Pet games always seem to be just that: a petting game. Pocket Creatures is not your average pet game.
Have you ever wanted to have a virtual pet that involves more than feeding it, naming it, and virtually petting it? Or how about a game that doesn’t involve pages and pages of reading? CEO and Founder of Tactile Entertainment APS Asbjoern Malte Soendergaard and Head of Game Design Morten Svendsen feel the same way. One of the first things they told Matt and I was that they love “pet” games, but wanted to make a game that involved more than just feeding a pet or playing a mini game every once in a while. As one of the lead producers of Crysis (Crytech), Asbjoern is familiar with creating good sandbox style games. In fact, they want a game in which the player actually affects the pet’s personality and “view” towards things. Also, they want a game that involves little to no reading. Pocket Creatures captures these two aspects and oh so much more, including massive interactivity.
When they say, “develop the creature’s personality,” they really mean it. Depending on what you do, your creature will like or dislike you and everything else it interacts with. For example, if you pet your creature while it is eating a carrot, it will begin to like the carrot more; if on the other hand you slap your creature around while it is eating, it will start to dislike carrots. If your creature dislikes something enough, it will reject that item when you try to feed it.
Going further into the personality aspect and starting on the interactivity, if you smack around a woodpecker (which can be found) then your creature may think it is funny and start to smack the bird around as well. But how did you find this bird? You waved a bug outside of a hole in the tree and it came out! Craziness. The same goes for other creatures such as a platypus.
These animals have more uses than sheer enjoyment. A woodpecker can be used to open a coconut, and a platypus’ bill can be used as a shovel. A shovel that can be used to dig a hole, that is used to plant a seed, that produces a plant that you can use. But first you have to fertilize and water the plant somehow (hmmmmm fertilizer…) Did I mention the game’s clock is persistent even when you aren’t playing? That means your plant will grow even when the game is closed.
From time to time, your territory will get attacked by other creatures. To fend them off, your creature can use temporary abilities that are gained from different plants and things that are grown or found. For example, you can find a plant that allows you to freeze a creature, and then use the woodpecker as a hammer to shatter the creature; or an electric plant allows you to fry foes into food. If your creature eats too much or gets sick, use a ginger root found in the ground to sooth it’s stomach.
Basically, what I am trying to say is, this game is going to be ridiculously rediculous. The developers do not have a release date yet but they promise very numerous updates once the game is released. It is like Pocket God, no wait, it’s nothing like Pocket God. This will be THE sandbox game for the iPhone: Fully 3D, fully interactive, and fully awesome.
The developer described his personal pet, the one we got to see in action, as a “lovemaking angel pirate.” ‘Nuff said.
*Please note that these pictures looks substantially better on the iPhone than they do in this article.
