When developing for the Playdate it is important to keep in mind that this is a ll a relative new scenario where there is practically no abundance of work from other sources or the data collected over years of statistics; neither in terms of hardware, nor in terms of the software. Sherlock mode on!

 

 

More than hardcore nerds, and weirdos

To this date I have posted four ‘polls’ on these subreddits – it is important to be careful when doing this kind of thing so as not to obfuscate users with so many questions that can even be considered annoying – but fortunately the community was wonderfully perceptive and open to collaboration which allowed me to obtain extremely valuable information that surprisingly made me rethink several of my original assumptions. A deeper research about the gender composition of this community showed the following information. (Note: I asked my to my daughter to publish this one for me). I can’t thank you enough to this fantastic people for their collaboration once again!

 

All this had inclined me to think that the only people willing to pay so much money for an item with these limited features should be people with a great passion for programming, retro hardware and experimentation. Probably the same kind of audience that kept the fire of the 8- and 16-bit systems alive, developing programs for the Pico 8, the Spectrum Next or things like that. I myself did not escape this definition, in itself distinctly freaky, however, some details that came to light after analyzing the results thrown by Reddit users were somewhat unexpected.

As some user posted in response to my survey:

 ‘I think a lot of Playdate’s audience are the type of people who are willing to buy a boutique high-end console that promises an open platform for indies. In other words: developers, hardcore nerds, and weirdos.’

Having paid an average of 180 dollars for a tiny handheld that does not even have a colorful screen or renowned games for a game console whose number of users was limited to a few thousand (remember that the Nintendo Switch has sold more than 100 million units worldwide) gave huge clues about the characteristics of its followers, but I was still thirsty for more details. So, I went back to Reddit!

 

When analysing the catalog of titles already published (or in preparation) I noticed with surprise that there were not many titles that could be categorised within the genre of ‘crafting / farming’, a style of games that are very popular on other platforms, especially on PC and Switch.

That caught my attention noticeably and I assumed that due to the long development time that this type of product usually demands there would probably be several of them in the pipeline. However, as far as I could investigate that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Excited, I thought I had found a niche worth exploiting and immediately started thinking of ideas to create a prototype game with crafting and farming components, in the best Stardew Valley style. I thought that making a farming / survival game could be a good idea to fill this untapped niche. At the time of testing my first ideas I proposed to raise the bases of a game of these characteristics; something similar to having to sow and harvest a field of clouds in the sky, where one could not only deal with the life cycles of cloud formations that fly over different scenarios (cities, beaches, fields, etc) affecting them.

But after a few weeks, the vote from Reddit users made me rethink things: this genre was one of the least desired by the community, as neither would be adventure games or science fiction.  Undoubtedly an evident sample of the demographic composition of this sector that deserved to be studied in greater detail.  After a new research online (see Fig 1)  apparently these are the genres least appreciated or desired by the community, the ones who were most anxious to play some RPG or roguelike / metroidvania products.From the same work it is evident that the Playdate audience is waiting for other types of games, which seriously complicated the picture for me.

The last piece of information I needed to complete this puzzle was the possibility of using this device to teach coding to the youngest. Unfortunately, based on the information in the first table (see Fig 1) , my hopes were meager. Not only because of the small number of children with access to this console but also because of the impossibility that the company that manufactures the Playdate, could distribute it in large quantities to schools or other educational institutes.

 

 

I think is time to go back to the drawing board.
Yes, once again!