QuestForTori

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@QuestForTori

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Victoria Rose | Bi trans girl | Game/UX Designer | Creator of Secret Little Haven | Your local otherkin cartoon snep kitty :3

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QuestForTori
@QuestForTori
QuestForTori
@QuestForTori
QuestForTori
@QuestForTori

Part of me wants to post "we didn't need handhelds more powerful than the DS/PSP" but

I know the core of that desire is for a game industry unmoored from the graphical arms race and hardware growth above all else, which doesn't necessitate the former.

But nah fuck it breaking it down to its base economic critiques isn't as fun as saying that "I just wish the DS/PSP were still viable low end platforms and that phone gaming didn't eat its lunch in that space". I love those silly little handhelds and wish devs could release games on platforms where graphical expectations weren't unsustainable.

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noahtheduke
@noahtheduke

"But Tori, devs can just release stuff on Itch.io or Steam and we get basically the same effect"

In fact, some of us don’t have gaming pcs or even gaming laptops and can’t consume anything from Steam or itch.io, so handhelds provide an easy and pleasant method for playing smaller games.

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ann-arcana
@ann-arcana

I genuinely wish just one of these little ARM handhelds would actually stick around long enough to build some kind of indie community around it, but nothing lasts. The emulator things crank out new models almost monthly at this point, and the more hobbyist oriented things either can't get the audience, or go belly up.

The closest thing to having a go at this is an overpriced gimmick with a screen that would embarrass a Game Boy and a weird attempt to thread the needle between proprietary and open that satisfied no one in a hurry.

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QuestForTori
@QuestForTori

Yeah, it's really frustrating. We either get no-name handhelds solely made for emulation (Aliexpress handhelds) or compilations (Evercade), platforms which are mostly that but may get incidental software support (GP2X), ones which resign themselves to being mostly toys (Playdate), and none of them are able to surmount the terminally graphics-brained gaming public. I remember being really hopeful that the Ouya would fill a niche like this, but expectations were just blown way out of proportion and people got disappointed that it wasn't going to be the next Xbox killer.

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ann-arcana
@ann-arcana

I think PocketCHIP and GameShell had the right idea by targeting indie tools like PICO-8/TIC-80 and such, something that doesn't come with that fear of lock-in but still offers potential. And surprise, PocketCHIP sold better than they could afford to deliver, and GameShell is still going all these years later.

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