Write Playdate Games in Zig | Hacker News Reader

Write Playdate Games in Zig

gist.github.com

143 pointshasheddan26 comments

Oh wow, thanks for the post here, hasheddan! Just an FYI for everyone, I had heard people were interested in writing Zig for the Playdate, so I put out some code I have for a game I've been developing on Twitch.

I do plan on having a more complete template in a proper Github repo at some point in the future when the code is more complete. When that is finished I'll post it on my Twitter @dbokser91. Feel free to reach out if anyone has questions about this code!

Oh, yes, this is Panic's game system.

I didn't follow that the project had made so much progress. Damn, it looks insanely cool. A black & white screen is quite limiting for games, though.

Zig looks like a perfect language for such a platform.

Applying limits is a catalyst for creation. Not having to deal with limitless colors, in Panic's Playdate example, frees up to think about gameplay, mechanics, and story instead.

Color does appeal to buyers, though. A B/W game system is doomed to a niche position.

The PlayDate was intentionally designed to be a niche product, so that doesn't really seem to detract at all from the platform.

Why is a niche position bad? Panic's goal isn't to dominate the handheld games market.

It's made by a company that publishes niche games, in collaboration with a company that designs niche hardware. Finding an interested niche was the goal.

Personally, I think it’s an interesting gimmick, but if I’m being honest I wouldn’t say that dealing with color actually limits my ability to think about other things when developing software/games.

It is insanely cool, and fun. For sure it would be a different type of fun with a color screen, and not all to the benefit.

For one thing, they’re somewhat expensive for little toys: $179. I bet a megacorp making 10 million at a time could do it more cheaply, but Panic seems to be doing it in batches of thousands. A backlit color screen would boost that cost. Then they’d need a bigger battery to provide the same life (~8 hours playtime), which would increase cost and maybe size.

Then yes, while the games would be cooler in some ways, they’d also take more time to develop. One nice thing about Playdate gameplay so far is that it feels very pure: just a few controls and an interesting puzzle. They’ve distilled the fun down to as simple an experience as they can.

That $179 price includes 24 newly made games (by that I mean not just tossing some retro roms on the device) by various developers, including some bigger names.

I'm sure those developers are getting a cut of that for compensation for their efforts. Wouldn't be surprised if at least $40-50 of that cost is just going to the developers of those games. Assuming there's 24 developers, that means they're only getting between $1-2 per device sold, that's nothing huge.

Panic have said that the parts alone cost ~$90 per device. That doesn't include assembly, shipping, writing the OS, developing the SDK, etc. Plus the season games. In all, the price seems very reasonable.

I agree, I preordered one. I'm in wave 3, so hopefully I'll get it before the end of the year.

I also already have the gameplay to one of my video games ported to Playdate (using Lua). Still need to improve graphics, add sound, figure out how to make menus look nice with only 1 color graphics, etc., and I wasn't going to release it until I tested it on an actual device, not just the simulator.

I am also in group 3, in the 18000s (order #). I'm still kicking myself because I didn't set an alert and order one right away, but instead waited until the end of the day to put in my order. But I've waited this long, I can wait a bit longer.

So after watching their teaser [1], playdate is a handheld gaming device with exclusive games on it every week available via WiFi.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdF3CnFvxg4

Waiting for the Doom port. Though serious question: what if you get a game you really like can you opt to keep it? Is it a one game at a time?

From their FAQ:

Q: Do games get deleted when the week is over? A: Absolutely not. You keep the games forever.

https://help.play.date/games/season/

No, the games stack up. Every Monday we get 2 new games, and all the prior games stay on the device. A Playdate has 4GB, and games are pretty small, so there’s lots of room. Panic has this documented — https://sdk.play.date/1.11.1/Inside%20Playdate.html#_game_si...

You can delete games and then download them again. Panic fully supports sideloading games, too.

https://devforum.play.date/t/doom-on-playdate/852

Appears to be something like a Zig SDK for https://play.date/

what a refreshing language, everything is in zig including the build script! that's perfect

Last time I checked, doing things like that seemed forbidden by Playdate's SDK license. Did it change already?

No, lol.

That's what the world needs... More plastic garbage

Wow, that is shortsighted. The Playdate development community has cultivated a sense of art and exploration in gamedev from AAA to indie devs that I haven't seen in a long time! (Or at least since the PICO--8.)

Eh.... I kind of agree with parent actually. This could easily have been a VM for phones and PCs the intended audience almost certainly already have. Instead it produces a niche product that I suspect will 40% be bought to look good on people's shelves, 20% with vague intention to develop for it that never gets realized so it ends up in a drawer like so many Raspberry Pis and Arduinos, and 90% will be in a landfill in 30 years.

I might have bought it in that case, but even though I know some of the developers listed for this thing are incredibly good, I just don't need more trinkets in my life personally, not even taking into account the environmental cost (which is admittedly relatively tiny).

No it's hand cranked plastic garbage.

I dunno, I'm holding one in my hands right now and it is a pretty solid li'l device with a cute plastic exterior and a unique input scheme.

You do realize that the crank isn't for charging it, right? It comes with a color-matched USB-C cable.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com