoI think its positioned more at 'us' vs the consumer. Small run for game/gadget lovers with some disposable income and memories of when everything wasn't formulaic IAP-driven nonsense.
- nathan_f77 7y agoI just had a look at the GPD XD website [1], and my first impression is that the design looks a bit cheap and tacky. I really like the look of this playdate console, and I'm sure it feels great to hold and use. I also don't want to spend my time wading through thousands (maybe millions) of games. The free ones are usually bad, and the good ones come with a ton of ads or in-app purchases. It's just exhausting. I'm still looking for a nice iOS game similar to "Raptor: Call of the Shadows" - just a vertical scrolling game where you can complete levels, upgrade your ship and weapons, beat bosses, etc. I've tried a few different games, but I still haven't been able to find one where I can just pay $20 and own the full game (with no more nagging, advertising, or pay-to-play features.) I like the idea that they're just going to send a few games, and release one per week. It sounds nice to not have to make any choices, and just enjoy the full curated experience. I don't know if I'll get one, but those are the reasons why I would consider it. I've also been thinking about a Nintendo Switch, but to be honest I'm not much of a gamer. [1] https://www.gpdxd.com https://www.gpdxd.com
- dangus 7y agoI'll give this idea one plus - it's a got a playful, fun design. I get the idea of going simple and fun with this. As a device to plunk down $150 on, no way. - If the crank is so fun, they didn't manage to show it. - Hopefully they'll show more games, because the promise of 12 black and white games involving two buttons a crank isn't awe-inspiring. - The 2DS is the same price and is vastly more powerful and capable. Obviously they're going for simplicity and quirkiness but objectively it's just a real hard sell here. - Nintendo is rumored to be making a cheaper more portable Switch along with a Switch Pro this year, and I bet that cheap one is going to be $200. I just think the only "why" of this thing is "because we could." That's totally okay, but I'd be shocked if this was any more than a limited run item, and even more shocked if anything beyond those initial games ever make it to the platform.
- cormacrelf 7y agoDon't be quick to dismiss a physical control from Teenage Engineering. Those Swedes are geniuses. Have you seen the OP-1? They are masters of constraints that push creativity along. I have no doubt they can make a crank fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z4hoazra_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z4hoazra_g
- 0x8BADF00D 7y agoIf it was a little cheaper, I would probably pick it up for my nephew. But at the current price point it’s just way too expensive. Vague promises of future content are not enough to justify the price IMO.
- acomjean 7y agoTeenage engineering does make a handheld musical toy thing. I have a couple. They are very bare bones music calculator-sequencer things. They're called "pocket operators". Oddly fun to make beats on. https://teenage.engineering/products/po https://teenage.engineering/products/po This one has some better pictures and soundcloud audio. https://www.engadget.com/2015/04/22/teenage-engineering-pocket-operators-irl/ https://www.engadget.com/2015/04/22/teenage-engineering-pock... youtube has a lot on these little things.
- throwaway231892 7y agoNew poster child for not doing product naming and ergonomics by committee.
- mastrsushi 7y agoThis company seems well aware they aren't a match for Nintendo. Based on the comments, Hacker News does not seem very aware. Much like how Teenage Engineering's OP-1 is not competitively priced. This is another example of an insightfully designed, well built product for adults. Older millenials looking for a sentimental package so they can feel like it's their 8th birthday again. They are reunboxing a gameboy color. Their goal isn't to revitalize the dying, Nintendo/Smartphone dominated scene of handheld gaming. Just a small company releasing a niche product in a low quantity for a low risk profit. No different than a craft brew or a local farmers market.
- madrox 7y agoThis is the best take, and I'm excited to live in a world where hardware entertainment devices don't require mass market appeal and can be "artisanal." In many ways, I think this is the antidote to a lot of the bad behaviors Silicon Valley has developed in the last several years. Sometimes not achieving hyperscale is OK.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- cormacrelf 7y agoNot competitively priced? Yes it costs a lot, but it's pretty easy to drop a grand on music equipment. You could buy a decent guitar, a vintage synth, half of a small Nord 4 piano, or a drum kit. It's dead on midrange for an instrument of that calibre, which it absolutely is. It seems expensive because its popularity and apparent ability to turn anyone into a musician make it appeal to the amateur market, who would normally buy a Squier strat or a practice drum off Craigslist. TE caters to these folks with less ambitious products. The OP-1 only really competes in the sense that these folks just save up for longer, because it really is worth that much. Whether or not it's accurate for the OP-1, I think your analysis applies perfectly to the Playdate.
- dbish 7y agoAgreed. I've been thinking about a market for small batch or boutique electronics in various markets for a while. There is boutique furniture, small batch alcohol, all sorts of small runs that would never compete with the big guys but still make money and are fun for people to buy. More people should get into it. The biggest barrier to entry may be that you have to self fund for these smaller attempts.
- nathanvanfleet 7y agoI have a bunch of Teenage Engineerings Pocket Operators. I definitely see this as something very similar. It will probably be surprisingly powerful as a platform, but still not going to be trying to compete with the Switch. They'll concentrate on making a fun experience over pushing the boundaries of technology.
- emdowling 7y agoNot to discount the hardware, which looks absolutely beautiful, but what strikes me the most is the business model. A new game, every Monday, delivered wirelessly to your pocket. What excites me about Playdate is that it is something only an outsider with no attachments to existing business relationships could make. Games released today are still encumbered by the regional and geographic thinking of traditional software distribution. While Steam, the App Store, etc have certainly democratised some aspects, they are still an exception to the traditional model that generates the most revenue. Episodic games tried to bring seasonality to gaming. That didn’t really work (Episode 3 anyone?). Fortnite has been the most successful at it, but it is still a AAA game attached to a big publisher. It’s the evolution of the old model. Playdate and Apple’s upcoming Arcade feel like the beginning of a new model and that’s really, really exciting.
- ec109685 7y agoThe App store and Steam are certainly not the exception. The traditional model with geographic restrictions is not making more money. Do you have citations for that? Your sentiment is great, but I think the world has moved far beyond where you are coming from and that isn’t where Play will differentiate. The subscription new games is neat though, but iOS will have that this summer.
- seventhtiger 7y agoSeasonality has been achieved in games like Magic the Gathering, League of Legends, Hearthstone, and Path of Exile. I think the key factor is content leveraging. How much the game's core systems can leverage assets to create varied gameplay. Because with seasons you have to help your customers get excited about relatively small batches of content. Through that lens you find that narrative driven single player games are the worst candidates for seasonal games. It's more suited to match-based multiplayer games with sensitive meta games.
- cloogshicer 7y agoI'm actually really dreading the Apple Arcade business model. The game developers are compensated by time spent in their game. This means that, similar to the current craze for open world games, shorter, more experimental games will simply earn less. Thus, meaningful content will be stretched even thinner to fill up more of the user's time. It's another nail in the coffin of single player narrative experiences. Streaming services, like Google's recently announced Stadia will probably have similar compensation models.
- logicprog 7y agoI'm really excited about this. I've always kind of wanted Teenage Engineering tech because low-fi, tactile, single purpose devices always appeal to me, but I seem to have anti-musical ability so couldn't justify one. This is something I could actually use and enjoy, and I would love to take a crack at developing for it.
- gridlockd 7y agoI like the idea of having weird hardware like this produced. I can see it becoming a collectible. I don't love it though. I'm curious though, did someone see this and really want it?
- anotheryou 7y agoa crank but no analog stick? bold
- jchampem 7y agoPimorini (I think they are quite famous as Raspberry Pis retailers in Europe) recently started a kickstarter for another handheld console: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimoroni/32blit-retro-inspired-handheld-with-open-source-fi https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimoroni/32blit-retro-i...
- naraic0o 7y agoi don't like that these devices don't use any sort of graphics accelerators though. that seems to be the most "fun" part of programming the retro architectures these things are inspired by. it's a pity there isn't any market for such chips anymore. i guess an FPGA is an option.
- mesozoic 7y agoNot even April 1st.
- netwanderer3 7y agoInitially I thought it was just another Gameboy imitation, but a crank? Wow, that would add a whole new dimension to it. At this stage of the gaming industry when everybody keeps making very similar games and products, any unconventional creative ideas are more than welcomed!
- _Codemonkeyism 7y agoI appreciate everything Panic has done, and how they pushed apps to a higher UI and innovation level. I probably will get a Playdate. The first handheld I've owned was a Greenhouse G&W. I do wish to get back the simplicity and joy of games from that area. I don't like the language of the page though, e.g. "we hope you can’t wait to unwrap your gift." A gift which I've paid $149 to you? My understanding of gift is different than that of Panic I assume.
- 100pctremote 7y agoI knew Teenage Engineering had something to do with this on first sight.
- msie 7y agoThe crank is cute but I want a paddle controller for games like Tempest and Pong.
- gvand 7y agoI would be VERY interested in a VERY detailed description of how they, as a software company, handled this hardware project.
- jamilbk 7y agoThis. So much this. There’s much to be said about a handheld gaming device that isn’t constantly distracting you with notifications and alerts. My iPhone constantly teeters between Do Not Disturb and full-on ring volume. Looking forward to mandatory immersion in the art, story, and gameplay of a dedicated handheld gaming device, a la the original Gameboy.
- stesch 7y agoThey make really good PR. Twitter was exploding yesterday. The topic "Software Development" on the original Twitter client only had tweets about this gaming system. (And not a single half naked cosplayer programmer.)
- stc043 7y agoCheck out bittboy (http://bittboy.com http://bittboy.com), a similar handheld console which has emulators for NES, SNES and GB/GBA/GBC games , at less than 1/3rd of the price.
- mikorym 7y agoCan the crank charge the battery?
- RugnirViking 7y agoRealistically, this thing is going to live and die based on 1) how good these games are and 2) who gets in on the initial batch if the right people get their hands on these (i'm thinking influencers, game critics, but the kind of people who are receptive to new ideas and) and the games are worth playing, it could become a must-have item. If either of these fail, it will fall into relative obscurity, as these products usually do
- shearskill 7y agoI want to be mad that I can’t play Firewatch on my phone but I hope I can never play it on my phone.
- Reason077 7y agoIt's a smart looking design. But that recessed speaker grille is going to fill up with fluff and grime pretty quickly. Especially if kids use it!
- jedimastert 7y agoI could smell some Teenage Engineering influence when I first saw it. That being said, I do kinda want one. It's a neat little bit of design.
- Angostura 7y agoThis is so wird, I just want one to support the weirdness A new game every week? Presumably subscription-based - which I'm less wild about.
- html5web 7y agoPanic team is amazing. Neat product. You guys combined virtual gaming with physical elements. Congratulations!!!
- Laptop_Gaming 7y agoStrange. I've found the opposite to be true. They do a pretty decent job explaining why you need a web server and how to make a basic one. Once it's set up, there are tons of examples and resources to look at. https://gamalaptop.vn/laptop-gaming/ https://gamalaptop.vn/laptop-gaming/
- learc83 7y agoI refuse to believe that anyone came up with a crank based input system organically. Here's what I think happened. They decided that they wanted to make a low power black and white game system for people to use while camping. They decided that a crank charger was the best solution for this and went ahead with development. Further into the process they discovered that they couldn't get the power budget low enough to make cranking a viable option, but they were too far along to abandon it completely. Then someone had a brilliant idea. Lets make the crank an input system, and develop crank based games.
- dschadd 7y agoOccam's Razor
- herpes 7y agoSure, but why a crank that's going to snap off, instead of say a scroll-wheel or track-ball? Both of those are mechanically solid and well-established input devices.
- throwawaymath 7y agoI'm skeptical of this explanation only because the idea of cranking a handheld gaming system has been reasonably debunked by a variety of commenters in this very thread. I would expect (possibly naively) that the creators of this hardware knew - at the ideation stage, prior to any meaningful development - that literally cranking the machine to recharge it would never work.
- moron4hire 7y agoI get the impression that you may not have played a lot of indie jam games. A hand-crank is one of the least weird things I've seen done. Hell, I once made a game where the controller was two people arm wrestling each other. At least a crank is practically usable. As a self-described inveterate hobbyist, I completely understand looking around a workshop full of parts and saying "gee, what could we do with that?" And buying parts completely at random just to full future sessions of "Mystery Meat Monday"
- thebiglebrewski 7y agoEverything Teenage Engineering touches is gold
- cftorres 7y agoIt has a really high price for just a crank and a good design. I think that I could wait for the day games are launched, perhaps they will be long enough and entertaining. I still dont have much expectations.
- spookybones 7y agoLateral thinking with withered technology.
- joshstrange 7y agoHmm, I was expecting this to be like the PGS and friends kickstarter scams but it's by Panic which I respect very much. I've used almost everything they've made and I've played Firewatch (Great story, not really a game as much as a choose-your-own-adventure-story but your choices don't matter). I'm probably not going to be buying this day 1 but this is very interesting and if anyone can do it Panic can. Best of luck to them!
- hbcondo714 7y agoMark Zuckerberg apparently tried to buy Panic, the creator of Playdate https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/24/panic-playdate-facebook-offer/ https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/24/panic-playdate-facebook-...
- andrekandre 7y ago＞ He didn't want to be part of another Silicon Valley software company gobbled up by a giant. this is why i love panic, they are independent, creative and have genuine passion for their art... i’d love someday to start a company like that and playdate, reading that intro page made me genuinely smile, what a cool product idea
- Laptop_Gaming 7y agohttps://gamalaptop.vn/laptop-gaming-cu-gia-re-tphcm/ https://gamalaptop.vn/laptop-gaming-cu-gia-re-tphcm/