11
votes
Playdate Update - 6/8/2021
@Playdate:
Hi. Are you ready for a ✨#PlaydateUpdate✨?We have a lot to catch up on. Our first-ever video update has details on Season One, future games, some surprises and info on future pre-orders. Please join us!🗓 Premieres Tuesday, June 8th at 9:00 AM PDT➡️ https://t.co/cfSNsgTqeQ pic.twitter.com/dSClZQmkUy
I applaud people trying to innovate, but ... the hand crank looks like it'd be cool for maybe a few minutes, and then it'd be too little ROI on kilojoules spent. Games had better use it sparingly or UX will be poor, I reckon.
I find the whole thing quite cool but it feels like I'm finding it cool for the wrong reasons. It's like a genuine "lifestyle" gadget. People say this about lots of actually useful products to make fun of hipsters but here I genuinely feel like it's style over substance.
That damn crank... it's a story. It's an elevator pitch. It's a gag to go viral and people telling each other how they got "that handheld console with a crank". And I don't think there's anything else to it, that's literally its purpose. With main features like this, usually, you can actually imagine scenarios in which you might enjoy using them.
For example, I'm using the Switch both docked and undocked and love that the joycons are detachable and I got the potential of all that out of the very first trailer they showed. The crank... it's essentially an input-wheel. It needs to be used with a whole hand and makes the other buttons unusable until you stick it back in. I imagine it's awkward to hold the rest of the console with your left hand while using the d-pad as well. I'm trying to imagine actual gameplay and all I can think of are flappy bird style one-button games where the crank controls the speed a bit. The few trailers they showed seemed to mostly feature games of that type.
Oof, so this got a bit long. Basically, I feel targeted with this thing and simultaneously like I'd be scammed out of $179 to be part of a club that revolves around crank-jokes. I like games that actually put gameplay first, and this device almost seems like a mockery of this. It's like a game console for people who are so over game design.
I really love the idea of a portable console for indie games, but it seems expensive for what it is. I feel like there's a market for a 'pico-8' alike DS, designed for easy development and maybe with a gimmick or two of its own thrown in. I just don't see it happening at 179$.
Same, this looks like a very fun toy, and I like the idea of buying a hackable toy and getting a year+ of experiences and premiers with it. Problem is that a Switch Lite is just $20 more, and while you would have to purchase your own games, the fact that their in the same ballpark as one another price wise draws comparison.
Update: The update has premiered and they have announced...
https://youtu.be/DeWGukDrc1U