It’s very easy to dismiss Playdate as an irrelevant gadget, another so-called “walled garden” whose marketing base is deliberately anachronistic and whose games are running out of games faster than you can say “trendy.” Panic’s unique Game Boy-like handheld console may ultimately be a failure, but so far the signs are pointing in a different direction, as Panic is selling faster than they can make it, and they’ve even managed to attract some pretty big developers Businessmen join.
One of them is Lucas Pope, who you may know as the man behind Papers, Please and Return of the Obrah Dinn – yes, but high-profile games that have certainly dominated major media and Headlines, reviews and promotion for the wider gaming crowd. His latest game is a direct exclusive to Playdate. It’s called Mars After Midnight, and while it’s deliberately simple, like all Playdate games, it certainly deserves the hype.
It’s worth reading our Playdate review to understand more about the limitations of the form itself. These are simple little games, but Pope still finds a way to introduce something strange, innovative, and fascinating. Its strengths and weaknesses are; you are the convener and gatekeeper of a series of support groups on Mars. There are luxurious colonies where the rich live, and then there are the slums, where you will illustrate the Martians coming together and finding common ground by organizing various meetings for the residents. One-eyed Martians may want to talk and share experiences – well, you’ll organize a meeting, lay out refreshments, and ultimately ensure that only those with one eye actually get through the door. As each evening progresses, it is simply a matter of opening the little peephole in the door, identifying the appropriate guests and maintaining the refreshments provided. You’ll make some money that can be used to host new conferences, advertise them in the right communities, and buy new gadgets to illustrate your distinction to real guests.
It’s a strange but mechanically simple premise, and aside from a few upgrades here and there, the game doesn’t change much in the time you spend with it. It’s always easy to pick up, just like Snake was on Nokia phones years ago, and hard to put down.
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Playdate has no color, but Pope makes each environment exude personality through quirky character models and gorgeous choreography and design. Just as Pixar often manages to bring a location to life with relatively few establishing shots, you soon find yourself playing the role of…well, the convener of those support group meetings on a Martian colony.
Still, it’s a simple game loop, no doubt about it. You set up the meeting for the next night, choose the areas you want to promote to ensure the right guests show up, choose the refreshments, and then it’s all about getting the right people in, Papers, Please style. But if Playdate proves anything, it’s that you can come up with exciting game structures that are surprisingly simple, especially when they’re easy to pick up and put down. Pope does it smartly here, so even if the game doesn’t reveal much more than what you’re shown in the first five minutes, it’s not really necessary.
Then he said it again. I might have liked one more layer of interaction. Maybe it can be exciting to have to organize a room in a certain way based on who’s coming that night, or maybe it can be part of the regular cycle of buying and maintaining. I’m not necessarily asking for more content for content’s sake, but that’s a bit of a stretch.
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I’ll be playing more on my Playdate, and after sinking my teeth into Mars After Midnight, I’m looking forward to it. More importantly, it’s a testament to Pope’s skills, because while Playdate development was all about creativity within a limited framework, his talent is easily visible here.
