While testing out my Pulp game, the thought occurred to me - if it's possible for me to test this on browser, why not make it releasable as a standalone game for browser on a site like itch.io so that others can play it without a Playdate? It's clearly possible to play, with even simulated crank controls directly on the browser (though most Pulp games don't even utilize this).
Is it because it would compete directly with Bitsy? Or maybe because it's a proprietary tool that should keep everything contained within the Playdate universe?
In my opinion, it would be a net positive to make Pulp games releasable on browser as standalone games. The developer experience with Pulp is (imo) far superior to Bitsy. Bitsy doesn't even have undo. More people with limited coding experience would be able to create games for a wider audience if Pulp was made to be a public tool to make public projects. This would help expand Playdate's audience too, as more people would find out about Playdate through these more widely accessible projects where they might not have otherwise.
I have figured out ways to run pulp games outside of the editor and I think I can see why this wouldn't work.
Pulp embeds the entire source code inside of the editor and web player and because the source code is just a large JSON file, anyone can look inside the website's source, copy the largest line of code, paste it in a text file and import it. This would be a problem for some commercial games.
Aside from that, Pulp's web player doesn't work on touchscreens unlike bitsy, because the crank controls only track the mouse cursor.
Maybe the controls can be optimized for touchscreens but copying is still a major problem with making the web player more accesible.
@MintFerret Hey thanks for replying and sharing your insights. I don't know if I agree that potentially exposed source code is the issue here because 1.) we're talking about browser games so they will be free and not commercial and 2.) this could easily be fixed by encrypting the source code and decrypting it in the web player.
The touch control can also be fixed with relative ease, just allow tap and hold to move the crank on mobile. Everything else works as is.
In any case, even if the source code was exposed - is it really such a problem for free browser games? All PICO-8 games have their source code exposed to anyone who wants to see them and I have not heard of any issues surrounding this. If anything, it has helped people dig into how their favorite games are made and even create fun mods.
Those are two solid points, the game's source code can be encrypted and touch controls can be properly implemented. I was pointing out exposed source code as an issue because not every pulp game is free. But now that I think about it, I doubt that any of them would be playable on browsers.
I still think this might be a concern for those who don't want to share their code. PICO-8 was built with the idea of openness while Pulp is seen as a browser-based engine to make games solely for the Playdate console, which can be sold and sharing the source code is entirely optional.
It's really up to Panic and the Pulp team to decide if they want to turn their engine more into some form of a fantasy console. And I believe they would since you don't need to own a playdate to make and play games for it with the simulator.
This is interesting. I like to send friends versions of my games to playtest and that would make their lives much easier. Not needing the account, etc. Etc.
I do agree with @MintFerret in that I would not want my source code released. For instance Crank Casino I spent months working on and it ended up being released onto the catalog. If the game's code was open source like you've described there is a massive disincentive for someone to get it on catalog/itch if they can just get it for free from a browser.
There's definitely a few hurdles with this, but I think it would be fun.
As it is, playing Playdate games on a steamdeck via the simulator is pretty peak tbh, especially for low crank utility games.
I personally think this is just a Product-based decision - the Playdate is designed to be a unique, lo-fi, mostly offline handheld experience at its core, and Pulp is specifically designed as a way to make games this experience.
Technically I think you could probably quite easily release a Pulp game as a standalone webpage, but (in my view) it's not a function that Panic want to support (or encourage) officially, just because it's not what the Playdate sets out to do.
Whether they (would, or do) actively crack down on people distributing Pulp player files outside of the original domain is an interesting point though, and I'd be intrigued to know if anyone's had any experiences or discussion with them on this previously.
I also agree generally. The main thing for me is that ultimately these games are meant to be played on the Playdate, and they look, sound, and feel significantly better on device. The browser experience is great for expedience of testing, but it doesn't stand up at all for actually playing the games.