Hello,
I am making a platform game (inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog). The game runs great in the simulator (obviously) but I would like to know how does it fare on a real device ?
Frame rate is 30 by default, but you can increase or decrease it with the crank.
Player sprite is a bit small, I plan to redraw it later.
Roll.pdx.zip (67.3 KB)
48fps is the highest that it runs steadily at. It can reach 49 but dips back down to 48 sometimes.
Anything above 25 or so seems playable for this type of game on the small screen, but at 40fps and higher there’s a drastic improvement in feel (to me, 40+ on the playdate feels as smooth as 60+ on a computer monitor). Going from 40 to 48 isn’t as noticeable but is still a nice improvement when running quickly.
The game runs very smoothly! There’s no slowdown at all when moving quickly or when lots of things are onscreen, and I didn’t notice any stuttering or hitching.
Thank you very much, I didn’t expect the game to run that smoothly!
There is still a lot I have to add (enemies, coins, sounds, etc...). Happy to know that I have horsepower left for that 
I believe that whilst the maximum hardware refresh rate is 50Hz, due to a technical reason it's currently at running at 48/49
This thread seemed to imply that 50 fps is now possible since Dave is now using double buffering to transfer lines to the screen:
I’m keeping the double buffer and pipelining it properly (fire off the transfer, then while that’s going prepare the next line to send once it’s done) and that gets us to an even 50 fps. Gonna call it there.
-- Dave Hayden
But it doesn't really matter, 40+ fps is great news for me 
Thank you! It looks great on real hardware.
I am coding in C. I already had some C code lying around, so I dug them up for this project.
@Daeke This game looks great! Can't wait to see where you take it.
Heya!!
I know a bunch of testing has been done already but I really love the look of this project and thought I'd test it out too! ;-; It's running really well! A pretty consistent 49 fps natively on the console which varies from 32 to about 43 when using Mirror to duplicate the screen (guessing due to the processing needed to duplicate the screen to the PC). Great job on optimization!! Can't wait to see what you do with this. Gonna try attaching a video underneath now ;-; eee
Very impressive, I'm curious if you've submitted to be apart of Season 2 or on the store front or do you plan on just releasing it on something like itch.io?
I am still writing support materials to pitch my game but yes, if possible, I would love to be apart of season 2.
Tried loading to the simulator and it shows 'load failed', that's typically how i side load games.
I don’t think the simulator can run C games compiled for the device.
yup, got it now. I'd say it runs smooth, but black and white might not be great for a faster-paced game like this. The enemy is quite blurred at speed and hard to follow the action.
Thanks for the feedback. I agree, the sea lion is a bit hard to see so I was planning to redraw it as well.
I think bigger sprites, thicker outlines or white outlines around sprites should improve legibility.
Better level design may help as well. I will try to do my best.
I don’t think the simulator can run C games compiled for the device.
You can, but you need to use the same system than me (i.e. an Intel Mac).
Some news about the game! Here is the new hero, it's a duck named Mallard. His sprite is bigger than Snowy's (from the last demo) and should be easier to follow on a real Playdate:
I am also happy to have found a title. The game will be named Duck Blur (because, you know, life is a hurricane...).
For now, the title screen looks like this:
Also added some features:
Bouncing coins!
Moving platforms!
Loopings!
And I had fun writing a screen deformation effect when underwater:
The effect may be too subtle on a real Playdate. I may have to make it a bit stronger but not sure it is a good idea because the action may be harder to follow.
I'm group 4 so I still can't test myself. I am trying to prepare a new tech demo, I am very interested in knowing how everything runs.
Looking great. Would be happy to help test.
The water effect is really cool! It might look better a little stronger as you say--but it already shows up nicely on static objects like the seaweed.
Looks fantastic! I have been longing for a fun platformer for the playdate, this looks like just that 
