LogFAQs > #975536422

Currently Playing: Boogie Loops (Part II)

Thoughts: I was honestly so confused by the fundamental concept of this, I tried googling more info and found this podcast about it! And I listened to the whole 22 minutes trying to figure out "why".

https://podcast.play.date/episodes/s01e05/

Like, I don't get why this is a thing that exists. Why would anyone want a extremely basic, user unfriendly music creation tool? The subset of people that have a Playdate and the creation of what sounds like NES era chiptune music has to be four people, and they're the people that made this game. If you're interested in music design, this is way too simple and clunky to be of any use to you. And if you aren't interested in music design? Well, this game won't be what changes your mind on that.

I haven't talked much about the "game" so far but there isn't much to say. Remember in Mario Paint that little music creation tool? This is just that but not as charming. There's a couple more tools here but not enough for it to be something you'd want to use if you're actually trying to make music. This is Mario Paint without the Mario and without the paint or the other little games that you enjoyed significantly more.

So, anyways, the interview. There's two main people they credit with making this, and only one of them shows up for the podcast. Clearly that person is the smart one. They still have plausible deniability. This was clearly done over the phone and the Playdate had a release delay of roughly one eon, so unless this second person is an astronaut there really is no reason for them not to be here unless they were just like "nah, I don't want to" which honestly might be the reason.

I was mostly interested in listening to the video because I was genuinely curious on the "why". Why is this a thing? Why make this? Who are you making this for? I think I kind've got some answers, but honestly I think the honest answer is "game design is hard and this is sort of what we felt like we could do without spending too much time on it." The person on the podcast seems extremely interested in music and passionate about learning design. What they don't seem all that interested in is games. She keeps calling this a "toy" which probably is a better category for it but doesn't really help its case as something you should spend your time with. She says they were approached by Panic to make something for this, and I have absolutely no clue why because it doesn't seem like they've worked on a game before? I mean, honestly, they still haven't worked on a game because this isn't a game.

Also, I know that podcast is basically Playdate propaganda but it is hilarious for them to talk about creative constraints like it is this amazing thing and not a crutch she's using to not try something more ambitious. Casual Birder proved you can make a full game on this, so making this lazy music tool that seems like something you goofed around with for a couple of months and then got to publish potentially because you were friends with people that worked at Panic made me roll my eyes.

I've been trying to commit at least 2 hours to each of these games, but I'm struggling here. I made a couple songs complete with the inane dance you can put on top and I don't want to do any more. This is just completely devoid of joy and I'm mildly annoyed this is one of the "things" that comes packaged in season 1.

Time Played: 1 hour
High Score: 2 songs made without deciding the Playdate would be better used as a fly swatter
Beaten? You can't beat this. You can only survive it.
Grade: 2/10. Maybe a 1 but usually 1's are games I have nothing good to say about. This one at least works, from what I can tell.
Favorite Part So Far: It is so easy to return to the menu on the Playdate. I've technically been playing this game for like three hours with one hour being spent playing and the other two hours spent going back to the menu and looking at the catalogue for games I'd rather be playing instead.