Panic has published pulp , the game creation tool for playmate , your portable console with crank. Still in beta, the program can be tested from the Playmate website.
Pulp is a very visual program and that includes tools with which to create and edit art, animation, levels, music and sound effects; The idea is to offer something simple enough to be able to above rapid occurrences but can also be used to create full games. From Pulp, it is possible to try the games, send them to Playmate or share them with other people, to be played, edited or remixed.
It is used from the browser and is designed to reach as many people as possible, in a broad sense: who do not want to use code and pull only visual tools but also to those who want to use their own language, pulp script, to create things More advanced and complex.
This tool, by the way, does not replace the Playmate SDK, which will also be made public and that is aimed at people with greater knowledge of programming and development.
Announced in 2019, Playmate is an extravagant portable machine that strong bets for a unique proposal at all levels: at the hardware level, in addition to a screen of 400 × 240 and a single bit highlights the fact that one of its inputs is a crank placed on one side of the console; At the level of Software, the games are distributed by seasons, with the first included with the machine itself. Each week two games are launched, up to a total of 24; There are data Takanashi, Bennett Toddy, Zach Gage or Vertex Pop, among other featured names of the independent scene. What’s new about Lucas Pope, Mars After Midnight, leaves for Playmate, in fact, although it is not confirmed for the first season.
The proposal is unique, and it seems that it did not hurt them with the first remittance, because in the middle of last year they had already anticipated the 20,000 units that were proposed to produce in 2021; In November, however, a delay was announced in shipments due to problems with batteries, and at the moment it is not known exactly when they will begin to arrive: we only know that it will be early 2022.