Pine
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
** Pine was released in three fully playable acts which make up the entire game. Act One was released on December 1, 2024, Act Two was released on January 1, 2025, with Act Three released on April 4, 2025. Purchase price includes all three acts.**
"People come to this island to end their suffering. But how that suffering ends... depends completely on them." - The Old Man
Pine is a psychological thriller-adventure... best experienced rather than talked about.
Approximate game length:
Act 1: 2-3 hours
Act 2: 1.5-2 hours
Act 3: 3.5-4.5 hours
If you enjoy Pine and want to see more games like it, please leave a comment below! Feedback from players is a major inspiration for future work.
Design, Story, & Coding by intellikat
Sound by BeepsNBoops
NOTE: This game is fully playable with or without a Playdate handheld. You can download the Playdate Desktop Simulator bundled with the SDK for free here.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $3 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Act 3 v4.4 Update1 day ago
- Quest For The X 2 Demo CONTEST8 days ago
- Act 2 & 3 Bug Fix25 days ago
- Community Kudos26 days ago
- Act 1 v5.10 Released32 days ago
- Act 2 v4.9 Released34 days ago
- Act 2 v3.8 Released41 days ago
- Act 3 Bug Fix67 days ago
Comments
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I have finally finished Act 3 and I want to share some of my thoughts on the game:
I HAVEN’T HAD THAT MUCH FUN PLAYING AN ADVENTURE GAME IN A LONG TIME!!!
Yes, it is not an easy game. And the time estimates needed for completing it were a bit wrong in my case. But the days of headscratching and being stuck on different puzzles made me have an experience that I hadn’t had since back in the pre-internet days when I was trying to complete Lucasarts/Sierra adventure games for the first time. Intellikat has been really kind and answered lots of my and other player’s questions here in the comments and he has also set up an entry for Pine on the playdate wiki. There he also started a walkthrough for us players to finish (and I’m pretty sure it will be finished soon). I was not able to use this walkthrough and sometimes got really desperate. But now in hindsight I want to encourage all of you to use the walkthrough only as a last resort when you are really, really desperate.
When I discovered Pine here on Itch I immediately liked the art style and premise of the story. What I didn’t expect was that I was in for such an intense retro gaming experience. At one point I even started drawing a map to find the solution to a puzzle and I enjoyed every bit of it - getting stuck at the puzzle, trying lots of different things to solve it, realizing that maybe I would need to draw a map to make it through, actually drawing it, thinking about the solution while looking at my hand drawn map, the feeling of satisfaction when I finally solved the puzzle.
Although some of the puzzles left me stuck for quite some time the solutions were never unfair and made perfect sense in the end.
Pine is obviously a labor of love by intellikat and you can see that in lots of little things throughout the three acts.
I don’t want to spoil any story details here, but I want to tell you that the game takes quite a lot of unexpected turns and has some very creative ideas in it. Is the ending any good? I LOVED IT! But you will have to finish the game first to find out for yourselves. 😃
Thank you for your little epic game intellikat! You showed again how many things you can do with pulp on this little yellow thing that we all fell in love with. I really got a lot for my 3$ (!!!). I have spent more money on AAA games that I stopped playing after a few hours because they didn’t catch me as much as Pine did.
Now I’m really looking forward to play Quest for the X II. Take your time intellikat and keep up the good work!
I’m sorry to ask for another hint or just to clarify if I’m on the right track or if it is a bug that prevents me from proceeding.
I am back on Pine Island in Act 3 but this time it is the glitchy version as seen in the trailer. I have got a flashlight, the crowbar and the rifle and I can retake these items again (when I dropped them). I found the hidden words DIG and PERSIST. I found the two alien letters behind the wall. I can move up the infinite ladder (I moved up until the playdate went into screensaver mode) but the other section with the second ladder (as seen in the trailer) isn’t there and I can’t open it with the crowbar or rifle. On the left side of the tent two other alien letters appeared quite randomly when I went down the ladder. But apart from that I don’t know what to do. I can’t shoot the people in the boat, there is no obvious interaction with the hibernation chambers or the glitchy thing next to the tent.
Is everything supposed to be like that?
In my savegame everything is as I described it. But I’m not sure if I want to and if it is worth it to start Act 3 from the beginning to replay the whole thing and save before I started messing with the cave.
Help!
Yes, everything is supposed to be like that. The alien letters and the symbols beside them are the clues you need to find the second ladder. Good luck~!
I got pretty far now. Found the surpressor and the cardboard box and now I’m having problems with the armoured guard in front of switch for the northern door. He always kills me.
But I think I found the easter egg. I have sent you a picture on discord
Hmm. You'll need to be a position where the guard both cannot HEAR you nor SEE you when you use that rifle...
Indeed you are the first to discover the secret room!
Thanks for the hint. Now I’m back on Pine Island and can’t wait to find out what all this is about.
Ok, I'm back at it. Got the rucksack in act 3, made it through the minefield, now I'm stuck at an constant electric barrier, I can't pass. Is there a way to turn it off (or pass "boldly")? Please give me one more hint!
Hmm. Can you show me a screenshot of the barrier either here or on Discord?
I wonder if you could use those pushable crates to help you pass by...
🫡👌🫶
Act 1 finally done. That took me longer than I thought. Act 2, I can’t seem to work out how to get past the opening 2 guards. Any hints? I can’t seem to find anything before they open fire…
Have you tried pressing down on the D-pad and seeing how you can maneuver around the crates?
I've recently tidied up the chat and have started a community wiki walkthrough here: https://playdate-wiki.com/wiki/Pine
For those who have already progressed a ways, feel free to add to the walkthrough.
Been hoping for some walkthrough hints for a while! Currently stuck in Act 2 with the crowbar and had a story book(?), but not sure where to go from there. :-/
Got an ID card but not sure what to do next. Keep wandering around the fenced in area. Noticed the Wiki walkthrough ends a bit before the point I’m at lol
“Calling all players to add to the walkthrough!” I’ll see if I can add as well. Although I feel a bit divided about walkthroughs… you’ll need to use that ID card to enter the house. But to get through the fence you’ll need something else…
Gave A1 a crack last night, probably needs a bit of tidying at some point (but tragically I can no longer procrastinate my other tasks lol).
One thing I did notice, as a sidebar: In the early mines maze, walking within 1-2 tiles of the pulley or storeroom door makes my playdate bug out. This actually happened to me on first play through but I thought it was an effect! I'm fairly sure it's not, but lmk.
It gets extremely sluggish (music slows, movements take a while to register) and then suddenly catches up, music speeds up suddenly. Feels like it's struggling to keep up, essentially. For me, I can replicate it to some degree each time.
Not caused a crash at all, but might be worth checking usage around there :0)
Thanks for that specificity— I will certainly take a look!
To be clear, do you have the latest update (v5.10)? In this update, instead of a single tile of visibility, your flashlight should create the ability to see one additional tile in every direction.
I do indeed have v5.10, the extra visibility was appreciated ;)
Thanks to everyone chipping in to build the community wiki walkthrough!
Just finished Act 1, really enjoying the engaging story! Feels a little like Saturday Edition, which was one of my favorite Season 1 games.
Thank you for the comment! I'm glad you are enjoying the story. Get ready for surprises ahead!
Hey! Thanks so much for sharing your game, rly enjoying it :)
I am stuck relatively early stages of Act 1.
After Used Bookstore -> dinner scene -> swimming back to shore of the beach. I can walk right to see the treeline, guitar player, and another me sat on a chair. I can go up/down the rope. There's nothing in my inventory.
I cannot seem to move past the left hand side of this screen (the guitar player one, from upper or lower level - I can get to about the top of the hill on the left, near her legs). I also cannot move back into the water or anything from the beach.
Can you give any pointers to what I'm missing?
Thanks again!!!
To the far right from the top of the rope you’ll find something
Nice assist!
You're a star, Ty for replying!
However I still can't seem to move forward :(
If you don't mind: Do you mean I should be finding something on the screen with the rope? Or to the right (guitar player)?
I found something to help you get back into the mine to the far right from the top of the rope.
Thank you so much I rly appreciate!!
The item you need will always respawn for you if you no longer have it in the area steppenknee is describing.
Thanks so much you're a star!
(ETA - I realised after steppenknee's comment that I had bypassed the earlier mine event - that I believe triggers the item spawn you're referring to - entirely, so there was nothing for me to grab. Assume this is intentional but sharing jic)
I'm glad you are enjoying the game! You've got much more ahead...
I seem to be a bit stuck in the used book store on act 1. I just can’t seem to work out the combo despite the Bon Jovi clue… am I missing something? Any pointers greatly appreciated 🙏
There is an earlier text clue for this! Before landing at the used bookstore, you need to explore another area of the island (using A to look at objects) to uncover it.
Lmk if you want a more concrete location (or even just the straight answer) :)
Got it. Thanks 🙏
Well done team human!
I love the game so far. But I‘m stuck in Act 1 during the second night. I keep getting shot and I don‘t know what to do with the knife or the small box.
Is there a walkthrough online somewhere?
Under development: https://playdate-wiki.com/wiki/Pine
I have found I quickly devolved into searching every tile (step, press a) as this was the only way to find things (e.g. the flashlight in act 1).
I am now stuck in the cave after struggling to find a key and then use it to get through a door - I thought the struggle was over but it just keeps going. Without any visual hints the maze is quite a pain to get through.
Yes, the cave maze brings pains... But pain gives way to pleasure eventually...
Once you've entered the storage room with the key, there's a visible object you will need there. Did you collect it?
You shouldn't need to check every tile to find objects except for when searching WITH the flashlight for a lost items in the trees at one point in the game. The rest of the time objects will either be visible themselves or within other visible objects (i.e. a crate).
Hard stuck at the "craft in the moonlight" scene in act 1. Got stuck a few times so far and eventually found a way but not sure what I can do here at all with no items and no way to go back either. Any tips?
The only way past is to be dressed in such way as to not arouse suspicion. Uniforms aren't just lying around though. Figure out a way to get one using the items you have. Good luck!
Act one is awesome, one of my favorite games on the playdate so far.
Act two is pretty tough, has anyone beaten it (v2. 7)? I'm stuck trying to sneak past the scientist star gazing at the north beach. Doesn't seem to be anywhere to go?
Thanks for the high praise!
Yes, at least one here on the thread is already into Act Three as of its release last weekend.
The stargazing scientist has an item you need, but you may need to get a bit... violent with him to get it...
Happy hunting!
I made the camp, drank the whiskey, and fired the gun. Now I am stuck, I assume I am missing something stupid simple to keep going. How do I continue once I wake up and see my rucksack missing?
Just start exploring the island— left or right off the campsite screen.
Just read your latest dev log. I've gotta say - what an awesome way to handle a giveaway! It gives people already playing along a head start by hiding the easter egg in act 3 :)
Hiyo Silver! Buena suerte!
Any ETA on act 3?
It is really... right there :D A few last scenes and the end title credits. Illness and some other excuses have delayed things, but rest assured this last act is bigger and better than what has come before! (I think). Did you complete the first two acts already? I haven't heard much feedback from players here.
I've completed act 1, currently part way through act 2, just got the hubcap and trying to work out what to do next 😀
Released!
the sense of setting you are able to get with minimal 1bit is really masterful. very impressive.
Thanks for the comment! I really appreciate it. 1-bit is a challenging and in ways freeing style to work in. I think it allows for an engagement of the player’s imagination in ways that doesn’t happen if all the visual details were otherwise clearly defined. Thanks for being that imagination.
Any movement on this at all? This looks super cool!!
Yes, steady work among other games at the same time :) At 80% completed with some play testing after that scheduled before launch.
Thanks for asking!
Released!
Hell ya just purchased!!
Thanks for the early days purchase! And let me know your experience of Act One...
Will do, I plan on diving into this over the weekend
Same!
Cheers! Curious to hear first responses :D
Released!