The very yellow Playdate handheld console is offering everything we expected of it. So far, lots of unique, lovely, joyful, momentary gaming experiences.

One of the surprise highlights is with interactive mini-comic space odyssey The Botanist. This was developed by indie developer Cadin Batrack, who also works at Microsoft full-time as a senior UX designer and prototyper.

His skills show off marvellously in this 15-20 minute sci-fi comic, which features parallax animations and an excellent soundtrack by YouthFaire.

Interactive Comic Book Shizzles With Playdate’s The Botanist

This is a brief little experience and not a typical type of video game. But it’s similar to the likes of Otogirisō (1992) on the SNES, which was a visual novel concept.

But here Batrack takes advantage of the Playdate’s potential, using that striking parallax animation style to shift between comic panels.

Players influence that by moving the Playdate’s crank controls, as well as pressing the occasional button. It works a little like this, have a gander!

It reminds us of Jesse Lonergan’s HEDRA (2021) as a story, with a botanist heading off on an adventure to discover planets and the like.

Now, we really enjoyed The Botanist. Yes, it’s brief. But with your earphones plugged in to just absorb the experience it’s a total delight.

The music sweeps across the screen and you make your inputs and enjoy the story, with the intrepid botanist overcoming some peril and woe on his way to a merry conclusion.

We saw one reviewer give The Botanist a measly 3/10 in amongst the complaining about the short length and £5 asking price. We can’t say we agree with that, you get a lot of bang for your buck on this and we’ll be revisiting it often.

Mentioning the above is to balance out our stance here, as we really loved the thing. There’s a lot to admire here—the artwork, the music, the delivery of it all on the Playdate.

It’s an impactful little mini-cinematic experience and we think it’s one of the best concepts available on the innovative handheld.

The Botanist’s Excellent Mini-Soundtrack (and the music of YouthFaire)

Although there aren’t many compositions to The Botanist, the work is great. It’s a shame YouthFaire (who has a lowkey online presence) isn’t promoting them more.

We particularly like the one above.

YouthFaire is Julio Monterrey, a Nicaraguan native who grew up in America. We believe he lives in LA these days where he composes music for internet content, video games, and art venues.

You can find other examples of his work around online, such as on the YouthFaire’s Bandcamp page. Well worth a listen!

The Development of The Botanist

Playdate developers seem more eager than other indie devs to document their development process. This is called a “dev log” and Lucas Pope had an extensive one for Mars After Midnight.

And Mr. Batrack followed suit! As he had lots of dev log notes and videos on his YouTube channel with creative tips.

On his Itch.io dev log page this even went as far as how he made The Botanist’s trailer.

“I built a high-tech stand for my Playdate to try to keep it steady during filming. This consisted of some Silly Putty stuck to a tea tin. This elevated the device enough to let me grip it and manipulate the crank, without letting it wobble and drift so much that it moved out of focus.”

Further proof that tea is the most useful thing in the whole Universe.