[HN Gopher] Yoyozo: How I made a Playdate game in 39k
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Yoyozo: How I made a Playdate game in 39k
        
       Author : msephton
       Score  : 79 points
       Date   : 2023-11-22 00:44 UTC (22 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.gingerbeardman.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.gingerbeardman.com)
        
       | simlevesque wrote:
       | As a Yoyo enthusiast, you got my curiosity and it looks quite fun
       | !
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | Thanks, great to hear!
        
       | zuluonezero wrote:
       | I'm loving everything I see about the Playdate. This is how
       | gaming should "feel". Keep up the good work.
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | Many thanks! It's an absolute joy to develop for Playdate
         | (mostly because of the fixed, limited spec) and as much of a
         | joy to play games on (mostly because of the screen and form
         | factor).
        
         | yaky wrote:
         | You might also enjoy PICO-8, a virtual console in glorious
         | 128x128 16-color graphics, with bleepy sounds, and chiptune
         | music. The community is lovely and pretty active.
        
           | msephton wrote:
           | I've dabbled in PICO-8! Great fun. A small claim to fame
           | there--I was its first public user:
           | https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?uid=6
        
       | gainda wrote:
       | gosh seeing the gameplay unlocked an ancient memory ( read: 2007
       | ) of playing an indie game called xWUNG that had the same yoyo-
       | ing effect.
       | 
       | https://www.tigsource.com/2007/09/24/xwung/
       | 
       | https://www.mobygames.com/game/30068/xwung/
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | Oh, nice! I'd not heard of that one, but judging by the first
         | TIGSource link xWUNG takes inspiration from the same game I
         | did: Japanese cult classic Pendulumania (2000, CANO-Lab)
         | https://www.mobygames.com/game/17800/pendulumania/ with both of
         | those being mouse controlled. One of the challenges I had to
         | "solve" was how to move from analog to digital control.
        
           | gainda wrote:
           | awesome to get a little bit of insight :) thank you!
        
       | Toutouxc wrote:
       | > If you don't own a Playdate, well, what are you waiting for?
       | 
       | Waiting for them to start shipping to my country, actually :(
       | They're shipping to three neighboring countries though.
        
         | jxcl wrote:
         | It's also not clear if they're actually in stock. "Shipping
         | Late 2023" it says.
        
           | msephton wrote:
           | IIRC they ship in batches, and the current batch are
           | receiving their shipping notifications right now.
        
           | lovich wrote:
           | I was in group five and got mine in mid august
        
       | msephton wrote:
       | Just a friendly note to the editors to mention that the game
       | title is YOYOZO, all caps. The reason is aesthetics: it visually
       | echoes the audible repetition you get when saying the word. A
       | single capital Y and lowercase rest of the word ...just doesn't
       | hit the same way.
       | 
       | Fun fact: YOYOZO is a word I invented, a portmanteau of the words
       | yo-yo (as in the toy) and yozora (a Japanese word meaning "night
       | sky"). So new I got the hash tag all to myself on social media.
       | Almost a Googlewhack!? Cheers!
        
         | minimaxir wrote:
         | Hacker News submissions automatically title case all-caps and
         | sometimes all-lowercase in submissions by default, particularly
         | if it's the first word in the title (e.g. when you submit a
         | post about the graphics library ggplot2, HN corrects it to
         | "Ggplot2" which is definitely wrong:
         | https://hn.algolia.com/?q=ggplot2)
         | 
         | A workaround is to edit the title after submitting it, which
         | will not be automatically be corrected.
        
           | msephton wrote:
           | Interesting, because it was OK (as I typed it for submission)
           | for a while and then ...changed... not just the
           | capitalisation but also removing words and changing the units
           | from 39KB to 39k. The original correct title is preserved in
           | automated posts on social media at the moment it hit the top.
           | Anyway, I think it's far too late for me to edit it now. :)
        
             | 100721 wrote:
             | This is unfortunate. I find "39k" to be a lot less clear
             | than "39KB"
             | 
             | I first thought the title meant you had a strict budget of
             | $39,000
        
               | msephton wrote:
               | Tell me about it! (also: I wish) the 39KB is describing
               | file size.
        
       | Dudester230602 wrote:
       | I went with one of these: https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | Cool devices, I have one, but sadly they're not capable of
         | playing Playdate games.
        
       | yoyozzzzzz wrote:
       | Lol
        
       | yoyozzzzzz wrote:
       | > If you don't own a Playdate, well, what are you waiting for?
       | 
       | Waiting for Panic to actually support something longer than a
       | millisecond. Panic is small time Google - you can't trust
       | anything they create to be supported.
       | 
       | I would put a lot of money on them dropping PlayDate support
       | before they fulfill any of their promises.
        
         | lovich wrote:
         | They already completed their first season and the play date
         | itself is well made. For 229 including the cover I was quite
         | pleased with it
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | Unfair, I think. Playdate has been out for over 18 months now,
         | released April 2022, and is still available, selling and
         | shipping. There are over 400 games available, 100 of which are
         | on the official Catalog store. The device and infrastructure
         | has been in development for over a decade at this point.
        
       | wiredfool wrote:
       | It looks distantly related to the old CrystalQuest on the compact
       | Mac, especially in the indirection between movement of the mouse
       | (or whatever play date has) and the differential movement of the
       | playing piece. In CrystalQuest, the mouse affected velocity, here
       | it looks like a spring function.
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | You're the second person to mention that game! Somebody else
         | mentioned it on social media. I'm a hardcore Macintosh software
         | nut and simply have no idea why I've never played Crystal
         | Quest. Maybe I thought it was Crystal Castles? No idea. Anyway,
         | I watched some videos last night and I do see what you're
         | saying. I can't wait to play Crystal Quest when I get back to
         | my Macintosh Classic. :)
        
       | xanderlewis wrote:
       | Just want to say that I love everything about this. The Playdate
       | itself feels like a beacon of hope in the current world of
       | pessimism. We could all do with more of these type of projects!
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | Thanks! I agree 100%
        
       | jay-anderson wrote:
       | My playdate arrived a few weeks ago. Lots of good fun little
       | games. A lot of the catalog games look nice, but most are just
       | outside of the impulse purchase to me.
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | Understandable, and I hope one day to be able to offer a demo
         | so people like you and I can make more informed purchasing
         | decisions. To give you the developer point of view: after all
         | is said and done (cuts/taxes/fees/fx/etc) I see just under half
         | of the list price. I'm trying to make a living doing this (it's
         | my one and only job) and I have no idea what is the best price
         | so I just try my best. What is the impulse purchase price limit
         | for you?
        
       | dankwizard wrote:
       | Just a friendly post about if you're after what the kids are
       | calling an SBC device, you can get much better performing
       | handhelds for a fraction of the price that support NES, SNES,
       | PS1, etc.
       | 
       | The Playdate is a niche.
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | They are cool consumption devices, and I have one myself. But
         | the important thing, at least for me, is they don't run
         | Playdate games. And they don't have any easy way for developers
         | like myself to make a living making games for them. I wish they
         | did because there are a heck of a lot of them out there! You're
         | right that the Playdate is a niche, but it's a nice one that I
         | can make a living working on.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-11-22 23:00 UTC)