Crankin's Time Travel Adventure
Crankin's Time Travel Adventure is a quirky, perplexing, and downright brilliant dating game for the Playdate that sprung from the mind of Uvula, the studio co-founded by Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi and veteran animator Ryan Mohler.
Uvula was assisted with development by Panic engineer Shaun Inman -- who also masterminded Playdate's in-browser game engine, Pulp -- and sound designer Matthew Grim.
Given the secretive nature of Playdate development -- Panic wants to keep most of its Season One releases a surprise -- Crankin' has become something of a poster child for the equilateral console, and has been featured heavily in trailers and promotional shots due to its emphasis on placing the iconic crank front and centre.
In-game, players can rotate the Playdate's attached crank forwards and backwards to advance or rewind Crankin's timeline, helping our drowsy protagonist avoid obstacles as he attempts to meet his darling Crankette for a series of very important dates.
It's a simple premise but one that's elevated thanks to some delightfully expressive animation and novel design elements that makes the most of the title's unique control scheme and Playdate's modest screen real estate.
Speaking to Game Developer last year about the journey from design doc to download, Takahashi, Mohler, and Inman broke down some of the more unique aspects of developing for Playdate with a view to helping other creators follow in their footsteps.
Like many Playdate maestros, Uvula began production on Crankin' before they had access to hardware. While that in itself wasn't a huge concern due to the Playdate SDK being pretty robust, it did mean the team had no way to preview crank inputs in the real-world.
Some developers I've spoken with
Read more on gamedeveloper.com
