Very cute, but $229 is a WILD price point.
I was thinking the same. Read the article, thought about getting one and then thought again
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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
#32My 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.
That sounds rad. I’d love to get my kids into this. Got any links to your particular setup?
Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design
#33Panic had a booth at Portland Retro Gaming Expo last year, they were super nice and the Playdates were a lot of fun to play with. Nice to see that people are continuing to enjoy the console, the production process seemed like a nightmare.
Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design
#34My 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.
That sounds rad. I’d love to get my kids into this. Got any links to your particular setup?
The game dev environment they’re talking about is MakeCode Arcade. I’m also a big fan of it.
There are a number of little handheld gadgets that you can use with MakeCode—scroll down on the homepage and there’s a section that shows them all:
Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design
#35It’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.
If it had a backlight, I would have bought one by now.
Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds rad. I’d love to get my kids into this. Got any links to your particular setup?
The game dev environment they’re talking about is MakeCode Arcade. I’m also a big fan of it. There are a number of little handheld gadgets that you can use with MakeCode—scroll down on the homepage and there’s a section that shows them all: https://arcade.makecode.com/
Yeah that’s it! I recognize the Micro Bit Arcade Shield and the Retro Arcade as what he’s been using when he shows me demos.
I LOVE that he gets to code in Scratch but can jump into Python or JavaScript at any time without the IDE changing. It’s a clear stepping stone.
Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design
#37The Playdate looks like what you'd make if someone only described the games kids made and shared on the TI-83 graphing calculator and then asked you to build a device.
It’s for Gen-X dads to buy and pay themselves on the back about “productive constraints” while they play games that suck.
Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design
#38Everyone is talking about the Playdate but I have a related Duke story about undergrad classes incorporating new hardware. My Digital Signal Processing course (ECE major) made a big deal about using these new things called iPods for class. Everyone got an iPod... for the semester. Even at Duke tuition prices you only got to borrow it. My recollection of the class work part was using a little piezo sensor that plugged into the microphone/headphone jack and recording your heart beat as a voice memo while doing a couple different activities. Maybe ten minutes for the semester. Then back at the computer doing a FFT to determine your heart rate. The lazy kids just got a copy of someone else's recording. This would have been 2004 or 2005. I think it was the third generation with clickwheel and monochrome screen.
Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design
#39Re: 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…
A $200 textbook should absolutely be out of line
Re: Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design
#40It’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.
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