Top Binz! (beta demo)
Top Binz! is the latest from Damos Games, creator of many jam and non-jam Playdate games worth checking out (I don’t have any others on the site yet, but if I did, it would probably be Roboctletes). It’s another game from the Fun in the Sun ‘24 Playdate Bundle which, if you’re reading this before mid-August 2024, you might still be able to get for 48% off regular prices for ten cool games. This is a beta demo and just one short replayable level, but the bones are there and the bones are good!
You play as a garbage man on a two-dimensional street, trying to pick up the trash bins without dropping the garbage all over, taking the trash to the dump, and doing it quickly so you don’t get complaints from angry citizens that put out their trash just WHENEVER, I guess. You’re only in charge of collecting from three houses, and they all live too close to the dump for it to be good for their property values. It makes a good use of the crank to pick up the bins to attach them to your garbage truck (ow, my back!) and then lift them with the truck’s robot arm up into the trash compactor.
There’s plenty of speed and luck involved, since some bins are randomly fuller than others and will load/empty faster. You also have a limited amount of space in your truck, so it’s up to you to decide a good time to make your dump run. You get bonus points for how many loads you take to the dump, how many bins you empty into your truck, and if you don’t get any complaints from the citizens. The developer is doing a contest to win a free copy of the full game, which I entered with my pretty good score of 2,250. Can you beat me? Grab that trash!
This is a limited beta, but it’ll be fun to see what the full game has to offer in the way of wildlife to avoid, banana peels to keep from slipping on, and how angry those trashy neighbors can really get. Latest update says it’ll be released in summer 2024, which is now! I’ll update this post with thoughts on the full game when it comes out SOON.
(Get it on Itch or as part of the Fun in the Sun ’24 Playdate Bundle.)