Hi! Love the concept and have a few quick questions. Your page says "feel free to play other games, but don't forget to check back because Mini Monster waits for no one!" Does this mean that the game keeps track of time passing when its closed? Id be interested in knowing.
Also, you say that the sleep schedule is 10pm to 10am. Would you consider adding a setting to change this? My work schedule has me waking up at noon, so I would like to be able to change it to be something I can check on when I wake up without being penalized.
Lastly, You say the game is optimized to use very little power when its running, so that you can basically use it as a replacement for the lock screen. What type of battery life can you expect when leaving the game running?
Ever since the PlayDate was introduced, I had high hopes that someone could make a Tamagochi-inspired game, and this is pretty much what I had on my mind. Great job, I'm sure that it took a lot of clever planning.
That said, as someone who is heavily invested in v-pets in general (and who has a drawer full of them), I'm aiming to provide some feedback, which I find to be crucial in order for anyone to properly enjoy Mini Monsters:
We need a Pause function, stat! My job is full of responsibilities and urgencies, and I can't always be around for the little one. And I think it's fair to say that I'm not the only one like that. Sometimes I can't reach for my PlayDate for days. Modern V-pets have a Freeze function for a reason. I think that this should be at the top of your update priority list, unless the function is already in here and I'm not seeing it.
I feel like hearts are dropping way, way too fast. V-pet remakes typically lower the amount, because, let's face it, the prime audience is nostalgia-fueled adults, who don't have as much time as kids. I'm not saying that you should lower it permanently, but maybe giving us a toggle to choose is a great idea. My reason being: I had to reach for my PlayDate four times in the last hour, while my other two V-pets haven't bothered me with anything in the last 2,5 hours. It means something.
The mini games are great and very nostalgic, however they take a long, long time to complete and grant just a single heart. I propose a fix: if the user passes the minigame without a single error, the full hearts are restored. Otherwise: they gain one. But still, I'd say that having another option is a good idea, maybe something passive, like "playing" and leaving the Monster to play on it's own for X amount of time, coming back with full Happiness, but Hungry? That makes for a fair trade-off, I think (especially considering that Hunger is way, way easier to fill).
This one is very subjective and fueled from my love for Digimon: battles? Please? xD
Thats about it from me for now, but I've only played about a day or so. I love the concept and I hope that there are many updates planned, because this is certainly one of the most impressive PlayDate games I've played.
Great job and thanks for your efforts! I can't wait to see what more you've got in store for Mini Monsters. And I'd defo support a sequel.
- I was considering a pause function like in the digimon X v-pets. I will add it to the list of possible updates. As someone who had to test like 20 different 90's vpets to make this game. I feel ya lol.
- I think your just dealing with the baby phase. The baby phase lasts one hour and is intended to trigger things very frequeuntly as a teaching moment. After you evolve to child, you instantly go up to 45min+ between times aheart drops, and longer for poops. After that evolutions from child should generally just get better and better up to 90min(if you do best care), and then much lower if you neglect your pet. I studied tamagachi very hard to see how they did it. TLDR: After baby phase it should become the idle game you expect.
- I will consider a faster way to increase hearts, but this is pretty intentional as even losing a mini game is still beneficial to hidden health.
- I love the digimon battles, but I would probably make a seperate vpet game if I were to add that. I know theres alot of people who wouldnt want the battles aswell, and I wouldnt want to force it on people who don't want it. I had to make this decision a bunch as I kept wanting to put in chao and monster rancher stuff aswell lol.
I'm currently working on a first update, so stay tuned. As well as added instructions on itch (and prolly a pdf) that explain baby/evolution/death and the evolution chart.
I am compiling a list of suggestions and feedback and am hoping to do some sort of updates in the future. As to exactly what the updates will be I can't say just yet.
Mini Monster should triple beep at you when it reaches 0 hunger, 0 happy, when it poops, when it needs discipline and when it falls asleep. I tried to avoid having it beep every hunger/happy heart as it got a bit excessive, and in my studies the original virtual pets worked the same way. I will add beeps per heart loss as a possible update addition.
Really cool game, can't wait for it to be published!
Btw. since this game is intended to be kept open, would it be possible to add option to have time diplayed in some of the free space? After all, Playdate is a kinda Game&Watch and many people keep it on their desk to display time. Would be neat if it could still serve this purpose while this game is left running idle. For me, that would make the difference between actually running this game all the time and intending to play it but always forgeting I should visit my pet and provide care.
I love this idea. I'll have to mull over how I can fit it on screen nicely. I can't promise this will be in at launch but I would like to add this in. Maybe even as a border option.
Neat idea. I'm down to try it. I hope you can expand on the idea further, in the future, on another game perhaps, to keep people's interest past the 1 or two weeks people tend to spend on virtual pets.
I just so happen to have a list of ideas for a more expanded pet game that takes more advantage of the playdates inputs, but it would be another game using the groundwork from this game. This was alot more work than anticipated lol :D
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Hi! Love the concept and have a few quick questions. Your page says "feel free to play other games, but don't forget to check back because Mini Monster waits for no one!" Does this mean that the game keeps track of time passing when its closed? Id be interested in knowing.
Also, you say that the sleep schedule is 10pm to 10am. Would you consider adding a setting to change this? My work schedule has me waking up at noon, so I would like to be able to change it to be something I can check on when I wake up without being penalized.
Lastly, You say the game is optimized to use very little power when its running, so that you can basically use it as a replacement for the lock screen. What type of battery life can you expect when leaving the game running?
Thanks!
Ever since the PlayDate was introduced, I had high hopes that someone could make a Tamagochi-inspired game, and this is pretty much what I had on my mind. Great job, I'm sure that it took a lot of clever planning.
That said, as someone who is heavily invested in v-pets in general (and who has a drawer full of them), I'm aiming to provide some feedback, which I find to be crucial in order for anyone to properly enjoy Mini Monsters:
Thats about it from me for now, but I've only played about a day or so. I love the concept and I hope that there are many updates planned, because this is certainly one of the most impressive PlayDate games I've played.
Great job and thanks for your efforts! I can't wait to see what more you've got in store for Mini Monsters. And I'd defo support a sequel.
Hello, and thanks for the feedback! :)
- I was considering a pause function like in the digimon X v-pets. I will add it to the list of possible updates. As someone who had to test like 20 different 90's vpets to make this game. I feel ya lol.
- I think your just dealing with the baby phase. The baby phase lasts one hour and is intended to trigger things very frequeuntly as a teaching moment. After you evolve to child, you instantly go up to 45min+ between times aheart drops, and longer for poops. After that evolutions from child should generally just get better and better up to 90min(if you do best care), and then much lower if you neglect your pet. I studied tamagachi very hard to see how they did it.
TLDR: After baby phase it should become the idle game you expect.
- I will consider a faster way to increase hearts, but this is pretty intentional as even losing a mini game is still beneficial to hidden health.
- I love the digimon battles, but I would probably make a seperate vpet game if I were to add that. I know theres alot of people who wouldnt want the battles aswell, and I wouldnt want to force it on people who don't want it. I had to make this decision a bunch as I kept wanting to put in chao and monster rancher stuff aswell lol.
I'm currently working on a first update, so stay tuned. As well as added instructions on itch (and prolly a pdf) that explain baby/evolution/death and the evolution chart.
Thanks so much :D
This is adorable!!! It's exactly what I wanted 😭
Do you plan to add new content in the future?
Thank you!! 😊
I am compiling a list of suggestions and feedback and am hoping to do some sort of updates in the future. As to exactly what the updates will be I can't say just yet.
And thank you! Hope you enjoy it!
Could you please add sound for the alerts??That would be awesome insted of looking and checking visuals for alerts.Thank
Mini Monster should triple beep at you when it reaches 0 hunger, 0 happy, when it poops, when it needs discipline and when it falls asleep. I tried to avoid having it beep every hunger/happy heart as it got a bit excessive, and in my studies the original virtual pets worked the same way. I will add beeps per heart loss as a possible update addition.
Really cool game, can't wait for it to be published!
Btw. since this game is intended to be kept open, would it be possible to add option to have time diplayed in some of the free space? After all, Playdate is a kinda Game&Watch and many people keep it on their desk to display time. Would be neat if it could still serve this purpose while this game is left running idle. For me, that would make the difference between actually running this game all the time and intending to play it but always forgeting I should visit my pet and provide care.
I love this idea. I'll have to mull over how I can fit it on screen nicely. I can't promise this will be in at launch but I would like to add this in. Maybe even as a border option.
Neat idea. I'm down to try it. I hope you can expand on the idea further, in the future, on another game perhaps, to keep people's interest past the 1 or two weeks people tend to spend on virtual pets.
I just so happen to have a list of ideas for a more expanded pet game that takes more advantage of the playdates inputs, but it would be another game using the groundwork from this game. This was alot more work than anticipated lol :D