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Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

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Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

#21

Post by fn-mote »

Re: price point

HN readers who can write a console game before bedtime are not the target audience. A handheld device that Just Works and creates an authentic experience is worth a lot.

For a college class, a $200 textbook isn’t out of line (the ones people still buy…), which makes this a very reasonable investment in one’s education.

Are there other, cheaper routes? Of course. For an introduction? Fewer, and nobody wants to be told to use learn the principles using Scratch - even if that can actually work.

Making something real is inspiring, and this feels real.

Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

#22

Post by omoikane »

Playdate development has been a great experience. The limited colors and RAM helps me reduce my project scope such that I would actually finish them, and the limited CPU makes optimization exercises more rewarding. And it's not just all constraints either -- the sound/synth system is quite nice, and the crank is fun input method that takes some hands-on experience to fully appreciate.

The only downside is that there are still relatively few people with Playdates, and that puts an upperbound on how many people get to play your games.

Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

#23

Post by Waterluvian »

My 9 year old is doing a game dev course in town where they use the BBC Micro Bit, a retro arcade peripheral (buttons, screen, sound, handheld), and some Microsoft game dev IDE. It’s incredibly compelling and feels a lot like this. But less than 1/3 the price and much more extensible and well-featured (the screen is colour!). I’m not sure I really see the value of the Playdate.

Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

#26

Post by sssilver »

It’s a wonderful device and I own one but lack of screen backlight makes it practically unusable, and at its price point almost vulgarly expensive.

God knows how much I wanted to use and love it but it just started gathering dust in a closet after a week because of this.

Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

#27

Post by smallerize »

oidar wrote: post #8

I love the aesthetic of the playdate, the educational outreach, and how easy the whole platform is. It’s just so well designed all around. But the only way I am able to play it is by casting the screen to my computer, the screen is so tiny. Otherwise, I love it.

How do you do the screen casting?

Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

#28

Post by Jtsummers »

smallerize wrote: post #27
oidar wrote: post #8

I love the aesthetic of the playdate, the educational outreach, and how easy the whole platform is. It’s just so well designed all around. But the only way I am able to play it is by casting the screen to my computer, the screen is so tiny. Otherwise, I love it.

How do you do the screen casting?

https://help.play.date/games/mirror/ - probably this.

Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

#29

Post by socalgal2 »

chip_franzen wrote: post #4

Very cute, but $229 is a WILD price point.

Yea, you could get a similar experience (for some definition of similar) with Pico-8 which is also a constrained system.

Even better, the creator supports educators super cheap

https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php?page=schools

Yea, it's not custom hardware, but you can share your creations with everyone since it runs on Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and there are lots of cheaper devices that will run it if you want a handheld.

Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

#30

Post by galleywest200 »

socalgal2 wrote: post #29
chip_franzen wrote: post #4

Very cute, but $229 is a WILD price point.

Yea, you could get a similar experience (for some definition of similar) with Pico-8 which is also a constrained system. Even better, the creator supports educators super cheap https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php?page=schools Yea, it's not custom hardware, but you can share your creations with everyone since it runs on Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and there are lots of cheaper devices that will run it if…

Also mentioning Lexaloffle’s most recent project the Picotron which is a fantasy workstation instead of just a console.

https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php

With no technical upper limit on file size (as well as being able to export for other OSes) you could, in theory, publish a full game from this.

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