Posted May 24, 2025 by qhoang
I'm thrilled to announce that SOLAR DESCENT launches today!
Get ready to dive into an adventure filled with pixel-perfect action, old-school vibes and new-school sensibilities in one of the largest games on the Playdate. Explore over 300 handcrafted rooms — seamlessly connected through a rich tapestry of more than half a dozen distinct areas with challenging dungeons and formidable bosses.
I’ve also made the source code for SOLAR DESCENT available for purchase for anyone curious about what’s going on under the hood. Honestly, I think it’s fairly well organized—especially considering my main project management tools were napkin scribbles for level design, a spreadsheet for dialogue and a plain text file for everything else. Feel free to ask me anything.
I’ve been deep in playtesting for quite a while now, but I’ve reached the point where I need to open the gates and let more players get their hands on it. I’m calling this build version 0.99. Content-wise, everything I envisioned for the 1.00 release is already in place. There won’t be any new features or additions—the game is fully playable from start to finish, with nothing missing. That said, based on player feedback, I may do one final round of combat tuning before locking in version 1.00. So please let me know what you think.
I started teaching myself making games back during the pandemic. I was closer to 40 than 30, with zero coding, writing, drawing and music composing experience. Now, with 40 literally just around the corner, I’m happy to say that you can teach an old dog new tricks. Everyone says to start small—make little projects to build your skills. I did exactly that… and ended up stitching all those bite-sized projects into one evolving game. I still wouldn’t claim to know how to code, write, draw, or compose music in any formal sense (what’s the difference between arrays and dictionaries and how do you use either?), but I learned just enough of each to bring SOLAR DESCENT to life. If I didn’t have first hand information, I might even think it was made by folks who knew what they were doing. What I did know were my limitations—and as the saying goes, limitation breeds creativity.
Have fun!