I've finally decided that I want to get a Playdate. One of the ways that I'm justifying the crazy price to myself is that I want something high-quality (as opposed to the much cheaper Chinese handhelds) and fun that can actually fit in my pocket.

I enjoyed my Steam Deck, but I'm ready to sell it just because there isn't much point for me to have a dedicated handheld that I can't easily carry around with me. It seems like the Playdate will actually be a front pocket console for me!

Since I plan on carrying it around a lot, I was thinking it might be worth it to just go all-in and get a screen cover as well, but how good are they really?

Do you wish you had one if you don't have one, and do you use it a lot if you do have it?
Does it make it too bulky for pockets?

Thanks! I'm excited to play around with it.

Main screen — from the first prototype to the current build.

Many game projects have a strange starting point. Not a big concept, not a finished world with characters and story, but a few separate circumstances that eventually come together.

That is how MESHCHERA started.

It began with Playdate.

I had been following Teenage Engineering for a long time as a designer. I like the way they approach their projects: simple, clear, but still full of character. When Panic announced Playdate, it was obvious that sooner or later the console would end up in my hands.

And it did. My friends gave me a Playdate for my birthday, and the idea of making my own game stopped being abstract. Suddenly there was a small, very specific platform that made me want to create something for it.

It made sense to start with a short prototype. No long story, no complex structure, no attempt to make a "dream game" right away. The first thing was to check the basic feeling: do the rules form a clear game loop, is there any tension, do you want to play one more round after the first few moves?

The first versions of MESHCHERA were very simple. More like a ruleset constructor than an atmospheric game. That is normal for a prototype: it does not have to explain where the action takes place or why everything looks the way it does. Its job is to show whether the foundation works.

And the foundation worked. At some point it became clear that it was already interesting to play. The rounds pulled you in: you wanted one more move, the next chain, a different sequence - and to see where it would lead.

That was when a team started forming around the project.

I invited Alina Zubkova to work on the visual identity and animations. With her involvement, the game started to gain a mood: distinctive images, a feeling of dark forest and swamp. On Playdate, this is especially important. The screen is small, the limitations are strict, so objects have to read quickly without becoming faceless.

Evolution of the main game board.

Konstantin Soroka is responsible for the sound and music. In MESHCHERA, sound helps strengthen the sense of place and makes every action more noticeable: a move, an object transforming, a creature appearing, the uneasy pause before the next decision. We will talk about music and sound separately later, because they are a big part of the game's atmosphere.

The idea of Meshchera appeared exactly when we moved from a prototype toward a more complete game.

The real Meshchera is a large forest-and-swamp lowland in the central part of European Russia. Pine and birch forests, swamps, peat bogs, dark rivers, lakes, fog, sandy soil, abandoned villages, old wooden architecture.

We became interested in taking that image and making it mythological. Not showing the real place literally, but building our own Meshchera from it: dark, swampy, full of strange creatures and traces of human life.

Swamps are often seen as something dark, unsettling, and oppressive. In a place like that, there is no straight road and no full certainty under your feet. The ground can turn out to be water, fog hides the horizon, and familiar landmarks disappear quickly. What presses on you is not chaos, but a feeling of still, heavy uncertainty.

In MESHCHERA, the player ends up in exactly that kind of space. But they are not just inside the darkness. Every move is an attempt to gather something, clear something, connect something, hold something together. In that sense, the game offers a person in dark moments a way to become a bearer of light: not to defeat the swamp in one action, but to find a path through it step by step.

The game is already playable, and I’d love to hear what you think. You can download MESHCHERA here: https://khvoshch.itch.io/meshchera

We are excited to announce that as of today, CrankBoy is available for purchase directly on the Playdate Catalog! While we are moving onto the official store, we want to be clear that CrankBoy is and will remain an open-source project.

Catalog-Exclusive Games

To celebrate the launch, the Catalog version will include four fantastic Game Boy titles pre-installed:

• Dashosaur DX by Sleeping Panda
• Life's Too Short GB by Pixel Ghost
• GBBBS95 by beatscribe
• Lo-Fi GB by beatscribe

>Note: These games are exclusive to the Catalog release and will not be included in the standard GitHub releases of CrankBoy.

Introducing CrankBoy Manager

Alongside the Catalog launch, we are debuting CrankBoy Manager – an easy-to-use desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux. This tool allows you to transfer your ROMs to your Playdate seamlessly, bypassing the hassle of booting into Data Disk Mode.

Under the Hood (v2.0.0)

• Performance: We’ve improved performance by up to 20% in certain titles and configurations.
• Experimental GBC Support: This release adds experimental Game Boy Color support. Don't get too excited just yet – only a handful of titles are currently running (e.g., Pokémon Crystal, but with some GFX glitches).
• Homebrew Hub: You can now download Game Boy homebrew directly from CrankBoy's settings.

Native Playdate Support

We’ve given even more titles some "TLC" to make them feel at home on the Playdate. For every release, we now auto-generate a list of games that have script support. You can find this list on our GitHub-Wiki.

We’re really proud of how far this project has come. If you have any questions about the Catalog release, the Manager app, or the v2.0.0 features, feel free to drop a comment below.

UPDATE

CrankBoy is now available to buy directly on device!

I just put up my first app on itch and wanted to share it here.

Pour Over is a podcast player for the Playdate aimed at the kind of public radio you'd put on while you're doing something else. Three modes:

• Default. News at the top of the hour, a Tiny Desk concert in between. News interrupts at :10 past every hour.
• Music Only. Music podcasts on loop, no news.
• Your Stack. Pick from a catalog of 26 NPR shows (Hidden Brain, Planet Money, Wait Wait, Code Switch, Fresh Air, etc.) with optional news interleave.

Free / pay-what-you-want on itch: https://jontomato.itch.io/pour-over

Hope you all like it! Would love any feedback, especially edge cases on real hardware (network flakiness, weird interactions).

https://preview.redd.it/25f31cznua0h1.jpg?width=1938&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76c0126291a9897b873c3118097500f5153abaa7

My Playdate should be coming in the mail very soon, are there any must buys I should buy?

I was wondering if anyone had any idea if there are other devices like the playdate or even how one would look for them?

I love the vibe and feel of the playdate but just wonder if there is another company out there in the world doing the same thing?

As a fan of gadgets and unique technologies I really hope more people make things like this.