Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design

IIvoah about 5 hours ago 19 commentsRead Article on news.play.date

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Discussion (19 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

fn-mote•4 minutes ago

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.

hyperbolablabla•about 2 hours ago

Having made multiple (dare I say) fairly successful games on the Playdate, I can attest to how fantastic the developer experience has been and how easy it was for my non dev collaborators to get going. Pulp was a great in road for them to get started with game dev, and it's been a blast (despite how limiting Pulpscript is for a professional dev)

nosrepa•10 minutes ago

Not to mention that they just announced season three of games!

oidar•about 1 hour ago

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.

chip_franzen•about 2 hours ago

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

tombert•44 minutes ago

Yeah, I've thought about buying one in the past, but $229 is kind of rich for my blood.

I bought an ODROID-Go Ultra a few months ago for about $70. This can emulate the NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, and oodles of other consoles, and can play what are arguably some of the best games ever made. The Playdate is three times that price, and while I'm sure that some of the games are fun, I would have a hard time believing that any of them are beating Donkey Kong Country or Phantasy Star IV.

It might be an apples and oranges comparison, but in my mind they still occupy a similar niche.

rtpg•about 1 hour ago

If its any solace the screen is very good and the build quality is very high. You also just get a good set of games "for free" as part of the system.

I do think it's beyond "impulse buy" for sure, though.

testfrequency•about 1 hour ago

Bought mine for $179 when they were new, hadn’t realized the price went up so much.

hyperbolablabla•about 2 hours ago

It's very low volume, sadly this was unavoidable I think, given the extremely custom nature of the input

AFF87•about 2 hours ago

I was thinking the same. Read the article, thought about getting one and then thought again

Loughla•39 minutes ago

It's actually worth it if you have any kind of a commute. There are a lot of very fun games for it. And it's nice having a thing that isn't connected to the Internet to avoid the temptation of doom scrolling.

I bought mine pre release so it was like $50 cheaper even with the cover I think, but I would still pay the increased price for it. I thought it would collect dust, but it really is a great way to pass the time on the train. It scratches the original Gameboy itch for me without the needless stares from actually carrying a Gameboy.

I just wish they would release the docking station for it. I charge it next to my bed, so it could serve two purposes.

AFF87•36 minutes ago

Any game recommendations? You may have convinced me

throwway120385•about 2 hours ago

The 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.

bigiain•about 1 hour ago

You say that like it's a bad thing...

It fits, in my head, very much in that same toy niche as Teenage Engineering's Pocket Operator series of music making devices: https://teenage.engineering/products/po

flobosg•16 minutes ago

Teenage Engineering designed the Playdate, in case you didn’t know: https://teenage.engineering/designs/playdate

tshaddox•about 2 hours ago

I've been interested in these cute little things since they were first announced, but I still haven't pulled the trigger on the 229 USD price tag. Apparently with the education discount they're 195 USD, which still feels steep. But hey, given that the dev tooling is all free (including simulators), it would be fine to play around with game development even without buying the hardware.

larrry•about 1 hour ago

I played with mine for a couple months, put it down for a year, and played it for a couple more months recently. There are some good games and the device just oozes fun, I haven’t regretted it