[HN Gopher] A Tiny Yellow Handheld Changed How Duke University T...
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       A Tiny Yellow Handheld Changed How Duke University Teaches Game
       Design
        
       Author : Ivoah
       Score  : 26 points
       Date   : 2026-04-16 19:18 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.play.date)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.play.date)
        
       | tshaddox wrote:
       | I've been interested in these cute little things since they were
       | first announced, but I still haven't pulled the trigger on the
       | 229 USD price tag. Apparently with the education discount they're
       | 195 USD, which still feels steep. But hey, given that the dev
       | tooling is all free (including simulators), it would be fine to
       | play around with game development even without buying the
       | hardware.
        
       | throwway120385 wrote:
       | The Playdate looks like what you'd make if someone only described
       | the games kids made and shared on the TI-83 graphing calculator
       | and then asked you to build a device.
        
       | chip_franzen wrote:
       | Very cute, but $229 is a WILD price point.
        
         | hyperbolablabla wrote:
         | It's very low volume, sadly this was unavoidable I think, given
         | the extremely custom nature of the input
        
         | AFF87 wrote:
         | I was thinking the same. Read the article, thought about
         | getting one and then thought again
        
         | testfrequency wrote:
         | Bought mine for $179 when they were new, hadn't realized the
         | price went up so much.
        
         | rtpg wrote:
         | If its any solace the screen is very good and the build quality
         | is very high. You also just get a good set of games "for free"
         | as part of the system.
         | 
         | I do think it's beyond "impulse buy" for sure, though.
        
       | hyperbolablabla wrote:
       | Having made multiple (dare I say) fairly successful games on the
       | Playdate, I can attest to how fantastic the developer experience
       | has been and how easy it was for my non dev collaborators to get
       | going. Pulp was a great in road for them to get started with game
       | dev, and it's been a blast (despite how limiting Pulpscript is
       | for a professional dev)
        
       | oidar wrote:
       | I love the aesthetic of the playdate, the educational outreach,
       | and how easy the whole platform is. It's just so well designed
       | all around. But the only way I am able to play it is by casting
       | the screen to my computer, the screen is so tiny. Otherwise, I
       | love it.
        
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       (page generated 2026-04-16 23:00 UTC)