Tokie

An unreleased pet game with fictitious creatures to take care off, fully developed for a Smartwatch platform.

About the project

When I first became squad leader, I was given the task of creating a Tamagotchi-inspired game for a smartwatch. It was a challenge even from a design standpoint, as we had to account for the small processing power of the device and also the small screen, leading to a very small workable space. However, by pulling inspiration from games like Nintendogs we managed to create a cool experience that stood true to the original references.

Unfortunately, the project was never released even though it was very close to being done, as the company decided that games were not going to be part of their product catalogue anymore. However, the work still stands in terms of quality and fun.

Technical information

Developed in Unity 3D

Pet

Game

70%

Completed

Team of 6 people

Directorial

Debut

About the design

The game itself had quite a complex design, as the hardware was powerful enough for complex gameplay. I divided the systems into a couple of categories:

Pet Management System - The system is responsible for keeping track of each pet's hungriness, discipline, bond, health, and happiness level, and also controls the pet AI and its interactions with the pet and other pets.
Pet Run Minigame - A game in which the player could literally run alongside the pet by using the watch's step counter feature, and by doing so we could compare their speed with the pets, awarding rewards in case of victory.
Bath Time Minigame - A game with the objective of cleaning up the pet to get rid of potential sickness and give it that shiny after-bath glow.
Fetch Minigame - By using the watch's motion control input system, we managed to create a game in which the player could simulate the motions of throwing a frisbee, and the pet would run inside the watch to catch it, in case the player hit the target.
Discipline Training - A game made for the player to teach the pet commands, increasing the pet's overall discipline level.
Competition Training - A game that uses similar mechanics as discipline training, but with a timing twist in which the pet will run across multiple obstacles in order to get the highest amount of points.
Pet Mix Feature - One of the most unique features of this game was the ability to mix two different models, not by combining the 3D models, but by adding a color scheme from one pet to the other.

As mentioned before, the game was never released but development was about 70% of all the features. Below I've attached a gameplay video of all the features completed just after the team was shut down. To me, it is a shame that the project will never see the light of day, but at least it found a home here in my portfolio.

Where we managed to get with the game

This is a quick video of the last build we had for the game. It shows how far we as a team managed to get to finishing it and the overall quality of the product. Keep in mind the dimension of the screen.