This whole experience has been both very enjoyable: developing a game on new hardware is so exciting - forging new ground and finding new techniques, and reporting bugs and issues that will improve the performance of the platform for everybody.
but also very frustrating: Developer Preview is basically dead quiet due to lack of comms from Panic/Playdate team. I’d guess there’s less than a dozen people contributing.
Oh yeah I saw these a few months ago being advertised on google when searching for (I think it was) the real thing! Shameless! But it did come in light blue.
Wow, I didn’t realise they were constraining (dragging out?) the software lineup in such a big way, that’s a shame. They should be using the big name indie games (like Keita Takahashi ones) to attract attention to other releases, e.g. launch that game alongside a small handful of other titles. I haven’t read much into their plans so I may be talking nonsense there.
Would you consider a 3DS version or is it too expensive/cumbersome to develop on 3DS in 2020?
There’ll be indie games you can buy on itch and load on yourself, but I’d rather be part of a Season as I’d like people to experience my game with zero prior knowledge.
I want as many people to play it as possible. Sounds obvious, haha. I guess I could target any platform with a homebrew scene, but I feel if I’m going to go for one or more it would probably be those with the largest user base.
Regarding other platforms: I’d have to be convinced that homebrew 3DS, or Dreamcast has a large enough audience willing to pay money for a game.
I think I’ll port my code to Love2D and go from there.
Fingers crossed for a swift Season appearance!
Interesting stuff. Can’t wait to get my hands on it, still.
It’s a great little thing. Going to be so much fun.
relevant thread that has blown up somewhat:
After the Playdate delay I put my game to one side and didn’t touch it much from October through to this month.
I was just doing a few bits here and there as and when I found the motivation.
Thought it would be cool to post a couple of recent Animated GIFs to show how things have moved on.
So much effort has gone into the car sprites.
Even since these GIFs the rendering has been improved to keep more details.
(fixes the issues where the headlights frequently disappear in shadows, as seen on the Monster Truck below)
so jealous of you - your skills, your playdate, etc
Really loving seeing the physics unashamedly on display here, the sprites look like a perfect match too. The best part is I’m still imagining how all the vehicles will handle using the crank!
Same here. Does the crank control acceleration? Or is it for steering? Or is it not used at all?
I really hope we actually get to try this system/game someday!
I can’t imagine we’ll have to wait much longer. Surely!? 
Crank is optional, when undocked it can be used to control steering (instead of d-pad left/right).
Play testing with somebody who doesn’t game, and has never used a d-pad before (yes! such people exist) showed that they were instantly at home turning using the crank compared to the d-pad.
Vehicles have individual stats: top speed, acceleration, same for reverse, plus turning speed, drag, weight, etc.
So a small, light car will weigh less and be affected differently when colliding with obstacles compared to a big, heavy car.
Sounds good. How is the game structured? Is it a racing game?
No… I wouldn’t say it’s a traditional racing game, though there are some racing elements.
A level where you have to complete lap against the clock would be the closest thing to “racing game”.
But there’s no racing against CPU opponents in the traditional sense.
I would describe it as a driving game.
Think of it more like Trials, where you have to complete skill challenges.
Or like Mission Mode in Mario Kart DS, or Monthly Challenges in Mario Kart Wii.
In my game there are skill challenges of many different types.
I won’t spoil the surprise by listing them all, but examples would be:
It’s one big playground of obstacles, items, game modes, with different vehicles, physics, surfaces.
Driving the vehicles is so much fun, and then adding in the challenges and discovering how you need to drive to complete them is a key thing.
I’m still to decide on the final progression but everything is being designed to be seamless. More surprises I’m trying not to spoil here!
There will be daily challenges with leaderboards, but you’ll also be able to play through the content and unlock things at your own pace. You’ll be able to see the credits fairly quickly, but there will be more to experience with the new vehicles you’ve unlocked. I’m striving for the classic Nintendo structure of difficulty progression.
I have an in-game level editor right now, I create all the levels using this! My plan is to include this as the final unlockable so that players can create and share content. More work needed to make sure this is hassle-free.
Did I mention you can get snippets of my game dev process over on my blog?
https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/tag/dailydriver/
A few posts published over the last few days.
“Playdate Direct” next Tuesday, 8th June
More info (thread)
Finally! Wink once if you happen to know if a certain special car game is featured.
but also 
Hope we get to see off-camera footage of many games, there hasn’t been enough (any?) of that so far, yet the device itself must be tantalisingly close.