Goodnight Universe
The fact of the matter is that the Playdate does not have a backlight. There are multiple ideas on how best to play it in the dark: booklights, headlamps, those Pixar-mascot-looking lights from Ikea that pivot all over the place… Still, shining a lightbulb into your eyes before bed – on your phone, on the TV, or even just reading – makes for less restful sleep. Why not play a simple game to soothe your brain that’s meant to be played in complete darkness? Orange Thief’s Goodnight Universe, a game about the heat death of the universe, is there for you.
Played with the lights on, this game is barely a game. You move a little spaceship around the screen and ping when you come into contact with satellites floating in the blackness of space. Collect all the ones on the screen, and a new batch appears. I don’t think there’s an ending; you can just keep going through screen after screen of randomly placed satellites to collect. Send out a ping and get a ping back depending on how far away they are. But if you can see the satellites, you don’t need to use the echolocation. You’ll just fly over there and pick them up.
Goodnight Universe, however, is meant to be played in the darkness of space (or your bedroom). Send out a small audio ping, and you get one back after a certain amount of time. Then you move a little, and send out another ping. If it takes less time for the ping to bounce back, you’re getting closer to a satellite. Multiple satellites on the screen mean multiple pingbacks, so it’s up to you, stumbling around in space, to figure out if you’re actually getting closer to your goal or not. Each satellite you pick up gives you a little victory jingle, then it’s time to find another satellite. That’s it. It’s really nice.
When it’s time to sleep, the title screen doubles as a white noise machine. Plug your Playdate in near the bed, deactivate the auto-off function, and drift off into a dream about worlds far away from here. I’m sure they have their own problems, but it’s things like space cats and space politics instead of our normal Earth cats and Earth politics. It’s dark out there – you’d better get used to it.
(Released October 5, 2023, on Itch.)