Interview with PossiblyAxolotl
PossiblyAxolotl is a PILLAR of the Playdate community, whether it’s making award-winning games like Rocket Bytes, maintaining a popular YouTube channel, or hosting a fifth Playdate PlayJam on Itch.io this Friday, April 19, 2024. (I’m making a full article on these but probably won’t be done before PlayJam 5 starts, so mark your calendars!)
What makes someone host PlayJam after PlayJam while doing a bunch of other cool stuff on the side? They were nice enough to answer a few questions for the site, and now I get to bring them to you! Please enjoy what will hopefully be just the first of many Playdate interviews.
PlaydateUnofficial.com: *old-timey television announcer voice* Playdate Unofficial here with PossiblyAxolotl, who this weekend is hosting their FIFTH weekend-long PlayJam on Itch.io. Impressive for the short time the console has been out. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into all of this?
PossiblyAxolotl: Sure. I've been learning to make games for a little while and a lot of my learning process has been experimenting with weird ideas, especially during game jams. Some of the most creative games coming out start as Ludum Dare jam games and I think that's really cool. Ever since I heard of the Playdate I became super interested in it and the community, and after noticing that there weren't many Playdate-specific jams thought it could be fun to try hosting one of my own. That's how a lot of my projects start, I just think "that could be fun," or "that would be kinda funny," and then do it.
PU: You’ve hosted other jams, too, like the just-completed FishFest that got a whopping 567 entries. How does a huge one like that compare to smaller ones like the PlayJams? I had a hard enough time keeping up with Season One on the Playdate and that only had 24 games. Are there differences in how you spread the word about your various jams?
PA: The main thing with hosting a huge jam like FishFest is it's a lot harder to keep up with everything going on. Since a fish-based game jam is a lot less niche than a super specific console based game jam, there were a lot more people to try and keep up with and it gets a little exhausting. (Especially with the amount of late submissions I had to generate links for, solid day total spent on that probably haha.) PlayJam feels like a more casual jam with a smaller group of people; most people in the jam already know each other from the Discord server or some other communications so it's a lot more relaxed and chill than even the most laid back FishFest. Marketing-wise the main difference is I tend to post more about PlayJam in Playdate based communities since it's relevant there, but I just post a bit about most of my jams on socials and that kind of thing.
PU: You also make games, and videos (over 10,000 YouTube subscribers!), and music, and game consoles, and a particle system for the Playdate SDK, and host many game jams, and you have your own wiki, and you’re active on Discord… how do you balance that all? Is there even MORE you want to do if you could squeeze it in?
PA: Haha I don't even know how I balance it all, I'm also a student so there's that, too. I just have fun doing that kind of stuff and somehow make enough time to fit it all in. There's also the whole "doing whatever cause why not" thing. I would someday like to make a webcomic, I have some neat ideas for that, would also be fun to do a bunch of other random things like making a little webring with some other developers and creators. I've got a lot of ideas so my goal is to eventually get to everything I can.
PU: Saw you won the “Best Launch Experience” award at the 2022 Playdate Community Awards for Rocket Bytes, which had to be double fun because rockets… also launch. What was that experience like, and how does the Playdate community differ from other online worlds you’ve been a part of?
PA: It was pretty fun! It was really cool to watch the stream and see my game show up, we all got to learn the winners in real time with the rest of the community. I'm super proud of Rocket Bytes and it's been my most successful game ever so far, so anything to do with it is really exciting to me. I love how dedicated the Playdate community is to creating things and sharing them with each other, I don't think I've seen many communities host an awards show, direct-style showcase, create a zine about it, and create a certain unofficial website dedicated to the console, so it's really cool to see everything coming out of it.
PU: I’ve probably taken enough of your time, gotta get ready for the next jam! Any last things you’d like to share that we could look forward to from you or the rest of the Playdate world?
PA: I'm currently working on an RPG for Playdate slated to come out eventually called Sporestory (https://www.possiblyaxolotl.com/sporestory) and of course hosting PlayJam, I'm always working on stuff which you can find on my socials or sending me a letter via carrier pigeon, and just generally try to keep an eye out on the whole Playdate community cause I can guarantee if I tried to mention everything going on I would still miss something.
PU: Really appreciate you putting on these jams and supporting the best little portable console being made today. Thank you for your time, and good luck with PlayJam 5 and everything else you’ve got cooking!
PA: Thank you! :D