Digital Dog [Free] [Tamagotchi]

[Cain_Abel]

A text-based tamagotchi that focuses on dogs. Simulation/Sandbox, which you can progress at your own pace. Train your dog tricks, compete in competitions, fulfil optional goals, unlock new content gradually and befriend other doggy friends.

Embark on an exciting journey of companionship and responsibility. Earn coins sending your dog to work, build up a social media profile and care for your friend.

Feature List:

• 16 tricks to master!
• Customisable breed!
• 4 Minigames!
• 3 Mini Mysteries to solve!
• Competitions, with difficulty tiers! (Talent, Agility, Scavenger, and Disc throw)
• An adventure to unlock a new area and new games!
• Cheat menu!

Status:
Currently, a side-project that I plan to be free with Hosted Games. Arthurian Tale: Camelot is my main project, but I do enjoy using this as a mental palate cleanser to keep me inspired.

Feedback:
Opinions, critique, ideas, requests, go for it! It’s one of those games that can be added to over time with new events, features, and whatnot without changing what it is fundamentally.

Trick List: Let me know if you think of any others!

Respond to Name
Sit
Lie down
Stay
Paw
High five
Dance
Fetch
Beg
Speak
Spin around
Crawl
Roll over
Play dead
Jump through hoop
Balance treat on nose

Dog Jobs: Tried to keep them fairly logical?

Each job has three position levels, with enough experience you level up and increase the wage. You have to complete each type of job to get to the next type.

Volunteer
Therapy
Security
Police
Acting

Play Here New Link!

[AletheiaKnights]

It’s possible to choose a pug. 10/10, this is everything I want in a game.

Kidding obviously, but I did click around for a bit and it’s pretty cool. I would love to see this in the Hosted Games app someday.

[Cecilia_Rosewood]

wishes it were cats instead

You know what? Since the dogs can get the zoomies too you’re forgiven

Some issues I encountered

Incorrect pronoun. My dog is a female.

I bougt wet food (5) in the pet store, but it didn’t get added to my inventory.

[Cain_Abel]

Updated!:

• First draft of Talent Show Competition Complete!
• 2 new teachable tricks!
• Feedback added once a trick has been mastered!
• Squashed a couple pesky bugs!
• Improved some formatting!
• Reduced difficulty of following tricks: Sit, Lie down and Paw.

[Denzil_Melgior_Nagel]

This is a neat little time passer, but I could really, really, really do with a safe system of sorts. As things stand now, closing the browser will make you lose your entire progress which is somewhat off-putting. Other than that, I think you have a great little Tamagotchi here.

[Cain_Abel]

Update!

• Added Save system!
• Improved Shop!
• Added Obedience relevance to Talent Competitions!
• New Random events added!

[hustlertwo]

Is this appropriate for children? I wonder if one of my daughters might like it. She’s 7.

[Cain_Abel]

It is!

[Cain_Abel]

Update!

• Trick tracker added!
• More ways to gain happiness!
• More ways to lose happiness!
• Work text simplified!
• Intermediate Agility Contest draft up!
• New recommendation added to start!

[blob]

would be nice to add pics of the dogs

[Cain_Abel]

I have been considering that, might get some simple art commissioned for release.

[Jacic]

Can I make a suggestion? One of the things I think is kind of holding it back from being really immersive because of the kind of game it is, is visuals. (I know normally discouraged, but I think they could really be useful here!) Even just jump on one of the free photo sites and download some pictures of beaches, forest walks, different foods, toys etc and set them on a randomiser. ie a random forest path picture from a pool (bonus if there’s other dogs in it) shows up when you select to “walk in the forest”.

If you really wanted to you could mix up the descriptions a bit as well like “you go for an evening run on the beach. There are no other dogs about so you get to make do chasing pieces of seaweed” (or whatever )

Totally up to you though, just might spice it up a bit so it feels a bit more rewarding instead of feeling a little repetitive after a while.

It’d also be kind of cute if you could have a page for your followers. Individual pics of your doggy friends would be really nice but probably too hard to manage if you get a lot. Maybe even just some little thumbnails of silohettes of breeds? Or maybe even just a one liner of randomised details?
ie Followers
Penny: 5 years old, female, black kelpie. Likes: Running. Dislikes: Baths.
Fido: 2 years old, male, brindle terrier x. Likes: Treats. Dislikes: Fireworks.

Or another way might be to just have a list (no details) with some basic avatars. (For example these are free off vecteezy). I don’t think it would matter given they look like stylised avatars if they repeat or don’t fit quite right and you could code them by basic colour or breed. (ie Fido’s avatar could be picked up by the randomizer for any dog that has brown or tan in it’s colour scheme.)

Penny

Fido

Edit: Just another thought, if you didn’t want to have a separate stats page for this sort of thing or were worried about repetition becoming obvious (I don’t know how high the follower count gets), even when it says “you got followed by Penny”, it’d be really cool to get a little avatar and description pop up then, even if it goes back to names on a list afterwards.

[Cain_Abel]

This is some solid advice, I have a lot to think about. Thank you very much!

[Jacic]

I just had another thought, not sure if it’s coming (I saw there was some “to be added” sections in there) but would it be worth having some goals/timelines to try and meet? I guess it depends on the kind of game it is. If you want more of a very casual, play as long as you want kind of game it’s probably fine as it is. Or you could make it so that if you skip or lose the scheduled dog show etc it has little impact and is more of a bonus achievement rather than something that would have a deep effect on the game.

The alternative might be to have a game on timelines (ie to get ready for a dog show entry, become famous, get a TV gig etc) for events scattered through the game. I can’t think of one quite like it in a text format. I guess a possible example might be Horse master where you have similar mechanics of needing to decide what to feed, exercise, wash, train etc for a competition that ultimately you win or lose, but it has more of a linear storyline base than yours which feels a bit more like a casual play with more options/less pressure. (By the way, Horse Master is an interesting game but really very dark. I don’t recommend playing the competition sequence at the end if you’re not wanting to see that.)

[Cain_Abel]

Even if it’s not timed, adding goals and corresponding achievements does seem like a good way to encourage players to play beyond the almost sandbox-like gameplay style.

It could add some direction and make you actually want to achieve the goals.

Could even start small like winning certain mini-games for the first time. Ooh now Im getting some ideas! Once you complete the goals it could increase the effectiveness of the action, like walk dog in every location then makes dog walking more effective.

[Cain_Abel]

Update:

• Added a Goals page which rewards you once each task is complete. (More goals will be added)
• Added Hates trait.
• More Love traits added. (Socks, Water, Cheese)
• Added Cheese Snacks! (They give more happiness than regular treats but cost a bit more)
• Added more variety and randomness to walks. (Also learnt how to use Multireplace.)
• Re-vamped the Social Media section a bit and added an image.
• Added images to all the mini-games, all the Dog Friends (Profiles in Stat menu), Give a Bath, Feed Dry/wet/premium and Cheese.

[Denzil_Melgior_Nagel]

@Cain_Abel I was wondering, why not implement a custom dog option in which, you enter the name of the dog breed, select the size of the dog from a list and make the dog behave based on what we’ve chosen? As this is mostly a text based game, it will give people like me The illusion that I can adopt any breed I want, since it’s obviously impossible to list every breed out there. Just a small suggestion to consider. Come to think of it, it will also allow people to create their own fantasy breed names, but what the hell? It’s a single player game anyway.

[HappyPotato]

This is so cute! I only barely know about Tamagotchi pets so I don’t know how limited gameplay was for them but i was really, really hoping for a Parenting Simulator for dog parents. Because as much as I enjoyed the Parenting Simulator, I like doggos far more than children! I don’t think the game needs art. I will definitely disagree with people who are suggesting you include stock photos. I think the writing needs to be more evocative? And in general there needs to be more writing, maybe even some plot! I don’t need it to be super complex or branching, but the thing I like most about choice based games is how much choice we actually get and how we seem to be working towards a goal. Otherwise, I mean, I’d just raise dogs on the Sims. I’ve also grown up in a country where the majority of dogs don’t really belong to any one breed and have let nature decide the course, so our breed-only options made me sad! And, er, we’re sending out dogs to work? To earn money that we will then spend so they can have the bare minimum necessities?

I’m so sorry, OP. I think I sound unduly critical and as I’m typing this, I’m beginning to realise I might not even have any idea of what the game is trying to be. Maybe give the foolish people like me a better clue of what to expect from the game? And maybe just more writing, so we can get an idea of what sort of writing style we have? Currently it feels very “You do x. Your dog does y. You do z.”

That said, this game definitely feels like it will appeal to young kids! Especially if they don’t have The Sims and are just looking to pass the time. I will do a more thorough playthrough, perhaps encounter some minigames, and get back with a better review!

I’m the meantime, here’s a screenshot of a teeny typo i found:

In addition to needing the 's in front of the name, it also needs a comma after the word open, I believe.

Oh great, this also has the “you do x, dog does y, you do z” structure to the paragraph, with no choice being afforded to us and no ill or good effect on the dog’s temperament and bond with us. Maybe I should be allowed to scold my dog while I throw the rock away throw, or gently extract it from her mouth while teaching her to not eat random stuff, or praise her for finding her treasure, or even play “catch” with the rock? Wouldn’t it be lovely if those actions changed our doggos’ personalities? Seriously, the Sims has this stuff already. As does The Parenting Simulator.

[Jacic]

Just a minor little thing. You might need an if statement to change follower to followers if the number doesn’t = 1 so it reads correctly
Like here

[Cain_Abel]

@ Denzil_Melgior_Nagel Honestly, why not? I think that’ll be among the next additions to the game.

@ HappyPotato I hope to add more to it over time. I have more goals set out to give the game some more structure if the player wants it and am working on adding more discoverable features.

There’s already a secret walking location you discover naturally by walking your dog so I do intend on expanding that into a new area you can unlock and play around with slightly more “arcade” like games. I don’t want to oversell it as it’s nothing groundbreaking but helps me explore my coding and work out how to make content.

I also plan on adding some new events that offer slightly different gameplay than what’s currently on offer. They’re a bit limited at the moment but I like to think that every addition and expansion slowly builds up a better game.

And thanks for the typos everyone!