The Game
Tamajoji is a virtual pet game inspired by vintage pet games such as Tamagotchi, with the differential of being playable on a browser. It tasks you with taking care of a pet that you need to feed, play with, clean, put to sleep, take care of when it’s sick and so on. Those needs will show up based on time passing by. With time your pet will evolve into a different stage, the best evolutions are easier to take care of and have longer lifespans, but getting them depends on taking good care of your pet.
Features
The game features retro controllers and gameplay, based on analog buttons and liquid-crystal displays. It features classic mechanics such as: choosing between a healthy and an unhealthy option, minigames, sleeptime based on the time outside the game and pet growth. It also features an autosave, to capture the spirit of following the lifespan of a virtual pet for 1 to 3 weeks.
The gameplay is mostly idle, you come back from time to time to see if your pet is bored, hungry or needs something else (bath, sleep, etc). The game utilizes the computer clock to track the pet’s needs and growth, you can also enable the “continuous mode” which tracks the last time you closed the game and at what time are you opening it, in order to simulate the time passing by without the need of keeping the game tab open.
Aside from the in-game content, there are also some extras such as a complete instruction manual, pet evolution guide, game display visual customisation options and two difficulty options.
Development
This game was made using only HTML, CSS and Javascript. It started as a study project for web development, which I decided to expand and become a full featured game. Its programming, art and design were made by me over the course of 3 months. Here is a post I made talking a bit more about the process of developing it.
Release Date: August 2021
