Squids

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What kind of squid are you? Do you like to bop your way through the ocean? Sway majestically to and fro? Are you a bit of a control freak, weaving your way through obstacles? Or maybe you like to take things easy.

What if you didn't have to choose???

Introducing Squids, a Flappy Bird-like game that's not Flappy.

What's so special about it?

• High scores!
• Four different game modes
• Squids!
• Blooping sounds

And Squids comes with potentially infinite play time! What a bargain!

Wow! I'm sold, how do I play?

Squids is available right here, right now, for the PlayDate Entertainment System. Sideload today!

I don't have one of those...

You can grab a Playdate  of your very own at play.date! I very strongly recommend this option, because it's a great little system with some incredible little (and not so little) games.

But if that's not an option, or you're waiting for yours to arrive, there's a half measure: the Playdate SDK comes with everything you need to make Playdate games, including the Playdate Simulator. Connecting a controller will even let you substitute an analog stick for the crank. It's not nearly as great as playing on the 'date, but it works in a pinch.

Why Did You Make This

Many moons ago, a game called "Flappy Bird" came into existence. There was a big to do over the whole thing, and the creator ended up pulling it from the stores.

In Solidarity(?), Flappy Jam brought indie developers across the world together to make a bunch of clones, inspirations, and random noise.

I made Floaty Squid, Instead of a Flapping Bird, it had a Floating Squid. Innovation!. Wired said it wasn't half bad.

A few days later, I followed it with Swingy Squid, because why stick with one movement style when you can have two?

But tragedy was to befall these two lovely games. The old Unity web plugin, already long in the tooth, fell into the pits of incompatibility. Meanwhile, though the game was enjoyed by many on iPhones, my Apple Developer membership was doomed to lapse. Doomed! (I refused to pay Apple $100 a year, and they don't appreciate that)

Cut to the Future...er, present!

The Playdate is a really neat thing.  It's a teeny constrained system with a gorgeous 1-bit display and some killer audio. And I wanted to learn how to make stuff on it. And this game is your end-result!