#panic playdate

The future of fridge-mounted electronic entertainment.

Mars after Midnight & my pizza box case. After all these years i still find myself coming back to this thing. It’s got so much charm.

[🅗Twitch] [🅗Carrd] [🅗YouTube] [🅗 FA] [🅗Ko-fi]

A sweet little game about helping strangers. Every night, work through a friendly Papers Please to ensure the intended attendees make it to their support meeting; do a tidy “Towers of Hanoi” to clear up the refreshments station; and set up tomorrow’s session before a well-earned sleep. A single night makes for five or ten minutes of cartoon kindness, full of tactile actions and goofy audiovisual design, and each usually has a unique gimmick. The archetypal good Playdate game.

I recognised Shaun Inman’s name on this but it took me ages to place him - he’s been showing up in my iPhone music player since I bought the The Last Rocket’s soundtrack over a decade ago! The Ratcheteer has similar vibes of chunky, GBC-era pixel art, tight retro level design, and earworm music, this time from collaborator 8bitmatt. I’ve been thinking about friction in games a lot lately, and the way The Ratcheteer makes you switch gadgets constantly to efficiently navigate its stages gives it bags of character. There’s a wonderful sense of place and a sweet little storyline tying it all together to make a little snow globe of adventure. The archetypal Playdate game - I can’t imagine this being anywhere else.

I grew up playing Silent Service 2 for the Amiga and Wolfpack for the C64 (when it would load…), so I’m delighted to discover there’s a detailed WW2 Atlantic theatre submarine simulator in development for Playdate.

(The Playdate console, and the “Realms of Imagination” essay collection from the British Library’s fantasy exhibition.)