With almost laughably low power, a monochrome screen, and unique controls, niche-micro console Playdate shouldn't make any sense in a world of modern gaming. Yet, it's near impossible not to love it. www.wired.com/story/three-...

Equally excited and TERRIFIED to finally do this. Games journalism is in a rough state, so we've decided to get involved to highlight games that we think pave a positive future for the industry. And we named the outlet the best/dumbest thing possible. welcome to noclip_2

And... they’ve done it again. Setting a price lower than most titles of comparable quality, complexity, and scope. While it’s certainly generous for players, which is honestly nice, it also raises the bar in a way that can be truly challenging for other indie devs to match.

silksong, honey...... a 80 hour game does not belong in the $20 price category...... us indies with 20 hour games really need that space for healthy expectations...

I’d like to talk a little bit about my process of creating the key art for Herdling (thread: 1/10)

Exclusively working with 1-bit pixel art for over two years now. The duality of black and white is fascinating: the lack of color makes it seem a bit dull at first but at the same time it's a neutral canvas for your mind to interpret and fill in the gaps i.e. color, tone and emotions.

You can just do stuff, you know?

Embracing my inner nerd and going for a Thinkpad T/X 2-in-1 as my new portable machine. Read great things about the durability/repairability of these models which became important to me after the poor quality of MS - keyboard and pen died after 2, battery and thus full device died after 3.5 years.

Hey! check out this article written by Ricardo Gallegos at @butwhytho.net about us! and our game CatchaDiablos! :D

I'm going to present my current Playdate-project next Monday at @indietreff.bsky.social in Hamburg. It's called 🛡️G l o o m G a t e⚔️ and it's an action RPG with reaction based fights, a node based overworld, Souls-Like elements and still looooots of missing features. But I'm getting there😅

Birds - casual. Runner - present. Playdate - crank?! Join @zerocounts.bsky.social as he winds through Casual Birder🐦 #SGDQ2025

Our next chat is with @play.date and Panic Studios co-creator, @cabel.panic.com. Cabel is a designer, developer, and co-founder involved with publishing standout indie games such as Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game, and the Playdate handheld. Subscribe to stay in the loop: bit.ly/43RMgx9

Excited to release a demo of Owlet's Embrace! If you own a Playdate, download it over here: strupf.itch.io/owlets-embrace I'm also moving the full release into 2026. This is allows me to realize my full vision of the game - nonlinear world, replayability, multiple bosses, fleshed out narrative!

Swapping between (B) to grapple and (B) to attack. The companion's position indicates which mode is active. What initially started as a workaround for the Playdate's constraints became a natural, intentional and smoothly integrated part of the gameplay.

Mockup for the snow area including subtle parallax foreground elements. The "bad part" about getting better at making assets is that eventually you redo them not only once but sometimes twice just because you improve so much and the old assets don't hold up against the new ones anymore...

I’m gonna allow myself a moment of pride in my workplace here and note that we are currently on the front page of The Verge with a game we’re publishing (Big Walk) and a handheld console we make (Playdate). Panic is a company of 30. We don’t have investors. We’ve been around for 28 years 🙂

"The Playdate might be more of a Nintendo console than Nintendo’s own console. …and at half the price 😉 www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/play...

My favourite picture I took this year in spring so far.

Making sound effects from scratch for the first time is humbling. What should that action sound like? I mean, exactly, in detail? And how to arrive there? Slowly getting the hang of it. But the only thing I can focus on in daily life is how all the stuff sounds like.

Usually it makes me think it's like a lesser version of the game being referenced! I prefer genre descriptions, ie "Roguelike-Puzzle Game W/ an Architectural Twist! - Blue Prince" or something like that

Hello!! 👋 Join us for our next Playdate Update, diving deep into everything you need to know about Season Two! 📅 Premieres Thurs., April 17 @ 10 AM PT ➡️ live.panic.com

WIP main menu. Design goals: - playful and fun - intuitive - seamless transition into gameplay In the future the owlet will be asleep in the save room. The companion will fly through the "4th wall" from menu into the gameplay scene upon starting and gently wake up the owl to continue the game.

Owlet's Embrace is my take on handcrafting a unique metroidvania to a high standard, aiming to create one of the best 2D experiences on the #playdate. - Multiple careful boss designs - 16-bit era inspired OST - high FPS through a 100% custom engine - speedrun mode - ... 🪶 play.date/games/owlets...

Put down pins to remind your future-self of important places in Owlet's Embrace! A quality map is important to me so I'm trying to get the most out of the #playdate here. play.date/games/owlets-embrace/ More news to come in spring 🪶 #indiegame

Nominees for Most Anticipated Game 🏅Comet by Team Comet @guv-bubbs.bsky.social, @drew-lo.bsky.social, @flipdock.bsky.social, Maria, @xmenekai.bsky.social & @mouflon.cloud 🏅Devils on the Moon Pinball by @amanogames.bsky.social 🏅Midnight Raider by Lumi Creative 🏅Owlet's Embrace by Lukas Wolski

Owlet getting support from a little companion! The spear grants access to weapon attacks but you can't double jump or wall climb anymore. Swap back to the grappling hook for more mobility and your companion will carry the spear while also giving its best to attack nearby enemies. #playdate

Jump Truck is out on the #playdate! play.date/games/jump-t... media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2l...

Visual polish! Spikes and obsidian now show a dynamic glare effect to make them more visible. Obsidian is different from other terrain because you can neither climb it nor use the grapple hook on it. A clear visual indicator helps with readibility. #playdate #gamedev

Double your time estimates

That "indie" is where innovation happens generally isn't true anymore. We iterate to breakthroughs. At large, indie is more risk-averse & homogenous than it's been - publishers gatekeep, focus on graphics, and balloon budgets. Innovation comes from self-published games launching their practice game.

Voting for the #playdate community awards is live! Always looking forward to this event. Please consider Owlet's Embrace as your most anticipated upcoming game. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe73L1ya7TquC5mgOWWYINkVX2eDeKwJRVbevll_2uTQA93wQ/viewform Catalog 🪶 play.date/games/owlets-embrace/

A test level to try wall climbing and double jumps in quick succession. Both use stamina which can be increased throughout the game. Notice how wall jumping still remains available to you even if stamina runs out.

I often dislike excessive quest markers and direct advice where to go in games. "Better go here and there. Oh, check that area" and off I go, following markers like on a GPS and crossing them out. Is this just to save the player from cluelessly wandering around and prevent "wasting time"?

The longer I program the more tired I get by language discussions e.g. C vs. Rust vs. Zig etc. Choose a lang which allows you to build your thing. If you are competent you can program in any lang with ease - your skills transfer. It's just a tool, not an identity. Don't get limited by a bubble.

Excited for S2 for the #playdate, especially because it'll fulfill the original vision @panic.com had for S1. Nothing better than finding a real gem alongside surprise games you might not have bought by their cover. But now you'll give them a shot anyway, peaking outside your usual preferences.

Implemented a modified .qoa audio format on the Playdate (qoaformat.org). Quality to compression ratio is incredible. .qoa over .adpcm means 20% less filesize - or 25% more music!

I'm so happy that I got the opportunity to showcase my upcoming game during the #playdate Update yesterday. Owlet's Embrace is going to be released on Catalog late 2025! 🪶 Wishlist it today already: play.date/games/owlets-embrace/

My 1-bit rework of my game's cover art! I don't like the look of converted images so I manually created a native 1-bit version over several days. I really wanted to have the cover on the #playdate. #pixelart

Hello!! 👋 Join us for our next Playdate Update spotlighting developers from upcoming Playdate games, as well as some other fun news! 👀✨ 📅 Premieres Thurs., Oct 31 at 10:00 AM PT ➡️ live.panic.com

Recreated the character illustration of my owlet in 1 bit! Sunday afternoon well spent. #pixelart #playdate

Sometimes wish Discord didn't become so dominant. Discord made the chat the first class citizen, whereas threading of discussions is kind of hidden from the interface. Can't keep track of discussions. It's a real time town chatter where you just miss out on information if you weren't online.

Got weapon attacks into the game. Holding a weapon overrides the grappling hook and air jumps, though. Fighting back or mobility - choose the tool for the situation at hand. Quick button press for a stab, hold for stronger and bigger slashing. #playdate #gamedev

I started working on my 3D engine for #playdate a little over 3 months ago, and took copious footage of the milestones and interesting failures. All footage is timestamped with the date of capture. Enjoy! #gamedev

They're getting increasingly rare but I love night programming. Everything's quiet, nothing needs my attention, there's nothing coming up anymore. For practical reasons I'm trying to do it in the morning but it's not the same because a whole day filled with tasks is waiting for me.

The #playdate feels to me like I imagine making and playing games back in the rose-tinted good ol' days I only read of was like. Small niche of players and game makers. Experimental and simple games encouraged. Programming in C/Lua. One single limited hardware config. I'm glad @panic.com made it.

First post here, let's roll! Making a #playdate game, some of you may have seen it once or twice.