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What is a Playdate?
The Playdate is a small hand held game system with a crank, buttons (D-pad, a, b), and a small black and white screen (similar to e-paper).
With dimensions of 76 × 74 × 9 mm, the console can easily fit into most pockets for on the go game playing.
Panic is the company that created the Playdate. You might have heard of Panic from playing Untitled Goose Game or Firewatch. Or you might have used Mac apps such as Transmit or Coda (renamed to Nova).
The CEO and co-founder of Panic gave an in depth talk about the story behind the creation of the Playdate which is entertaining and informative if you would like to go deeper.
Nice!
These are some things that I enjoyed about the Playdate:
- You get 24 free games (also called “season one”) 2 games delievered each week until you have them all. It’s delightful to see that notification light that there’s new games to play at the beginning of owning this game system.
- Games aren’t limited to their catalog, you can also build your own games using their SDK or side load games from places such as itch.io.
- The crank as an input device is surpisingly delightful and unique.
- Most games have enhanced details. We’re talking beautiful storytelling, visuals, and music.
- This game system is minimally connected to the internet to allow downloading of games, but otherwise there aren’t distractions that would exist on a smart phone.
- The battery life has been great so far. Marketing copy for this product boasts 8 hours when playing games and 14 days while in standby clock mode. This has matched my experience. They also use a generic usb-c charger as well, so it’s likely you already have the plug/cord for it (though it comes with one).
Oh.
These are some things that I think could be improved with the Playdate:
- This game system does not have a backlight, so if you don’t have good lighting it will be hard to see the screen.
- I’m left handed and would love to have a “lefty” version with the crank on the left side of the game system.
- Right now the only body color is yellow which is great, but I would like more color options especially when having multiple Playdates in my house.
- There is not a way to shut it off. It will go in standby clock mode which is fine, but I would like the ability to fully shut the game system off without needing to let the battery die.
- Right now for sound, it is wired headphones only. Looking through their website it appears that bluetooth is likely coming soon with a software update. To my knowledge the wifi chip they have in the game system should also double as bluetooth, so I don’t think a hardware update is needed for this.
Where and how to buy
I’m seeing a few resellers, but the official place to buy and where I bought one was from the official playdate shop.
My opinion
I would highly recommend buying this game system. The Playdate is a lovely distraction from a world full of advertisements, pop ups, and notifications.
As a kid, I could sit for hours and play video games, but as an adult I find that I do not have much time to devote to playing video games. The games on this system are perfect for that. You pick up the game system, play for 15-30 min here and there plus the controls aren’t complicated…so you’re not spending time trying to remember how to play the game.
Also anything Panic creates, I know will be high quality and well thought out.
Side story
Panic holds a special place in my heart. Back when I recently relocated to Portland, OR I was looking to get out of my current company and saw that they had an open customer support role. I was currently working in customer support, but moonlighting by taking night/weekend classes at a local code school to switch into being a software engineer. I went into their office and did the full interview round (including an interview with their CEO, Cabel Sasser). The next day I received the nicest rejection email from Cabel stating that they really liked me, but think that I would be better suited to becoming a software engineer and recommended that I continue down that path.
Anyway I highly recommend the Playdate and anything that Panic creates, because I know it will be high quality in terms of the aesthetics and story telling.