What do you think of when you hear the words Pet Simulation Game? I think of petting virtual dogs or feeding a cute little creature when its hunger icon pops up. What I don’t think of is slapping your virtual creature silly. I don’t think of feeding it feces either. But you can do these and many other sick things in Pocket Creatures, an upcoming open-world pet-sim for the iPhone. This has to be the most messed up iPhone games ever made.
Beyond being strange, Pocket Creatures is huge in scope as far as possibilities goes. This isn’t just some locked down virtual playpen for a cute animal either. You’ll have the freedom to be completely creative in your decisions and interactions, which will affect not only your character, but also its environment. There’s a complexity here that I have yet to see in an iPhone title. This is a pet sim for everybody, and has the potential to be huge. Why else would Asbjorn Sondergaard, formerly of Crysis, make this his next project?
This is a totally different pet game from what you’re used to. The concept the guys at Tactile have come up with lets Pocket Creatures be either cute and cuddly or strange and sadistic, depending on your preferences. You’ll condition this creature on how to react and behave in the game’s world, and with your training, the creature will continue on, doing the things you’ve showed him. For instance, if you were to cram some animal crap down this creature’s throat, it will probably want to spit it out. But, putting the crap in its mouth while rubbing its belly will gradually teach the creature to like it. Eventually, left on his own, this creature will eat crap whenever it encounters some. It may become sick every time it eats, but it will continue on.
Of course, you’ll still do pet sim things, like feeding, but in Pocket Creatures, it works a bit differently. Say you find a banana. You find that when you offer it to your hungry creature he refuses it. A quick check of the Relation Bar — which every in-game object has — shows you that he doesn’t like bananas. You could either feed him something else, or force feed him this. This “relation” with the banana will change according to your actions. In your classic pet game, a full pet is a happy one. In this instance, the creature was happy that it finally got to ate, but was mostly pissed off because he was forced to eat something he didn’t like. This flexibility makes for a much deeper experience than you’d typically find with a pet sim.
Who is this creature, though. It’s not clear yet, but we do know that the game takes place on a deserted island. In an ancient abandoned temple, the player finds an egg on a pedestal. The temple looks to have been a place of worship for the egg. The game starts with the player hatching the egg, bringing forth a mysterious little creature. He’s kind of cute, with a fuzzy face, a big smile, and bigger ears. In the game you’ll slowly unravel the mysteries of this creature’s history.
It turns out that this little guy has god-like powers. He draws these powers from the strange plants and wildlife around the game’s world. Have him eat specific fruits or plants, and he’ll transform totally, giving him even more powers to interact with the world. In one example, I saw that the creature could eat the fruit of one plant to be able to throw lightning. You’d have to explore to see what this power is fully capable of, but I do know that zapping nearby animals turns them into food for your creature to eat. The game is packed with these simple drag-and-drop interactions, and much of the fun is seeing what happens when you try different possibilities.
The creature is a blank slate at first, but it will be able to interact with every other creature and object in the game, letting you change it greatly. You’re essentially a parent, teaching the creature how to behave, giving it a personality. Want it to be mean to animals? Have him beat them up. He’ll grow to like it eventually, and will smack them around on his own, showing a devilish grin as he does so. You could also play the nice game, having him loving animals, plants and life, but what fun is that?
You’ll mostly explore possibilities in Pocket Creatures. Items combine with others in both obvious and surprising ways. For example, some can be planted to create a garden, producing fruit that changes your character to, in turn, produce more item combination. The same goes for animals. One example had my creature eating a love fruit, which enabled it to force two different animals to love each other. The end result was a totally new creature to interact with.
With the guys at Tactile letting me call the shots in my session, my creature was an absolute terror. He would beat other animals, eat inappropriate things, vomit, eat his own vomit, become sick and vomit again. He would be slapped and scolded, even though he did nothing wrong. What’s amazing is that you’re free to hate your character just as much as you are to love it. You could go a completely different way and have a totally different experience. I feel like calling this game a mere pet sim doesn’t do justice.
Pocket Creatures will hit the App Store some time in April.
