Game Concept Proposal
People: The main and playable character is an ugly weird-looking virtual pet (like a Tamagotchi) that has been abandoned after its owner got bored taking care of it. The game takes place minutes before the owner turns on the device the pet is in after many years of being forgotten.
Places: It takes place in the fake virtual home of the pet, it is a bit unkept for not being taken care of by it’s owner for a long time. The virtual pet is going to be from an older game device so the furniture will have a retro feel to it. When it comes to the weather the sky is clear but has an eerie fake look to it with a strange digital pattern. The player will start in the open living room and kitchen area, the human then will guide the pet to the bathroom after greeting it and feeding it. After that, the player can explore the courtyard and can discover a glitched secret path. The secret path leads to a big digital empty area where the code and programming files of the game are. However the virtual pet can’t do anything but head back to its home.
Things: Through the game the human NPC will be taking care of the player character’s stats. Hands will pop from little digital portals that will provide the player food to interact with for their hunger stat. These hands will also unlock the door for the player to interact with the bathtub to improve its hygiene stat and the courtyard door for the player to interact with toy outside for their fun stat.
Style: The game will be in third person and the environment will have a cartoony feel to it. The most distinctive element of the visuals will be a colorful saturated color palette with some pops of black and white. I’d like for it to feel trippy and a bit eerie but still inviting.
Gameplay: I’m planning for this to be more of an interactive experience. There’d be no objective and no way to escape the digital prison, the only choice is to explore and keep your stats up until the human NPC turns the device off, leaving the player on their own without the ability to raise their stats up again. I’d want the experience to make the player feel dependent on an NPC and a sense of abandonment when it leaves, turning all the lights off.
Game Concept Sketch
Reference Images
Premise and mechanics inspired by old virtual pets
Retro colorful interior design
Eerie, artificial and liminal feel in the yard
Glitch effect ideas and shader inspiration
Game: Duck Season, inspiration for being able to see a screen with the person controlling the game
The premise is super cool! I especially like the colors of the character. I wonder what the outside world would look like? Or if it’s more obscured to the player.
I’m thinking you could only see certain parts of the human, so like a close-up of the eye staring at you or even the mouth if it speaks
i love the style and the retro early 2000s style that you have here! im excited to see the progress on this game and how the environment looks as well!
ooooo I love this it reminds me of Kinito Pet. I love the weirdcore subliminal space vibes? I adore it. How will the backstory be conveyed to the player, if at all?
This is a really interesting and unique idea! I particularly like how you’re setting up a feeling of dependence on the human – it’s cool that you’re already thinking about these things so early in development.
This style is so cool! Do you think the liminal aesthetic will mostly come from shaders?
You have such a distinct and polished concept, in my opinion! It feels weird, in the fun way, like the genre of games that try to peer into our reality, or video series like Petscop. I’m super excited to see how this develops! Do you plan to have the game be cyclical, with it ending the same way it began?
I love you, lemon fork thing… I think this will be really cool, but I am not sure how the hypothetical gameplay loop will feel. Will there be ways to make the human stay longer so you can keep your stats up for longer? Maybe something like doing silly tricks to keep the player entertained.