I'm glad that your hospital brain scans have become less anxiety inducing. I would guess that there's a very slow sort of exposure therapy that's helping or it could be the familiarity about how things go that you don't become anxious. I also tend to giggle and smile quite frequently when I am in a new social situation. I thinks it's a self soothing measure.
A vitual figmon would be pretty cool. But I do see an issue that with that type of game, there will be so many graphics and animations to create a satisfying game, even on a mobile game. I've played a few games where its very low in term of game play, but high in terms of graphics. The game Secret Cat Forest is similar to a game called Neko Atsume. It is a game where you spend resources to aquire furniture and food in the hopes that a cat comes. In both games, there a large amount of cats that are animated. I have stopped playing Neko Atsume because I don't check my phone quick enough that the food gets used up completely before I can catch the cat. On the other hand, I still keep playing Secret Cat Garden because the game shows all the cats that can show up right when you check the game again.
Another issue with a game with an easy game loop would be that you would need to make it simple enough that it can easily be grasped, but there needs to be content enough to keep people satisfied. I love the game Tap Dig My Museum because it is a very simple game of finding dinosaur bones and filling out your museum. The reason it has some sustaining power in my mind is that with each update There are a whole host new dinosaurs to dig up and that there is a satisfying amount for me to hold over for a while furthermore the game slowly evolves with each update. For example, they have updated the types of dinos you can find it started out that there are 3 sizes of dinos avaliable to find, then there was the update that introduced Mega sized dinos; in another update they introduced more digging tools that you can use; and another update where you need to find an entire set of pehistoric species, like the Ammonites, instead of just dino bones. So theres always something to look forward to with each update and why I check back with each update.
A benefit of the idea of a virtual figmon game would be that it hase double the nostalgia, you have the fans here that are familiar to your world, and you can easily market to the pet collecting nostalgia.
If you have any struggles with the idea or want an idea on how much work that's involved in making such a game. Matt Rozak, the EBF guy, has a game called Mecha Dress Up that he has been working on putting it up on mobile.
2
Tobias 1102~2Y
Good to know it's not just me who does the giggling thing!
The games you're describing and comparing to there sound hugely different to what I have in mind! I don't know if you ever had a Tamagotchi or Digimon, but how those worked is that you hatched a single creature from an egg, which would age over the course of around 5-15 days, evolving after certain numbers of days. When its time was up, it died, leaving another egg. Digimon had 'hunger' and 'training' bars which depleted over time, and you could feed them or play an extremely simple training minigame to fill them. You also put them to bed, cleaned up after them, and you could battle, but that was it.
If I were to do something similar as a side thing, I'd want something not much more complicated than that. I've never played those cat things; I remember my friend in uni showing me something I'm assuming was one of those on her phone once for like a second, but that's the extent of my knowledge. Sounds like you collect immortal cats though rather than rearing a single one from birth until death, which seems more impersonal to me? Less like a pet and more like collecting beanie babies or something?
I've been wondering how I could monetise such a thing though (otherwise there's no point making it). I suspect as I think more about that side of things, I'll be led down the path of additional features...
It's all very vague at the moment though, and my desire to work on it might pass by the end of the week for all I know!
1
purplerabbits146~2Y
Ah, I apoligize for the confusion of the games I picked, I mostly picked them because they are games that are simple in mechanics, and are ones that you would check on them as a daily thing.
So the cat games are more akin to Pokemon where you want to see all the different cats. Hmmm actually, it's more like Animal Crossing and obtaining different villagers, but in the mobile games you have more control than the random chance with Animal Crossing.
For monetization, I can only guess stuff like speeding up time to hatch the egg, spend money to get a specific egg species, or spend money to get premium pet food would be sorta in line for how to monetize this type of game?
A vitual figmon would be pretty cool. But I do see an issue that with that type of game, there will be so many graphics and animations to create a satisfying game, even on a mobile game. I've played a few games where its very low in term of game play, but high in terms of graphics. The game Secret Cat Forest is similar to a game called Neko Atsume. It is a game where you spend resources to aquire furniture and food in the hopes that a cat comes. In both games, there a large amount of cats that are animated. I have stopped playing Neko Atsume because I don't check my phone quick enough that the food gets used up completely before I can catch the cat. On the other hand, I still keep playing Secret Cat Garden because the game shows all the cats that can show up right when you check the game again.
Another issue with a game with an easy game loop would be that you would need to make it simple enough that it can easily be grasped, but there needs to be content enough to keep people satisfied. I love the game Tap Dig My Museum because it is a very simple game of finding dinosaur bones and filling out your museum. The reason it has some sustaining power in my mind is that with each update There are a whole host new dinosaurs to dig up and that there is a satisfying amount for me to hold over for a while furthermore the game slowly evolves with each update. For example, they have updated the types of dinos you can find it started out that there are 3 sizes of dinos avaliable to find, then there was the update that introduced Mega sized dinos; in another update they introduced more digging tools that you can use; and another update where you need to find an entire set of pehistoric species, like the Ammonites, instead of just dino bones. So theres always something to look forward to with each update and why I check back with each update.
A benefit of the idea of a virtual figmon game would be that it hase double the nostalgia, you have the fans here that are familiar to your world, and you can easily market to the pet collecting nostalgia.
If you have any struggles with the idea or want an idea on how much work that's involved in making such a game. Matt Rozak, the EBF guy, has a game called Mecha Dress Up that he has been working on putting it up on mobile.
The games you're describing and comparing to there sound hugely different to what I have in mind! I don't know if you ever had a Tamagotchi or Digimon, but how those worked is that you hatched a single creature from an egg, which would age over the course of around 5-15 days, evolving after certain numbers of days. When its time was up, it died, leaving another egg. Digimon had 'hunger' and 'training' bars which depleted over time, and you could feed them or play an extremely simple training minigame to fill them. You also put them to bed, cleaned up after them, and you could battle, but that was it.
If I were to do something similar as a side thing, I'd want something not much more complicated than that. I've never played those cat things; I remember my friend in uni showing me something I'm assuming was one of those on her phone once for like a second, but that's the extent of my knowledge. Sounds like you collect immortal cats though rather than rearing a single one from birth until death, which seems more impersonal to me? Less like a pet and more like collecting beanie babies or something?
I've been wondering how I could monetise such a thing though (otherwise there's no point making it). I suspect as I think more about that side of things, I'll be led down the path of additional features...
It's all very vague at the moment though, and my desire to work on it might pass by the end of the week for all I know!
So the cat games are more akin to Pokemon where you want to see all the different cats. Hmmm actually, it's more like Animal Crossing and obtaining different villagers, but in the mobile games you have more control than the random chance with Animal Crossing.
For monetization, I can only guess stuff like speeding up time to hatch the egg, spend money to get a specific egg species, or spend money to get premium pet food would be sorta in line for how to monetize this type of game?