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A little doodle of the winning Player Character holding a trophy would be adorbs tbh

Hey guys, saw that y'all were at 4399 participants and COULDN'T let that stand so I joined. Today. With 3 days to go. :^)

Have I made a game before? No.

Can I use any gaming program sans tutorial split-screened? No.

Do I have a team of friends who are expert indie game devs? No.

Can I make SOMETHING game-like with 4 colors and minimal bugs? YEAH SURE LET'S GIVE THIS A GOOOOO

ideas for weird digital pets: a rock you polish/"feed" certain things and it turns into a gem OR a blank doll you collect pieces for and can customize

for the rock/gems I could use photo assets (would need to find free resources) and make the paper doll and pieces and take photos of those for assets (would need to make a lightbox.)

BUT that is also adding A LOT of work that isn't learning programming

rule of cool might rule but it needs to exist to become cool later on down the line, I need to remember this

tbh if you don't make little smutty story-games about and for queer bipoc cuties what EVEN are you doing with your life???

I'm also learning pixel art and so far I've learned to keep them tiny we're talking like 16x16 pixels max and to use a premade palette cause color theory is another skill to learn.

*blowing the dust off whatever rpgmaker I got for free YEARS ago* c'mon little buddy, it's your time to shine!

Hi new friends!!!! I'm very excited to be here! I've never done a game jam before or even made a game before but I want to learn and I LOVE digital pets!

About Me: adult who grew up in the iconic era of Nintendogs, Neopets, Tamagotchis, Furbys, and doll maker games. they/them. tired of *gestures at everything* and wanting to recapture some of the magic of the Internet Back Then before everything was ads and monetization. I miss neoboards rps and pokemon rp forums and those little dragon eggs in signatures you could click on and help grow!

Creative Side: I dabble in creative ventures and my current focus is on gamedev. I crochet, sew, sculpt, play games, write, draw, read but don't really share my work. I'd like to create a website to serve as a space for all of my varied interests and just...put stuff out there again that I make or like that anyone can see and doesn't need an app or email login. I used to love browsing Geocities and just seeing what other people did, leaving a comment, and going on my way.

This Project: Since this is my first game and I'm creative but NOT a programmer, I know I need to keep it simple. That's why I thought a digital pet would be a great first game! They do like three things: eat, cry, and die. x___x I think I'll focus on making a simple web browser pet and then add on other things like mini games/customizing/evolving as I go. To keep this in true Game Jam spirit, I won't touch a pixel or a line of code until start and I'll spend the time until then doing tutorials and learning and doodling Little Guy ideas.

I look forward to seeing everyone's pets and creations and I hope they all become friends!

I did some research and found a few options, copy-pasted from my reply in another thread!

micro:bit (they're like $20 aka CHEAPER than a real Tamagotchi) you can also do this with the Arduino but that is $$$

OpenTama if you're the smarty-pants who can just....magic computers together (smth smth solder???) 

https://m.elecrow.com/pages/shop/product/details?id=207465& this is a Tama DIY kit for $10 but idk how to make *gestures to all that* into a *holds up old dingy Tamagotchi* (3D printer crowdfund plz)

Making a little ACTUAL KEYCHAIN PET using the micro:bit (they're like $20 aka CHEAPER than a real Tamagotchi) you can also do this with the Arduino but that is $$$

mod ur fancy tamagotchi, I don't have the latest version so ymmv but there's smth called MyMeets that lets you do that maybe????

OpenTama if you're the smarty-pants who can just....magic computers together (smth smth solder???) 

https://m.elecrow.com/pages/shop/product/details?id=207465& this is a Tama DIY kit for $10 but idk how to make *gestures to all that* into a *holds up old dingy Tamagotchi* (3D printer crowdfund plz)

a cute simple ad-free app I can play on my phone that doesn't steal data, doesn't need bluetooth, doesn't integrate in apps, doesn't take over my smartfridge when it's hungry or print archaic messages when it's sad

I would love to see a webpet that everyone with a link can take care of together and leave little notes and gifts with to give to other users/friends.

I'd also love to see a Discord bot that gets points/health from talking to your friends!

Pokewalker/Pokemon Pikachu (GS) like guy who goes on walks when you walk and brings you things. (I miss you Pikachu, I'm sorry I didn't take you out of my pants and washed you. oTL)

*looking at my old Furbys and Tekno* *wonders if I can revive them or otherwise use their carcasses*

*looking at my old Tamas and knock offs* *wonders if I can make them cuter with paint/clay/crochet*

*looking at my printer* *ponders drawing/printing cute stickers and cards for everyone*

also YESSS PAPER DOLLS I made little paper dogs in elementary school and would make them little paper toys and beds and rooms ;A; (would anyone want to do a penpal/mail list thing and make/send each other little paper pets/stickers? or is that too out of scope for a "digital" pet?)

EDIT: omg I forgot about my nintendogs. can a smart people make a web/phone app nintendogs?