{"id":2143,"edition":12,"categories":1,"features":0,"size":11034,"name":"PicoBuddy","authors":[{"name":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168}],"description":"

PicoBuddy is a game/interactive story, in which you take care of a digital pet.

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Instructions

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Considerations

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Credits

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Sound effects were created using ZzFX: https://github.com/KilledByAPixel/ZzFX

\n","source":"bbaustin/pico-buddy","stars":1,"post":"https://hereismy.website/pico-buddy","comments":[{"at":378892172,"author":"Cliff Earl","login":"Antix-Development","gh":17822130,"text":"

Pretty neat little sim.

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I think the UI could do with some polish, it seems a bit disjointed.

\n","games":["Badluck Butter Chicken Goes To Outer Space","Badluck Butter Chicken Flies The Unfriendly Skies"]},{"typ":1,"at":379112805,"re":378892172,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Thanks for the comment!

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Yeah, fair point! Your eyes have to jump around the screen a bit. I was hoping to add some CSS transitions (maybe?) to help make it more clear what’s important on screen, but… you know… I didn’t do that

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But anyway, thanks for playing!

\n"},{"at":378910780,"author":"Luke Nickerson","login":"Lukenickerson","gh":3942453,"url":"http://lukenickerson.github.io/","text":"

That was quite the experience. I appreciate the dark humor and the writing, and the odd juxtaposition between pet sim and “the unbecoming”.

\n","games":["Apollo-13kb"]},{"typ":1,"at":379112862,"re":378910780,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Thank you for playing!

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Yeah, this ended up being more of a writing exercise than I expected!

\n"},{"at":378949918,"author":"Christoph Schansky","login":"DerBenniBanni","gh":5499976,"text":"

Ha! I was torn back and forth between smiling because of the narration and the stress of finding (!) the (correct) buttons :-)\nBut i did well in the end (100% happiness)\nAlso, there was a hint of triskadekaphobia, when finally the “proceed to day 13” was to be clicked… (“should i really?”)\nNice game!

\n","games":["Aargh! Triskaideka attacks!"]},{"typ":1,"at":379112562,"re":378949918,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Thank you for playing!!

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Nice job with 100%, but… is that really what your PicoBuddy wanted..?

\n"},{"at":379159685,"author":"Ryan Tyler","login":"tyler6699","gh":50468,"url":"https://carelesslabs.co.uk","text":"

At first I thought this wont be a lot of fun, but when the story kicked in and the issues started happening; was really enjoyable.

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Simple but fun issues made all the difference, the humour had me smiling too.

\n","games":["The Fear Factory"]},{"typ":1,"at":379210850,"re":379159685,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Yeah, the game starts a bit slow, I think; in the beginning, the narrator has to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

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Thanks for sticking it out and getting to the good parts..!

\n"},{"at":379212662,"author":"Michel Sabchuk","login":"michelts","gh":361492,"url":"http://turbosys.com.br","text":"

Really nice once you give a chance to stop and play the game! My pet finished with 97% of happiness!

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At first I thought it was too easy, but I can see a kid playing the game and feeling it more challenging. Maybe a level selection could make the game more difficult.

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I didn’t feel too concerned about triskaidekaphobia. The plot is good! I have 13 days to raise the buddy, but as a father of 2 kids and 8 dogs, I would feel more pressured with some message like: will you hold down the fort until your pet reaches maturity and calms down after 13 days? (I hope this sentence makes sense, I’m not a native English speaker).

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Really fun! Congrats on your work!

\n","games":["Thirteen Truco"]},{"typ":1,"at":379330753,"re":379212662,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Thank you! Nice job with 97% :D

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Yes, I didn’t spend any time on managing difficulty, haha. You get 13 seconds to complete each demand, which is probably way too long/slow. (But I refused to change it to a different number in respect of the competition)

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And yeah, this game would be especially easy for someone with 8 dogs! Woah!

\n"},{"at":379237189,"author":"Alexey Kalmakov","login":"rndD","gh":850302,"text":"

Wow, ok…. I think it’s the best one so far for me this year. I love the narrative, it reminds me Undertale a bit. I will try to have a second ending. Haven’t expected this type of game in the jam. Great work.

\n","games":["Data Warrior: 13kb limit"]},{"typ":1,"at":379330532,"re":379237189,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Hey, thank you for playing!\nYep, you can use the meter in the middle to estimate which ending you get.\nLooking forward to your entry next year ;)

\n"},{"at":379238571,"author":"Cody Ebberson","login":"codyebberson","gh":749094,"url":"https://cody.ebberson.com","twitter":"codyebberson","text":"

Wow, laugh out loud writing! This got surprisingly philosophical!

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“In the end, your PicoBuddy had a happiness level of 100.0%!” - I bet you say that to everyone, ha.

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“Your PicoBuddy sees this as a sign of weakness.” - 😮!!

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This was a great, fun experience. Well done!

\n","games":["Phantomicus"]},{"typ":1,"at":379330830,"re":379238571,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Thank you for trying it out! Glad you enjoyed it!

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Oh, you got 100%? Nice! There are two other endings if you get lower percentages.

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Thanks again!

\n"},{"typ":2,"at":379257469,"author":"Michelle Duke","login":"mishmanners","gh":36594527,"url":"mishmanners.info","twitter":"MishManners","text":"

Lols, it’s a digital version of an OG Tamagotchi!

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Great storytelling and narrative. Fun sound effects, add some music for that extra bit of immersion. Love all the use of emojis as well.

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It’d be cool if there was a penalty for clicking the wrong button (by day 12, I figured out this was the emoji counter on the side but didn’t really seem to make much difference), because at this stage, you can just spam all the buttons until you get the right one. Also not sure what the numbers next to the things meant, eg. 1. hydrate - 12 (what does the 12 mean or do, since this didn’t seem to have any real use/consequence).

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At day 5, the UI flipped and was totally inverted, have no idea how it happened or how to fix it. Great fun game though. Day 6 went back to normal… but was in Japanese or Chinese? But by day 7, I understood what was happening… fun concept and really well executed.

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The eye/s looked like a cute bee to me 😛.

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After the screen fade at the end, if you had an ending slide that’d be really cool; maybe something like game credits or similar.

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Nice GitHub README with graphics included.

\n"},{"typ":1,"at":379331014,"re":379257469,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Thanks for playing, and for all of the notes!

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Right, if you hit the wrong button, your buddy’s “happiness” goes down slightly. But it’s still really easy to have 100% happiness by the end.

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The numbers next to the demands are how much time you have left to complete the demand. But you’re right, the numbers don’t really matter (unless it hits 0, which means you’ve “failed” the demand)

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And yes, good point about the ending! It’s a little bit awkward with the black screen, haha.

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Anyway, thanks again for playing!

\n"},{"at":379300751,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

Wow, this game rules. Amazing concept, the idea that evolving your tomogachi would create a being that ends the world, the way the narrator leads up to it, the whole thing is just wonderfully executed.\nThe initial presentation and description make you think it’s…well…not going to be very fun. This is unfortunate in some ways as some people might not try it, but it adds to the element of surprise when things start unraveling. Also thought it was fun to get some extra surprise japanese practice, I’ve been learning for like 8 months now, I could read everything. But it takes longer to read japanese for me so I fell behind on my pets demands while reading it ha!

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Anyway, wonderful game, just one thing I think that could make it better would be a bigger effect at the end. The game has so many fun effects throughout that I hoped for something more to represent the ending. Like skew and rotate the screen (even with just css transforms + animation), flash the pet at a larger size while everything gets sucked into a vortex. Something like that.

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Amazing game though, great work.

\n","games":["13th Floor"]},{"typ":1,"at":379331222,"re":379300751,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Hey, thank you for playing! Glad you liked it!

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Yeah, agreed about the ending! I was planning on adding some “glitch” text CSS in the last few days, and also do on the final conclusion screen, but… never did it, haha.

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Thanks again for playing!

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PS: Started playing your game, but decided I needed to play it at night with headphones on to get the true experience. So I’ll circle back and play it later!

\n"},{"at":379307713,"author":"Adrien Guéret","login":"adrien-gueret","gh":1508585,"twitter":"AdrienGueret","text":"

I love the plot twist :D Very funny and well written, it’s very cool.\nI’ve finished at 100% of happiness, and the game told me it was the “decent” ending :o\nI would love to check the other endings, but it would be great to allow players to skip narrative after finishing the game at least one.\nVery solid entry, it’s so cool to be surprised like that when playing :D

\n","games":["Brewing Disaster"]},{"typ":1,"at":379331630,"re":379307713,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Agreed– it takes a long time to finish the game, so it’s probably unlikely to see the other endings.

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If you’re curious, you can read the other ending text starting on line 962 on the source code, haha (please ignore all surrounding bad code)

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Thanks for playing!

\n"},{"at":379319728,"author":"Lewis Nakao","login":"lewdev","gh":1469960,"url":"https://lewdev.github.io","twitter":"lewdev","text":"

Wow, that was fun! It’s a awesome unique experience with twists. It reminds me of Doki Doki Literature Club where things get weird and dark. In your game, it doesn’t turn into a psychological horror though, hehe.

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I appreciate you creating this experience!

\n","games":["13attle TanKs"]},{"typ":1,"at":379331398,"re":379319728,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Oh, I can see what you mean with Doki Doki Literature Club, with a “cute” presentation but darker themes. (Man, that game gets dark…)

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Thank you for playing!!

\n"},{"at":379373162,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

This is postmodernism in a 13KB zip. I love it.

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A very well executed idea, I had a ton of fun playing it! It’s amazing how much character and humor you conveyed using a simple log of messages, a few emojis, and an array of well-designed glitches.

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I appreciate the narrative twist at the end. Toys like tamagotchi or furby can, in fact, be thought of as being about building relationships in which the power is skewed towards the player who has the absolute control and the ability to turn the toy off at a whim. I don’t know if that’s the interpretation you were going for, but it does seem appropriate for the EyeGuy to seek retributi👁️n.

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I got 100% which I guess means I tried too hard to deserve to live past the unbecoming. Oh well, at least I’ll make a lot of new friends! Btw. after I finished, I waited for a few more minutes at the black screen expecting a post-credits scene. The story-telling is too good to not have one!

\n","games":["Millennials"]},{"typ":1,"at":379557002,"re":379373162,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Thank you for playing and for writing that great interpretation of the game!

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About the ending: yes, I told myself that the ending was fine (because everything fades to “nothingness” in the story), but it’s a bit awkward from the player’s perspective. Adding something else after the fadeout would be an improvement for sure

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PS: I am having a lot of fun with “Millennials”!

\n"},{"at":379458291,"author":"João Lopes","login":"lopis","gh":2715751,"url":"www.jlopes.dev","text":"

haha, you prick. At first I was totally unamused, then the frustration just builds up. A really vintage creation, straight out of the web of the early 2000s. I felt like there was too much talking, too much reading required from me, and too much text passing by that I couldn’t follow, but I guess that helped in the build up in a sense. I think the idea in general is fun, but would need some extra polish to make it a viable game for general audiences.

\n","games":["Thirteen Terrible Stunts"]},{"typ":1,"at":379557317,"re":379458291,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Thank you for playing! Yes, was definitely going for a retro vibe (90s/early 2000s)

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And yes, I know what you mean about too much talking..!\nI used the story/talking to make up for the fact that there is almost no real gameplay, haha (just press 4 buttons). But I probably could have cut some of the talking out.

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In any case, thanks for playing, and hope you had fun

\n"},{"at":379572510,"author":"Jonathan Vallet","login":"jonathan-vallet","gh":5329099,"text":"

Excellent simulation! Really fun to play, with twist everyday and funny content!\na better polished graphics and the game should have been a hit!

\n","games":["13 Steps to Escape"]},{"typ":1,"at":379897230,"re":379572510,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Hey, thank you for playing! Yeah, I tried to make each level/day unique to keep it interesting!!

\n"},{"at":379978585,"author":"Roman Miniv","login":"RomanMiniv","gh":50551993,"text":"

Oh, I got to the end where the screen went black and I thought something wonderful was about to happen, but instead I got a crash (Error handling response: Error: Failed to execute ‘surroundContents’ on ‘Range’: The Range has partially selected a non-Text node.\nat showTranslate (chrome-extension://nglbhlefjhcjockellmeclkcijildjhi/content.js:403:19)\nat chrome-extension://nglbhlefjhcjockellmeclkcijil).

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It was very interesting to play! So that nothing happens to you on the way, whether something breaks or is repaired, it is enough to be ready and open to everything and focus on the possibilities, not on the bad :).

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Very innovative! I got 100% good vibes, but I guess depending on that, there are different endings, well, mine ended in a crash, and yours? :D.

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The only thing I would like to see is relevance to the topic, because in my opinion the 13th day when your pet reaches maturity is good news, so don’t be afraid :).

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Very good, I had fun, congratulations!

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UPD:

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Yeah, I thought this error was related to the black screen, but if it’s the final, then no errors :).

\n","games":["How it started"]},{"typ":1,"at":380051632,"re":379978585,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

Hello, thank you for playing!

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Actually, nothing happens after the black screen, haha, so I think you got to the expected ending (in the story, everything becomes “nothing,” so that’s what the black screen represents… in reality, I was just lazy/out of time).

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Hmm, I’m not sure about that error message… is it related to some Chrome extension? I didn’t run into that error while developing, but thanks for sharing the message!

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And yeah, there are three endings… but the differences are just text content. All end in a black screen :D

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Anyway, thanks again for playing!

\n"},{"at":380333599,"author":"Javi Agenjo","login":"jagenjo","gh":393515,"url":"http://tamats.com","twitter":"tamat","text":"

Very funny entry. I love your sense of humor and your emoji skills!\nAlso the evolving game mechanics were fun. I was expecting a little bit more challenge but still, great entry!

\n","games":["Deep13"]},{"at":380336987,"author":"Leo Kuo","login":"leokuo0724","gh":40346834,"url":"https://medium.com/@leokuo0724","twitter":"leokuo0724","text":"

Innovation is definitely a 5/5! At first, I thought it was just a simple clicker game, but it turned out to have so many clever elements!

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The game even includes some small puzzle aspects, which keeps me eager to find out what the next day’s challenge will be, haha. It reminds me of “WHAT THE GOLF?”. Great job!

\n","games":["Templar's Final Stand"]},{"at":380350851,"author":"Mohammed Saud","login":"rottencandy","gh":20013884,"url":"saud.wtf","twitter":"rotttencandy","text":"

Wonderful concept. I love games that are self aware and break the fourth wall! A very nicely crafted experience.

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And the fact that this has multiple endings is the cherry on top.

\n","games":["Xiicur Surviivors"]},{"at":380418713,"author":"Mohammad Jawad","login":"mhmdjawad","gh":22205462,"url":"https://pdemia.com/","text":"

cool making such game its fun to raise some bytes to be a pet\ndialog is very engaging and fun and the emojis is nice touch\ntheres a few changes on interface that can be easier to see the list of demans without need to scroll

\n","games":["The 13 Invaders","Cookie Maze 3d","Maze Runner vs 13","Tower Defence Walking 13s"]},{"typ":2,"at":380435969,"author":"Matt Hackett","login":"richtaur","gh":24601,"url":"https://valadria.com","twitter":"richtaur","text":"

A cute game similar to Tamagotchi or other pet simulators. Involves reading and pressing buttons. Clearly a lot of care was put into this game. Nice work!

\n"},{"at":380453755,"author":"Jasper Renow-Clarke","login":"picosonic","gh":26137750,"twitter":"femtosonic","text":"

Cool concept and fun looking.

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I liked the use of emoji. Although on the list on the right, I feel it might have been easier to read if it scrolled up - so new stuff was added to the bottom.

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Mine didn’t ever seem to be too happy, I think I over did it on the buttons.

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Your write-up was interesting to read.

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Nice work

\n","games":["rollermaze"]},{"typ":2,"at":380495529,"author":"Joep van Duinen","url":"https://poki.com","twitter":"joepvduinen","text":"

Great concept, had a lot of fun taking care of the demands of the little Buddy. The text was great, responding to mistakes and correct actions, as well as writing fun bit of text that changed with each passing day.

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The game did a great job of keeping you guessing as to what the next day’s challenges are going to be, while starting to dread the final day and what it might bring.

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Sad I could only get the “decent” ending but that makes me want to revisit it to check what else the Buddy has in mind with the other endings… 👀

\n"}],"results":{"theme":{"rank":45,"min":1,"score":3,"max":4.2},"innovation":{"rank":3,"min":1,"score":4.03,"max":4.47},"gameplay":{"rank":33,"min":1,"score":3.52,"max":4.29},"graphics":{"rank":102,"min":1,"score":2.83,"max":4.76},"audio":{"rank":76,"min":1,"score":2.69,"max":4.34},"controls":{"rank":25,"min":1,"score":3.52,"max":4.24},"primary":{"rank":36,"min":6,"score":19.59,"max":24.47},"label":"Overall"}}