itch.io

Hi! I can answer some of the qualms/questions you have about this as I am a staff member for figment! 

1) the Explore feature will be getting a huuuuuge revamp when we have the capacity to do so! We want to move away from the point and click, boringness of the current system. This system is leftovers from our old ideas for the site which we recognize we're not going to work for our game. We are in Alpha, which means we are testing and changing things, maybe not at the fastest pace, but we've certainly hit our own huge number of roadblocks.

2) The point of the game was not pet collection en masse, but to love and cherish the pets you have. But to address this we have stated that we plan to have the premium currency be earnable without paying out to us, and for users to be able to trade the currency just like other pet sites, and we also plan on having an adoption center with pets available for the non-premium currency as well! The cost for the breeding/customs is because each breeding and custom is hand drawn by our artists to give each pet a unique flair.

3) The page placeholders are due to this site being in Alpha Testing phase, which means the site isn't finished quite yet! There isn't any shame in redeeming the rewards and waiting for us to work to finish the site in it's entirety for beta!

There are many things that don't work quite like they should, but rest assured we are trying our best to keep the site afloat without burning out the people working on it <3

The site is pieced together and we honestly just wanted to do our best to support this cause with what we are able to offer, which is the art we have.

If there are any questions please feel free to contact us at support@figment.pet and we'll reply as fast and as accurately as our staff are able

Hey there! I'm an artist for Figment so I wanted to help give some context and answers.

 So just to be clear, we're in early Alpha development and have had setbacks due to irl issues and of course the current pandemic. And while some 'alpha' games are playable or near-full functionality, right now it's absolutely true that ours is pretty bare bones right now.  But to be clear, the payment is for the exclusive in-game Critter and Human Avatar bundle; the alpha key is an extra we include for free so those without access can join!

The explore, shop, critter cove, and most large features are all currently being written or rewritten after some heavy coding setbacks and absolutely don't reflect the plan or ideas we have in place for the beta/final site.

Otherwise, for now unfortunately things are limited, yes. Every pet breeding and custom are hand drawn by our artists who deserve payment for their hard work, so until we can include advertisement/etc,  so the main way to get these is through real money. However, we frequently give out custom pets, breeding/custom items, and plenty of other goodies through our Discord server and occasionally through our social media pages. We also arrange small in-game events such as our Advent Calendar last December to give out pets, outfits, and other fun stuff.

I'll answer some concerns directly-

>There are dedicated forums, but on them the developers say that they only post updates and answer questions on their Discord. What purpose does the forum solve?

-We don't only answer questions through Discord, but while we work on getting the forums and site itself developed, it's the most active/concentrated area of our community that's also easy to access for anyone. Our website is closed alpha to help limit server strain, so we want to ensure updates are available for everyone interested in Figment, not just those with access to the alpha.

>And to be honest, adding a game to the Racial Justice pack only for it to only be possible to play the game with multiple extra fees seems quite cynical.

-I'm sorry that you feel this way. We're a tiny website in development and simply wanted to show our support for the movement in whatever way we could. There is not and will never be an obligation to pay money to play the final build of our website, that's been emphasized since the beginning. But while we are in early development, unfortunately, our options are quite limited.

>The game is absolutely NOT worth the asking price.

-$5 gets you the exclusive outfit, critter, and game access- plus access to over 1000 other games. It's not for access to the website exclusively; that aspect is simply a bonus given for those without accounts already.

>At least the artwork is good, for what little there is!

-I can assure you that we actually have an absurd amount of artwork, but as we're in Alpha, of course not everything is public or on the site yet. 

1. I did 200ish steps of exploring today. I got 10 food items, 5 dressup items, and I believe I found three other miscellaneous items for a total of 18 items. But, Explore isn't complete. I've been around for a while and know this. I actually joined August 10th of last year (Alpha Release date). 

2. I have seven pets. I adopted two. I won the other five, including a total custom, from discord events. That's not bad... pet 423 is my total custom and I specifically acknowledged that lineart was a good choice for it. She is based off my service dog.

https://figment.pet/pet/423

In addition, it has been mentioned on and off that pets will be more easily available after backend is done.

3.  Well no s%#$ Sherlock. It's an ALPHA. Did you expect a polished site with 100% functional features? If so... why? Alpha is a game that isn't complete. Alpha users are there to give input on development. Beta users are there to Break things. Post-release users are there to play the game. If you've got an issue with an Alpha-stage game, perhaps you aren't familiar with the concept. Let me introduce you to ABLE:

Alpha: Accept the lack of features.

Beta: Break the game.

Launch: Let the devs know about any remaining bugs that escaped.

Elation: Enjoy the finished game that's now bug-free.

Remember ABLE when playing games that aren't finished. It's going to save you a lot of heartbreak and frustration.