Thank you for your kind support as always!
The crank yes for sure. I’d like to let the player choose their preferred control, contextually. So for instance on the hydrophone, the left and right pad rotate the needle, but pull out the crank and it’s activated. Fold it back and the game reverts to the pad.
But the game will be entirely playable without the crank too, so that players who don’t like it aren’t forced to use it. And you won’t be stuck if for some reason the crank broke.
I’ve given some thought to a Windows version. In fact, I already started experimenting with Game Maker, which works well.
For now I must focus on finishing the game for the Playdate, and then depending on the interest, I could submit it for wishlist on Steam. I’d like the port to feel like an upgrade from the Playdate, with its own character, while remaining faithful to the gameplay and the artistic DNA of the original. It would still feel like a retro game, something you can play on any computer, even a low spec laptop, but hopefully it would sound and look much better than the Playdate version.