An In-Depth Review Of The Playdate, The Games, The SDK And Where It Might Be Going | Review

[Music] play date is one of the most interesting pieces of hardware i've come across but most of what you hear about it when you hear about it is focused on the crank however as polarizing as that little handle is i find that there's so much more to the play date every aspect of this little wonder machine is deliberately chosen from the black and white screen to the very unique way the games are being delivered then there are the surprising hardware capabilities when you see them for the first time you'll immediately notice that this isn't your usual retro handheld it's a modern machine with modern capabilities but then the horizon widens even more and you realize it's not just about playing games it's also about making them so for this video i'm going to try to break it up into usual parts first we have a look at the hardware even taking a little peek inside then the games and finally i'm going to try to make one myself with varying degrees of success so if you've been on a fence in one of these or if you saw it somewhere else and were curious what all the fuzz is about maybe this video is for you if so swipe right and come along on a play date at around 74 to 76 millimeters on either side it's an almost perfectly square little box with a thickness of around nine millimeter it's also just ever so slightly chunkier than a sixth generation ipad mini then there are the four buttons two for various context commands and two for action a super clicky d-pad and a single mono speaker to the right which sounds great by the way it's much more competent than the initial looks or the games might suggest don't crank the volume too high though as it does start to break up a bit [Music] at the center or slightly off the left if you will we have a one bit black and white screen with a resolution of 400 by 240. one bit means the pixels will be either on or off now if you've been kicking around on this planet for long enough you will no doubt remember devices back in the days that sometimes had something called a grayscale display at least i hope that's the right term those displays were capable of showing multiple levels of grey the original gameboy for example had four levels according to wikipedia the play date is not capable of such things but this intentional design choice creates a very distinctive look added at a much higher resolution than that of its ancestors as well as an increased refresh rate and you'll be presented with some of the most beautifully and smoothly animated pixel art you'll ever see [Music] if you flipped a good thing around and take a look at the back we get a nicely embossed play date branding as well as some reassuring government certifications but as much as i would love to talk about this underwater cheeseburger icon here we should probably get to the most distracting part of this little bundle of joy the crank this twist is probably what sets the plate apart the most from other handhelds when it comes to its input choices in its resting state it's neatly tucked into the side but when call to action can be pulled out and whipped around in public for everybody to enjoy but even when not called for it's pretty enjoyable to fidget around with it as it is very solid and firm if you look closely you can also spot the construction which works by a little ball that drops into a grove on either end it also doesn't feel as if it would break anytime soon given that it is made of metal but since it is a much more complex mechanism than that of a button or d-pad for example i am hoping that it will lost during the platelets lifespan there's also a 3.5 millimeter combo jack for headphone and microphone so you can technically plug in a mic or use the built-in one which is right next to it to the right we have a usbc port for charging as well as developing games which we'll be getting into later the construction is otherwise very simple there are just four screws holding the back plate in they look a little weird at first due to the holes which i believe only exist for accessory reasons like this neat folding case that contains small pins to make sure it's perfectly aligned every time the case is also magnetic on both sides and will sandwich the date in a soft rubbery embrace very similar to an ipad folio case but unlike those the date won't react or shut down when being closed you also can't use it as a stand use case is probably reserved for the yet to be released desktop stand and pen holder which is a seriously awesome looking accessory that i must purchase when it becomes available but let's get back to the disassembly a regular flathead will suffice to loosen up the screws after that you need something thin to pry open the plastic clasps that still hold the back plate in it's a bit annoying but once you clear one side you can simply move along the edge to pop out the rest upon removing the back plate we see a small magnet glued to the back then there's everything else including a little warning message telling us to be careful and that we will be held accountable for any damages to the right we get a 760 milliamp hour battery that'll give us around 8 hours of gameplay or 14 days of standby one curious part about the play dead is that you cannot turn it off there is no option for it in the menu and hitting the power button on the top will only lock it in that state the play date will display the time in one of its three configurable ways analog digital or word fun fact here the screen will change from a light lettering on a black background to a black lettering on a white background depending on the time of day although this isn't an ink display it uses so little power that it did last for two weeks as advertised when you leave it on the desk without touching it i've been enjoying this quite a bit as i was once looking for something like this to give me a more stylized display of passing time so i feel delighted with this extra feature anyway let's get back to the inside there are further eight screws holding everything together you don't have to remove all of them to lift out the skeleton some are holding in the main board but if you do you can separate all the pieces at once but be careful when you do so as there are delicate ribbon cables connected to the display and the crank speaking of the crank it is possible to lift it out of the case which i won't be doing here but one really interesting aspect of its construction is the use of a magnet to determine its position for comparison you probably have heard about the drift issue which plagues most modern analog sticks that's when they start to send out false signals even in their resting state drifting so to speak there's no remedy for this and there have been attempts to draw more attention to this issue but i recently learned that there is a technical solution for example on the steam deck you can buy electromagnetic replacement sticks that will not only cure this illness but actually increase accuracy why this hasn't been added to the first party controllers is beyond me but maybe this is all still very new i don't know but getting back to the play dates the crank uses the same mechanism so we should be safe from drifting issues the rest of the inside is pretty generic and as much as i enjoy poking around the innards of electronics i think it's time to move on to the softer side of things but if you want to learn more about the inner workings i would highly recommend the article and video over on ifixit.com which shows a much more detailed approach and explanation for us however it's time to crank it up to games the case of the play date games is quite an interesting one unlike most players in the retro handheld space which rely on an existing library through some sort of emulation or in the case of a more powerful device such as the steam deck which builds on top of an existing hardware platform in order to get to the games the play date is in a very unique position due to the fact that we've got an uncommon aspect ratio and an arguably very limiting 1-bit output there's no existing library that could be easily emulated it's simply too different the result however is much more beneficial to the playdate as every game ends up being designed specifically for it this creates an exclusivity when it comes to the titles but of course as it always is with new hardware it's not going to stop anybody from slapping a version of doom on here or any of the other titles that seem to get ported onto every platform imaginable heck somebody even managed to run skyrim on a pregnancy test at some point so who's to say that the play date will only ever have titles that solely exist on the play date but the point i'm trying to make is that the deliberate design choices force developers to create unique experience and those don't even have to include the crank as the rest of the controls are entirely sufficient for a full experience when you turn on a plate it for the first time you'll be greeted with two games and then two more every week for 12 weeks totaling 24 games that are generously included with your initial purchase now i loved this approach when i first heard about it and after going through these first 12 weeks i feel that this really encapsulates the idea of the play date which is to create these short fun little experiences that take you off on a journey or a short date if you will the fact that you don't get all 24 at once also gives you enough time to really appreciate every single title take the steam deck for comparison when i first got it i downloaded every game in my library i could think of but in the end maybe only played one for more than an hour granted my deck ended up sun setting a little early so it might be a bit of an unfair comparison but i'm sure you know what i mean when you get a new gpu or a brand new pc you'll no doubt go through your entire library and try out all of your old games what better way to test out that brand spanking 3090 than cs go those extra frames probably won't compensate for the lack of skill though at least not in my case but not on a play date there are no old titles and without some effort there won't be an onslaught of classics so i am forced into new waters which i love one of the first four games in your library is called casual birder a hipster pokemon snap if you will where you go around and try to take pictures of well birds the crank is used to pull focus on your camera and feels quite satisfying another one is white water wipeout a surfing game that reminded me of a playstation 2 title called surfroid mostly because i wasn't able to properly control the surfer back then but neither can i now you suck one of the more complex games if you can call it the game is boogie loops which is essentially a chiptune sequencer it comes with three tracks preloaded you can change using the various available sounds the controls are a bit challenging as it takes a while to get a hang of how everything works but shows off the capabilities and limitations of the hardware nicely it's pretty fun but be warned this one can steal many late night hours from you for the other titles as much as i'd love to talk about them i feel that i would spoil the fun for future play date owners as the practice of waking up in the morning and seeing the top led flashing is quite exciting what i can say is that there is a fairly wide array of genres within the first 24 titles some of which are truly uniquely created games while others are interpretations of existing puzzlers and arcade classics but with a twist or a crank if you will i most liked the adventure titles some of which felt like small interactive comic books for which i got a very special spot in my heart i hope most people will find at least something fun to enjoy in here and while not everything will wow you they are fun even if you just play them once and then forget about them you know like a first date there are no stakes and it's just about getting to know each other and figuring out if you want to continue or not or if you're dating somebody like me it's about figuring out where the nearest exit is 24 also didn't seem like a lot in the beginning but having all of them now shows off just how much that actually is you can luckily delete the ones you don't like that way you can limit your selection and keep the play date clean with only what you enjoyed but what if you're looking for something new while a date or a prize for the second season hasn't officially been announced yet we can only hope it'll be similar to the first one we'll be getting two games per week for a certain amount of time at least i hope that but if you can't wait there are two additional things you can do right now to get a lot more out of your playdate from the get-go panic the creators behind play-date have been very open to experimentation with your new offspring even before the hardware was released you were able to tank around with a virtual version and panic encouraged everyone to try and create their own experiences ahead of time and so people did and a lot they did when i first saw this list on edge.co i just got a big grain on my face especially seeing things like leak spin something that is more nostalgic and nonsense than anything else but it's a clear indication of the creative fun people have here take this one for example it's called a joke that's worth 99 cents in this game a catchy tune place in the background while a small character gets thrown into the scene the objective is to balance the character with your crank and catch the stars as they appear at different locations every time you do an additional paragraph after joke is being told if you fail everything resets and begins in you now i challenge you to not burst into laughter while trying to play this absolute ingenious concept this is exactly the type of game that truly makes my day so utterly nonsensical that i can't help but love it it made me forget everything for a minute and just enjoy the absolute silliness and pointlessness of everything everywhere all at once i find it hard to put into words how much i love seeing these kinds of games and i'm sure panic feels the same way they went into this fully embracing the community broadcasting their support to help people turn their ideas into reality games do after all make a system and the easier it is to make games the more people will do it and the better the games will get but for mortals like us who are not as capable it's very welcome to see that side loading is super easy too it just takes a couple of minutes once you get the game you simply log in online go to sideload and upload the zip file that contains the pdx then go to the settings on your play date then games and wait for the list to be refreshed scroll all the way down to the bottom until you see the section my games here you will find all the titles that you uploaded into your account you can then select the one you want to download and install it just like with the official games from the season pack you'll unwrap your new goodie and hopefully enjoy it if you have a playdate and haven't checked out these extras stop this video right now and go get yourself some games unless of course you want to make some games before we get into this a short disclaimer i'm not a developer nor a game designer so i won't be covering intricate details on how to do things but in a previous life i used to build simple websites first using php and then migrated over the world of front end where i spent my last days trying to make websites look pretty so my experience with understanding basic code will have an advantage over people who have never seen or written a single line that being said i do really think that making games for the play date is doable even as a complete newbie but you do have to commit time in order to achieve it i also didn't wanted to create a gap of months between this and the last video so what i set out to create was the simplest thing that i could think of which is the cheese turbulence logo waving away while the end credits tune plays in the background now after downloading leakspin i thought it would be cool if the crank would likewise control the tempo of the song so i began my work by downloading the sdk as well as watching a bunch of tutorial videos you essentially have three ways to make a game on the play date the first one is pop an online editor that lives completely in your browser pop obviously has its limitations but what makes it really cool is the fact that you don't have to write a single line of code in order to create a fully working game you start out with a basic setup of a movable character objects to collect and a level to walk around in you can then change the font edit or add more levels and play around with a really fun sequencer if you then need more you can also use pop script which gives you additional options but again you don't have to now i quickly learned that pulp wasn't gonna work for me i first thought i could use the sequencer to recreate this song but i couldn't figure out how to control it using the crank and by now i believe that's actually not possible it's not to say that you cannot create unique experiences but be very of the limitations however it is still very cool to see something like this exist entirely in your browser then there are two additional ways of creating a game that will require coding the first one being lua which is a lightweight embeddable scripting language the second one is native c using c from what i read and understand is the choice if performance is of the utmost importance think of it as riding a bike without training wheels while lua will be wood training wheels and pulp is essentially a tricycle i only checked out lua so if you're interested in how this works with c i'm sorry but you probably have to find somebody more capable i went ahead and began setting up the environment and if i as a semi-newbie may say was very easy to understand on how it works the basic structure of it was familiar to what i remember from my limited days as a web developer also working on a mac seemed easier as panic does have its own ide called nova which i actually used back when it was still called coda anyway using nova you can instantly try out your game by hitting command r which will compile and run it in the simulator if you can't wait for your physical play date to arrive you may actually download games from h.co and simply drag the pdx files into the simulator of course you will lose the magic of playing it on its intended hardware so i would advise against this at this point i would like to express my gratitude towards panic's incredibly well documented and easy to follow tutorials on how to set up and get things running it's been almost 7 years since i last coded so i was a bit rusty but still managed to pretty quickly get things up especially thanks to the numerous examples found in the sdk one of the examples was a midi player which instantly sparked an idea on how i was going to approach this since the credit tune was something i made using my synthesizer as a midi keyboard i was able to export it as a midi file after some tweaks i then added it to the folder and changed the path to the new file after this there are two things left to do for me somehow change the tempo using the crank and get that flag up and waving the tempo change took quite a while and while i'm not happy with how the code looks or works i'm simply not good enough to get this running within a reasonable amount of time in a cleaner way somebody with proper programming skills will probably look at this and say something along the lines of this is hilarious which is something that actually happened to me around 10 years ago back then i once tried to make a game using javascript it was a top top-down shooter and i got it running even having a real boss battle at the end with proper hit points and explosions and everything i was at a conference at one point and i met up with a real game deaf and i eagerly wanted to show him my code as i knew it wasn't good and had quite the memory leaks after he looked at it for a few minutes he started chuckling and utter the phrase this is hilarious to cut the story short i never went back to it in general i never felt that coding was something that i was particularly good at i can get things running but the result was never the most efficient nor easy to maintain approach anyway once again the point i'm trying to make is that if i can get something up and running on this screen you will be able to do so as well as i had the flag as a video i simply exported it at 400 by 240 i then went to a site to convert the video into a gif change it to 10 fps and imported it into the project gifs are natively supported and you'll end up with something called an image table which then lets you select each frame and displayed individually on the screen i use the get crank ticks function within the play dates update cycle to check for the movement during it i simply cycle through the available 10 frames either forward or backwards for the midi i couldn't figure out how to play it backwards so that feature is yet to be added or probably never will unless somebody else does it even though it's not perfect and even though it took me way longer than i would have wanted to i really enjoyed tinkering around with the sdk and while i wish something like this would have existed 15 years ago when i still dreamt of working in the gaming industry i'm glad that at least now i finally made something that is running on gaming hardware even if it isn't actually a game [Music] the play date is truly one of the most unique devices out on the market right now that's not because of the crank as mentioned at the beginning i feel that sometimes that part really overshadows these other capabilities at first glance people might misjudge it believing that the crank is the only unique selling point or that it is just another retro handheld trying to capitalize on the ongoing nostalgia boom looking at the specifications you might also push it off as a weak contender in the handheld space you won't find roaring horsepower here or blazing graphics displayed on a vibrant oled screen but don't let the initial appearance fool you there's quite a bit under the hood next to the physical controls there is a built-in microphone and accelerometer add to that wi-fi connectivity and bluetooth and maybe even bluetooth audio in the future please panic but that's not to say that the play date is perfect either i do have my issues with some of the choices the biggest one is unfortunately the screen as much as i love its looks i do find it difficult to use more often than not it either reflects the living bagel out of everything or is too dark and the lack of backlight really destroys any hope of having to sit on the bad side next to you for a pre-sleep snack then there's the lack of wireless audio i know you got a headphone jack but everything else in my possession these days is wireless i feel that releasing a device requiring wired headphones is the equivalent of shipping something with a micro usb connector it's not the end of the world but it's an inconvenience these issues don't seem to be that big of a deal but it bothered me considering everything else is so very carefully picked you can tell that there was a lot of thought that went into designing this deliberate limitations craft a very curated experience force a unique approach to game design and consumption that narrows it down to the essence to the games above everything else now i don't know anybody from panic and have never spoken to anybody from them although there are podcasts streams and much more one could consume to learn more about their inner workings so what i'm about to say might sound a little cheesy or maybe even plain wrong but their works over the last decade or so have always given me the impression that they pursue to create the things they feel the most passionate about and the play date is just another prime example of that it's more than just another gaming handheld it's a love letter to playing and creating video games so it's no surprise that it only took a couple of dates before i was completely swayed by this little adorable box and by now have completely fallen in love with it hey thank you so much for watching i hope you enjoyed another one of my ramblings it's been quite a hot august over here which made working on the videos a bit more difficult as the great outdoors are quite alluring if you want to get your hands on the flag thing i made i left a link to the game the source code and the tutorials i followed down in the description below so inspect it rip it apart and do whatever you want with it i hope you got some enjoyable weather on your side as well and that you got some time off from your busy work or school schedules anyway thanks a lot for watching again and see in the next one bye

Channel: Cheese Turbulence

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Id: 1uooAEcIOUU

Length: 22min 50sec (1370 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 27 2022