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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Panic just held a games showcase for its portable Playdate console, revealing over a dozen upcoming exclusives. The company also announced a March 12 release date for the long-anticipated Mars After Midnight, which is likely the console’s first marquee title.



Mars After Midnight is a game created by renowned developer Lucas Pope, the guy behind Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn. Both of these titles were critically acclaimed and commercially successful.

Mars After Midnight looks to take a few cues from Papers, Please, as you play as a door guard of an alien colony tasked with letting people in. The lo-res graphics look stunning, which is a calling card of both Pope and the Playdate itself. It also makes use of the console’s adorable little crank.

Lucas Pope's Mars After Midnight hits the Playdate console on March 12

Panic just held a games showcase for its portable Playdate console and announced a March 12 release date of Lucas Pope’s Mars After Midnight. Pope also made Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn.

www.engadget.com

 

[SF Kosmo]

Excited to finally see a release date and that it's so soon. This game looks really excellent.

PlayDate has surprised me in the amount of worthwhile original content on the platform. I hope they do a second season of content at some point but there's been a steady drip of good games on the Catalog store.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

Playdate is an expensive gimmicky toy for hipsters isn't it?

 

[SF Kosmo]

Playdate is an expensive gimmicky toy for hipsters isn't it?

It totally is all of those things, but it's managed to establish a really vibrant development scene that has given it more legs than expected. There are hundreds of games out for it and quite a few good ones. I play mine all the time.

It is 100% targeted toward smaller indie hipster titles, the whole system reeks of organic coffee and dry hops, but if you get down with that sort of thing, it's a surprisingly vital little platform.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Just the art here gives me a feeling of nostalgia even though it's something new. Nostalgia for a time that never existed. They got that part right for sure.

 

[Havoc2049]

This always reminds me of OG Mac gaming.

BTW, if anyone here at GAF was wondering, my pronoun is He/Him.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

It totally is all of those things, but it's managed to establish a really vibrant development scene that has given it more legs than expected. There are hundreds of games out for it and quite a few good ones. I play mine all the time.

It is 100% targeted toward smaller indie hipster titles, the whole system reeks of organic coffee and dry hops, but if you get down with that sort of thing, it's a surprisingly vital little platform.

It sounds like an experimental handheld in the same spirit as the original Nintendo DS, and it seems to have a similar positive effect on developers' creativity.

 

[SF Kosmo]

It sounds like an experimental handheld in the same spirit as the original Nintendo DS, and it seems to have a similar positive effect on developers' creativity.

Yeah, kind of. It's a system with deliberate quirks and limitations and a novel input mechanism so it forces devs to think outside the box.

 

[Rat Rage]

The games look kinda cool and creative, not gonna lie. Initially I thought this thing would be DOA, but it has actually caught my attention...

 

[SF Kosmo]

The games look kinda cool and creative, not gonna lie. Initially I thought this thing would be DOA, but it has actually caught my attention...

Yeah it's easy to see how this could have gone the way of the Ouya or the Amico or whatever but it didn't.

I think the key was that they made it this really appealing platform for indie and first time devs. You can make games for it with no programming experience and because of the quirky limitations of the platform it's easier for these kinds of devs to put together a game and have it be competitive.

 

[ClanOfNone]

I forgot this thing existed. What is the library like? Does it have a good mix of genres and such?

 

[SF Kosmo]

I forgot this thing existed. What is the library like? Does it have a good mix of genres and such?

It's a lot of smaller, quirky indie games that lean on charm, humor, and originality. They're reasonably diverse, but mostly snack-sized things priced between $3 and $8, that are designed to be beaten in a few hours or replayed for score, so don't expect 40 hour RPGs or anything. There are some decent Zelda-style games or roguelikes though.

It's a surprisingly expansive library. It comes with 26 games when you get it, which include a lot of the best games on the system, so you have a good library off the bat. The more curated official store has something like 150 additional titles. They claim itch.io has like 400 but that includes a lot of demos and early access kind of stuff.

I can only say personally, I've had it since like September and I still play it all the time, and I've had a pretty steady drip of games coming that have kept me engaged.

 

[Havoc2049]

In that Playdate Update #5 video, the two RNG Party games looked really cool. They make me want to even look into getting a Playdate.

 

[SF Kosmo]

This is out today, it's pretty rad. It definitely doesn't feel story driven in the way of Pope's past games, but there is still a meta and and endgame goal you're working towards, and a lot of small little wordless cutscenes between everything. It's very polished.

It's got a little bit of Papers Please to it with the screening entrants but the gameplay loop feels different, you have to balance clean up and entry screening and the whole meta around planning the sessions.

 

[bender]

Now I want a Playdate.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Siliconera review: 9/10

Review: Mars After Midnight Shows What a Playdate Game Can Do

Mars After Midnight is an instant classic game for the Playdate that melds the art and premise of past great Lucas Pope games.

www.siliconera.com

I finished this and agree with most of the review. It's definitely less stressful/challenging than Papers Please, and meant to be more accessible to kids, but it constantly drips new mechanics at you that keep it from getting boring. There isn't as much story as Pope's past games, nor are there branching paths, which hurts the replay a bit, but it's fun and charming and feels similar in length to Papers Please.

I'm very impressed with how polished it is, it's clear he took a long time to work on it and didn't release until it was ready. It's gorgeous looking, the alien faces are routinely hilarious, and there are tons of little cut scenes and animation that help to build the world, even if they don't involve much story.

 

[bender]

Siliconera review: 9/10

Review: Mars After Midnight Shows What a Playdate Game Can Do

Mars After Midnight is an instant classic game for the Playdate that melds the art and premise of past great Lucas Pope games.

www.siliconera.com

I finished this and agree with most of the review. It's definitely less stressful/challenging than Papers Please, and meant to be more accessible to kids, but it constantly drips new mechanics at you that keep it from getting boring. There isn't as much story as Pope's past games, nor are there branching paths, which hurts the replay a bit, but it's fun and charming and feels similar in length to Papers Please.

I'm very impressed with how polished it is, it's clear he took a long time to work on it and didn't release until it was ready. It's gorgeous looking, the alien faces are routinely hilarious, and there are tons of little cut scenes and animation that help to build the world, even if they don't involve much story.

Do you think it would port well to other platforms?

 

[SF Kosmo]

Do you think it would port well to other platforms?

Functionally I think you could find solutions for the controls and what not, but it would be a pretty different experience.

It also depends on what the platform is, right? Like, I don't think it works as a PC/console game because it's too casual and designed to be played for 15-30 minutes at a time. But it wouldn't work as a mobile game because the controls are too complicated.

But like, I could imagine a world where this game existed on DS or 3DS and worked because it's mobile, small form factor, and the combination of traditional controls and touch screen could handle the control functions in a way that works. I just don't know what the modern version of that platform is.

In any event I don't get the sense that it's likely to be ported. Pope didn't spend 3 years on a game for a platform that was expected to ship 20,000 units (and which even now has only shipped 75,000) because he wanted to make money. He's set for life and just developing what he feels like.

 

[bender]

Functionally I think you could find solutions for the controls and what not, but it would be a pretty different experience.

It also depends on what the platform is, right? Like, I don't think it works as a PC/console game because it's too casual and designed to be played for 15-30 minutes at a time. But it wouldn't work as a mobile game because the controls are too complicated.

But like, I could imagine a world where this game existed on DS or 3DS and worked because it's mobile, small form factor, and the combination of traditional controls and touch screen could handle the control functions in a way that works. I just don't know what the modern version of that platform is.

In any event I don't get the sense that it's likely to be ported. Pope didn't spend 3 years on a game for a platform that was expected to ship 20,000 units (and which even now has only shipped 75,000) because he wanted to make money. He's set for life and just developing what he feels like.

I have no expectations of it being ported but I love Lucas Pope. I'm not sure that love extends to a $200 device that would probably only be used for one game. Still tempted though.

 

[SF Kosmo]

I have no expectations of it being ported but I love Lucas Pope. I'm not sure that love extends to a $200 device that would probably only be used for one game. Still tempted though.

I wouldn't buy it for one game, but I will say that if you like indie games, there are plenty of good games, including games by Keita Takahashi (Katamari Damacy), Bennett Foddy (Getting Over It), and Chuck Jordan (Telltale Games). They give you 26 games bundled with it when you buy it and a lot of them are pretty good. Keita Takahashi's game (Crankin's Time Travel Adventure) is probably my favorite on the system.