Greetings, Astropilots! 
my name is Vik (he/him) and I love piloting in Elite Dangerous, and even more so, the Flight Assist Off style there. So why not a simple version of it for the Playdate? The crank is made for precise maneuvers, right?
"Flight Assist Off Race" is a top-down Asteroids-like race in ZeroG, in which you'll experience G-forces so intense, they might make you black out. Perform maneuvers only possible with the Playdate crank, and reach the finish orb as quickly as possible.
This represents quite the detour from a fully fledged narrative-driven space exploration RPG with NPCs and dialogues to a simple race.
Why?
- Using the crank for high-speed cornering maneuvers is just so much fun that I wanted to focus on that for now.
- I really want to involve players more during the development, and a racing game—where levels and ships can easily be added—is better suited for this.
So far, I was focusing mostly on the flying behavior to make it feel smooth while maintaining high framerates. After plenty of testing, I've locked it at 40 FPS, which is maintained regardless of speed.
Upcoming Steps:
- Recruit "Skytesters," who are players with free pre-release version access. Distribution starting upcoming Monday (4/29/2024)
- From here, focus more on the visual side before the actual release. Pixel art is new for me. 1-bit pixel art is a first-time experience for me. But I want to make the levels look better and more interesting. I also plan to add more animations within the game's menus and loading screens.
- Organize leagues and races!
I'd love to get your feedback, one way or another 
I want this game to be as much fun as possible.
Check out the game's Itch page, where I'll post more about the development journey soon: Flight Assist Off Race by Viktor Pekar
Become a Skytester by joining my Discord channel (link on the itch page)