Including an important update on Playdate’s price
PORTLAND, MARCH 7, 2023 - Announced today by Panic during the latest Playdate Update showcase: Playdate’s curated store, Catalog, is out today and launching with a mix of 16 Playdate games and apps! 11 of the titles launching today with Catalog are brand new, and two will be free to all Playdate owners as an extra bonus for Playdate Season One. Panic has also shared the important news that starting on April 7, Playdate’s price will increase from $179 USD to $199 USD due to increasing manufacturing costs. Playdate can still be pre-ordered at $179 USD until the price increase goes into effect on April 7.
"That $20 delta is largely because our factory recently gave us the inevitable news that in 2023, the price of building a single Playdate is going up," says Panic co-founder Cabel Sasser in the latest Playdate Update. Read more about Playdate’s price increase on Playdate’s news site and in the Playdate Update.
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Catalog, Playdate launcher card
Catalog, on-device
Catalog's full launch lineup
Arriving today on-device with Playdate’s latest system update, Catalog is a boutique digital on-device and web based storefront for Playdate software curated by the team at Panic. Playdate owners will be able to browse and purchase various titles with a credit card through Panic’s Crank-To-Buy technology on-device. Apps purchased through Catalog can receive automatic updates, unlike sideloaded apps, and are tied to a user’s Playdate account, meaning they can always be re-downloaded.
Titles in Catalog will be hand selected by the small-scale team at Panic, in order to ensure developers and their titles are taken care of properly on the storefront. Developers will be able to submit their titles for Catalog consideration through a developer form. Of course, Catalog will not be the only way to distribute and acquire new Playdate software, as Playdate apps can still be sideloaded and purchased from various storefronts such as Itch.Io, Gumroad, and more.
Catalog’s launch also brings two free bonus games, Recommendation Dog!!! and Reel Steel, to Playdate’s Season One. These two games were made by two teams of up-and-coming developers from marginalized communities, led by experienced veterans, and with guidance from narrative development company Sweet Baby (Lost Your Marbles).
Catalog’s launch lineup of software includes:
Top left: Reel Steel / Top right: Recommendation Dog!!
Bottom left: Carve Jr. / Bottom right: Direct Drive
- [New Release] Reel Steal - Free! A bonus as part of Season One
- By Sweet Baby Inc.
- Description - Reel Steal is a heist game where a mysterious figure hires thieves to reclaim loot & justice. As renegades, nab appropriated art from evil billionaires, hurriedly making calling cards to leave in their place. The hook? You're armed only with a fishing pole.
- Credits - Direction & Production led by David Bedard. Production by Allis Conley. Narrative by Louisa Onome and James Wright. Art by Will Herring and Jenna Yow. Audio by Hassan Durant and Jay Squared. Prototyping by Will Stacey. Engineering by Ayla Meyers and David Nguyen. Design by Sherveen Uduwana. Sweet Baby Inc. CEO - Kim Belair. Legal - Ariadne MacGillivray. Social - Leah Yoes & Sean Hennegan
- [New Release] Recommendation Dog!! - Free! A bonus as part of Season One
- By Sweet Baby Inc.
- Description - Recommendation Dog!! is an adorable action-puzzle game about being a tiny dog with a very big job. You work at a temp agency, cranking through names in your rotary organizer to fulfill the wacky, lovely, and strange requests of the people who come through your door. Connect the right people with the places that need them, make fast-paced choices, and get the high score you deserve! Good boy. This is Recommendation Dog - and you are a very good boy indeed.
- Credits - Direction by Xalavier Nelson Jr. Production by David Bedard & Allis Conley. Narrative by Xalavier Nelson Jr., Isaiah Henry, Adanna Nedd and Maxine Wolff. Art by Julia Minamata & Rafael Batista de Lima. Audio by Neha Patel & Eleanor Hérbert. Engineering by Ayla Myers, Jerry Belich and Nikki Liu. Sweet Baby Inc. CEO - Kim Belair. Legal - Ariadne MacGillivray. Social - Leah Yoes & Sean Hennegan. Voice Acting - Genji the Corgi.
- [New Release] Carve Jr. - $8
- By Chuhai Labs
- Description - Hit the slopes like never before in the all new Carve Jr! This pint sized prequel packs a punch! Use the crank to perform pinpoint accurate, death defying, nonstop gnar action. Chain tricks together to fight your way up the leaderboard and prove your salt. Just don’t let those pesky trees, rocks, and narc skiers be a buzzkill!
- Credits - Director & Programmer - Giles Goddard. Producer - Kinsey Burke. Producer - Mark Lentz. Level Design & Composer - Charlie March. Art & Design - Peter Traylor. Animator - Hero Liao. Business Development - Kensaku Nakata. Voice Actor - Michael Swaim. Chuhai Labs is also Zach Aikman, Liam Edwards, Sean Fisher, Tom Hart, Mihoko Terao, Denver Thomas, and Rhodri Broadbent.
- [New Release] Direct Drive - $15
- By DAC Vector
- Description - Direct Drive is a silent-movie-musical game about being an intern in the music industry in 1927. The game has: Four chapters, Four singers, Mini-games, Twelve 1.5 minute long songs, Flow modes, Music player, Mysterious extra stuff, and Future updates.
- Credits - Chris Mandra - concept / music. Dmitry Zhukov - code / aesthetics. Athena Desai as Hilda Voxpop. Lizzy Dean Holyfield as Sweets Mackson. Marcus Tucker as Tungsten. Marcus Tucker as Tungsten.
Top left: Playmaker / Top right: Skew - A The Last Worker Spinoff
Bottom left: Swap Machina / Bottom right: Grand Tour Legends
- [New Release] Playmaker - $15
- By Dustin Mierau
- Description - Paint, compose, build, record, and dance your way across six playful creative spaces for your Playdate. Music - Turn your Playdate into a synthesizer-backed music box with 15 fantastical instruments. Then turn the crank to perform your masterpiece for family and friends. Paint - Relax while painting with 15 unique and playful crankable tools. Color with a 1-bit rainbow of shades and patterns, or create your own with stamps. Blocks - Snap together a story with 30 built-in block shapes, or design your own stamp blocks. Use shades and patterns to texturize your worlds. Stamps - Pixelate your ideas and use them across your drawings, stories, faces, and more. Record - Grab sound with your Playdate's microphone, then bend and twist it with AudioBot and its 8 sound effects like pitch, echo, crush, and more. Dance - Adjust the stage lighting, set a backdrop, pick an outfit, and... a face?? Then crank your way across the dance floor and into our hearts
- Music by Max Coburn (Maxo)
- [New Release] Skew - A The Last Worker Spinoff - $6
- By Oiffy
- Description - The world's 1st real-time 3D endless spinner, developed exclusively for Playdate by Frédérick Raynal (Alone in the Dark, Little Big Adventure, Toy Commander). Race the single-propeller CoBot (voiced by Jason Isaacs) through endless randomly generated levels. Each run is unique. Controls: Crank the propeller - clockwise to go up, counter-clockwise to go down - Tilt your Playdate to steer. Switch to Crank and/or Button controls on the fly.
- Credits - created, written and directed by Jörg Tittel, developed by Frédérick Raynal, art and animation by Yael Barroz, Skew voiced by Jason Isaacs, music by Oliver Kraus, character design by Mick McMahon (Judge Dredd), 1-bit concepts by Vanja Vikalo (Subgiant Studio)
- SKEW is a Playdate spin-off of THE LAST WORKER, the upcoming narrative adventure for VR, consoles and PC; written and directed by Jörg Tittel, developed by Wolf & Wood and produced by Oiffy.
- [New Release] Swap Machina - $5
- By NaOH & Zion D. Hill
- Description - Help PD the robot supervisor defrag the mainframe before it's too late in this fast-paced puzzle game made in the Pulp game engine. Inspired by classic 90's block-based action puzzlers Panel de Pon and Tetris Attack, arcade game fans are sure to enjoy Swap Machina. You can compete with your friends' high scores online and locally using the leaderboard feature. There are separate leaderboards for "Normal" and "Mayhem" difficulties. Veterans of the genre will surely be keen to test their mettle on Mayhem mode. Special blocks will help you clear the screen in a pinch -- if you're cunning with how you use them. Take too long, however, and you'll find yourself mired in an electric mess!
- Credits - Code, design, music, and background art by NaOH. Character design, tile art, and title card by Zion D. Hill. Menu art by LittleWritingRabbit. Catalog Header Art: Monseki. Inspired by classic Nintendo games. Made in Pulp, and enhanced to a buttery-smooth experience with Pulp Mill (Pulp-to-Lua)
- [New Release] Grand Tour Legends - $6
- By Iorama
- Description - Grand Tour Legends is a crank operated arcade racing game. Spin those pedals and battle 19 other riders across the tour. Experience the thrill of hurtling down the alpine countryside after an exhausting climb. Feel the ocean breeze as you sweep along the coastline. Work out the perfect strategy on each track, save energy to crank it when you need it!
Top left: The Botanist / Top right: Hidey Spot
Bottom left: Word Trip / Bottom right: A Joke That's Worth .99￠
- [New Release] The Botanist - $9
- By Cadin Batrack
- Description - Follow the Botanist as they travel through space, searching planets for the rare plants needed to solve the food shortage back home. This interactive sci-fi adventure comic is a linear story that takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
Credits - Cadin Batrack, art & story. YouthFaire, music. Built with panels.
- [New Release] Hidey Spot - $6
- By Panic
- Description - There are presents hidden around the house. Who can wait for Christmas morning to open them all? Sneak around in the middle of the night and find the goodies before your family wakes up. And who knows—maybe it'll turn out there's something else for you to discover in the home you thought you knew so well… Hidey Spot is a spoopy little adventure every kid will relate to. Short, sweet, and just a little challenging, this game was made in Pulp!
Credits - Writing, design, code, and art by Neven Mrgan. Music and sound by David Wester. Many thanks to Shaun Inman for creating Pulp, and for his patient help with coding questions
- [New Release] Word Trip - $6
- By Shaun Inman, Matthew Grimm, and Charlie Davis
- Description - Word Trip is a light-action word-building game with three levels of difficulty, daily challenges, and a stress-free free play mode. Includes online leaderboards! The goal of the game is to get from the top word to the bottom one by making new four letter words. The goal of the game is to get from the top word to the bottom one by making new four letter words. Sometimes you can’t reach the bottom word. Press 🅑 + 🅐 to make a pitstop and refuel. Then set off again from a new word. Earn extra pitstops for the third, fifth, and thereafter, for every eighth word you reach. The harder the difficulty, the fewer the pitstops you can hold at once (and the faster you burn through fuel). Enjoy your trip!
- [New Content] A Joke That’s Worth .99¢ - $1
- By kamibox
- Description - A tiny person with a bouncy butt tells a very long joke. Control the crank of the Playdate to not make him fall. This game contains 2 jokes: One very long joke that is worth 99 cents, and one very short joke that is worth 1 cent.
- New Content - New BONUS .1¢ joke!
- Credits - Game by Philipp Stollenmayer | kamibox. Music by Lorraine Bowen
Top left: Bloom (New chill mode) / Top right: Eyeland
Bottom left: Tapeworm Disco Puzzle / Bottom right: Down the Oubliette
- [New Content] Bloom - $10
- By RNG Party
- Description - Bloom is a real-time narrative-driven social sim about starting up a flower shop made exclusively for Playdate. Tend to Midori's garden while texting friends and family as she starts a new chapter of her life. The game takes place over many real-life days.Respond to texts and tend to your garden in real time. Check in over the course of many real-world days to see Midori's story unfold. Experience a changing environment including a day/night and weather system. Go for high scores in the arcade-style minigame and acquire daily collectibles. Enjoy a relaxing lofi-inspired soundtrack as you play.
- New Content
- Bloom v1.1 will be launching as a free update on Catalog and Itch.io. It features new post-game story content including new characters, collectibles, and more. Players can also now change their phone wallpaper and receive new ones as they progress.
- You can now also enter Chill Mode from the system menu while in-game, allowing you to listen to the Bloom original soundtrack at any time.
- Players can experience all this with their pre-existing save files, and new players will see the bulk of it after they near the end of the main game. (If you purchased Bloom on Itch, download the latest version from Itch to play the new content)
- Credits - Jake White, Code/Design. Ben Busche, Art/Writing/Sound. Peyton Balasko, Art/Writing.
- Eyeland - $2
- By Ron Lent
- Description - After the mysterious loss of your only way to leave home, you find yourself confronted with a transformed world. One thing leads to the next as you make your way through this beautiful little adventure. Have fun, that's all you need to know — but if you'd like a little more context, consider this: sometimes it isn't until you lose something that you realize what it meant to you.
- Tapeworm Disco Puzzle - $9
- By Lowtek Games
- Description - Tapeworm Disco Puzzle is a grid based puzzle game where you play as a tapeworm; the local night club owner. It's your job to make sure the fleas enjoy themselves. You'll be helping them collect blood, play bangin tunes and get them to gigs on time. Each level has an objectives and obstacles like: -Avoid enemies -Don't kill the fleas -Collect all the notes -Help the fleas collect the blood -Open Doors witch switches -Help Fleada get to the gig on time (Fleada is a cat walk model)
- Credits - Alastair Low: Art and Game Design. Valdir Salgueiro: Programming. Vincent Verger aka Tuï : Audio
- Down the Oubliette - $5
- By Rebecca König
- Description - Down the Oubliette is a dungeon crawler for people who like tower defense games. Take on the ghost infestation below an abandoned country house. Play through 4 randomized levels to get rid of all the ghosts. Use 4 different towers: beacon, coil, fan, and torch. Configure the game to play with one hand. Replay a floor as often as you need to. There’s no permadeath. Use ghost energy to build and upgrade towers but manage your resources well to not get stuck.
About Playdate
Playdate is a truly unique gaming handheld system that is a celebration of video games. It’s yellow. It fits in your pocket. It includes games from amazing creators, it has a beautiful black and white screen, and yes, it also has a crank.
Created with great attention to detail and affection by app developer and video game publisher Panic, Playdate hopes to capture the spirit of endless possibility and excitement that games have given us since the beginning. Playdate’s collection of games will delight players with their inventiveness and ingenuity. And in addition to introducing players to brand new games, Playdate also encourages people to create their own imaginative games and interactive software using a suite of easy development tools. In short, Playdate was made just for fun.
Playdate is a truly unique gaming handheld system that is a celebration of video games. It’s yellow. It fits in your pocket. It includes games from amazing creators, it has a beautiful black and white screen, and yes, it also has a crank.
Created with great attention to detail and affection by app developer and video game publisher Panic, Playdate hopes to capture the spirit of endless possibility and excitement that games have given us since the beginning. Playdate’s collection of games will delight players with their inventiveness and ingenuity. And in addition to introducing players to brand new games, Playdate also encourages people to create their own imaginative games and interactive software using a suite of easy development tools. In short, Playdate was made just for fun.
For hardware information, pictures, and more details on Playdate visit the Press Kit here: play.date/mediakit
Find Playdate on Twitter at @playdate, @playdatealerts, and on their website at play.date
For special interview requests or any other requests, get in touch with pr@popagenda.co
Find Playdate on Twitter at @playdate, @playdatealerts, and on their website at play.date
For special interview requests or any other requests, get in touch with pr@popagenda.co
About Panic Inc.
Founded in 1999, Panic is an ancient corporation in Portland, Oregon that relentlessly follows its heart in an effort to make nicely made things that bring everyday joy. Originally — and still — a Mac app developer, Panic has also become a highly-focused video game publisher that has helped to release into the world Firewatch, Untitled Goose Game, and the upcoming interactive food game, Nour: Play With Your Food. In the spirit of creating products that bring joy, Panic has also created its very own handheld video game system, Playdate.
Visit their website: https://panic.com/
Find Panic on Twitter