Post Hero
Let’s kick off Scenic Route Software Week (where I’m going to play all the Scenic Route games in a row, just like I did with Pixel Ghost a while back) with one of the most iconic early-Catalog-era games of all time: Post Hero. It’s an adventure game in the style of old Sierra games, but the deaths aren’t as mean, you can’t lose after playing many hours because you didn’t pick up a random item much earlier in your playthrough, and you play as… a postman.
There are a few other point-and-click style games on Playdate (but, you know, without the actual pointing and clicking), notably Season One’s Casual Birder and the incredible Saturday Edition, but this one has its own vibe. There’s no time limit or need to rush, there’s lots of weird characters to meet that all need your help with something, and the item usage makes sense for the most part. I know it’s a common comparison, but there aren’t any obtuse rubber-chicken-and-a-pulley item combinations here.
Basically, your job is to deliver letters to all the houses in town before the end of your shift. It sounds like it should be fairly straightforward, but every house has its own unique obstacle, whether it’s a killer lawn gnome hiding in the bushes, or a kid selling mysterious drinks out front, or even just something as simple as the sprinklers being on. You’ll find and use different items around town in a sort of Straw Millionaire trading quest, where you have to help some people first, then you gain the item needed to help another. For example, you can’t help the sad girl sitting on her porch until you get past the cow, and you can’t get past the cow until you find something to make him mooooo-ve (I’m sorry).
You get one point for each thing you do right, with a total of 146 points to earn. It keeps your score right in the corner of the screen, just like in an old King’s Quest game, so you know how well you’re doing and how much you’ve got left to go. Stuck? Ask the gnome hiding in the mailbox for help! He’ll give you a hint about any item in your inventory, and they’re not so obvious that it’ll ruin the game for you either, since the hints are in poetry/song form. You’ll even get a point for dying in interesting ways, and you always automatically respawn on the same screen, so you’re very motivated to keep exploring everything and talking to everyone. There are three save slots, and it’s saving constantly so there’s no need to worry that you’ll lose progress. Note, though: you can go around and find your final few missing points after delivering your last piece of mail, but if you return to the post office to finish your workday, it will clear out that save file and make room for a new game. So make sure you’re all done before you head back, or you’ll never earn those last two points!
I try my best to be a good representative of the Playdate community with this site, but this game really exemplifies what that means. All over, you’ll find hidden QR codes bringing you to other early Playdate games, and there are cameos, and in-jokes, and references you’ll only get after being steeped in Playdate lore. But, you don’t have to have played or even heard of these other games to enjoy Post Hero. It might make you want to, though!
For those of us that have played way too many Playdate games, there’s something special here just for you. See, the initial wave of Playdate game developers were all sharing dev secrets and ideas and programming tricks with each other because it was such a new system to develop for. They still do, and many budding Playdate devs still use SquidGod’s YouTube tutorials to get started. And there’s always help to be found on the Playdate Squad Discord or the Community Wiki. I’m sure there are other communities this welcoming, but not a lot make their own fansites and magazines and podcasts for a platform that doesn’t even have 100,000 units out in the world yet. It’s pretty amazing. Let’s see what else Scenic Route Week will bring us! (Oh, and if you missed it, I already played You’re Gonna Miss the Bus!)
(Released February 26, 2023, on Itch and May 9, 2023, on Catalog. There’s also a “Hero Edition” map/strategy guide combo for if you get stuck or just want some fun reading – it’s over 40 pages!)