tl;dr: to kick my butt into gear a bit, i’m looking for folks who are interested in testing a very early browser-based virtual pet site!
in the community, we have some known fans of virtual pet sites, so i wanted to include this project i’m working on in our community projects since it touches on nostalgia and creating what we want to see on the web. :)
what is it? — visit riverton is a virtual pet site & ranch simulation browser game around owning horses, horse-racing, and co-existing in a town seemingly centered around horses. you don’t have to own a horse to live in riverton, but there will be 16 horses and other animals to adopt. you’ll be able to have a job doing tasks around the town for money, collect certain items, do quests to level up your pets and earn money, trade items with players, and grow your ranch!
completed or in-progress features —
adoptable collection + level system
care system for your pets (with real consequences!)
stats for horses
owning a ranch or house + level system
gardening
jobs, paychecks, & dailies
horse racing/competition with other players
seasonal events
quests & plotlines
npc shops
browser games
original art (including from our very own @solaria !!!)
in-character and out-of-character forum
what’s needed? —
at this stage, i’ve done all the research i think i can do on my own. i’m looking for hands-on testers. if you have ideas that would be realistic to implement for a single person, i’m all ears! i’m looking for things that folks would like to do on a virtual pet site. when i was younger and playing more regularly, i always found that i wanted more from neopets, and other pet sites have done a great job of adding things to do on the site to feel more interactive and immersive. now i just want to fulfill a childhood dream of having a horse game. :)
please let me know if you have bandwidth around december 15th to do some initial testing and feedback! :) i’d love to hear your thoughts!
Oh this is so exciting!!! I’ve been wondering about the game you keep talking about!
I shouldddd be available around December 15 but it depends how much work I end up getting for my winter class… Which starts on December 15 lol. Keep me in mind, I’ll let you know :p
thank you everyone for your enthusiasm!! that is super motivating to me. <3 @Ninaiso, that’s so sweet of you to say! <3 i really hope it comes close to what i’m thinking!!!
great question! so far, i have four:
speed (for racing)
endurance (for racing)
intelligence (for showing)
reactivity (for showing)
i’ll probably start with these four initially, but this might expand into further skilling for the pets! :)
the game is definitely 50% done for launch. i have a running list of features i want to have for the game to be “playable,” and every day, i’m working on something, even if it’s just one feature! i might be pushing back the beta testing just because i want the adoptables to be finished by my artist and uploaded first. but!!!
here is a sketch of what the adoptable horses will be like!
a sneak peek into the new layout and dashboard for managing your pets! <333 if you have any feedback, please let me know! obviously, the animal art is not this, nor is this the final layout. i’ll likely do more color changes to make sure they’re the same color temperature, change the header image, the links will change on the sidebar, and more will be added to the sidebar overall.
woohooo!!! after weeks of trying, i finally got farming down in the game! :) this was a big project. i vastly underestimated how long it was going to take in the accountability club thread!
after a couple of weeks of farming, the fishing overhaul, and quality-of-life changes, anyone testing up for giving some feedback on the farming and fishing? does it feel fair? fun? any way to improve?
edit: also, in case it wasn’t clear, we’re now in open beta so anyone can sign up and test things! keep in mind things might change while you’re logged in.
could tooltips be added for the actions that can be performed for a horse in the stable? currently it is just buttons with icons. this is tough for me for two reasons:
i am unfamiliar with horse care
i can’t see very well and have trouble telling what the icons are for
if there are other parts of the game where there are buttons or icons with no tooltips that have no surrounding text giving context, could these have tooltips added as well when you have time? ty
in terms of farming and fishing. both seem straightforward to me. i like the luck of how fishing is right now. with a standard rod i caught 3 fish in a row today. but sometimes i only catch one. i have not tried the deluxe rod yet
farming makes pretty good sense to me with how it is implemented at the moment
thank you!!! i really appreciate this feedback. i was hoping alt/title text on the buttons would help but it doesn’t seem like it! i’ll work on tooltips. i definitely want things to be understood!
this is high praise from a fishing minigame pro like you! :) thank you for the feedback, emma.
Congratulations on the launch of your game! I just wanted to let you know that you’re more than welcome to promote your game on Virtualpetlist to help reach a wider audience. We’re a virtual pet and sim game forum (mods, I hope this is allowed), and we love helping new pet sites and sim games get discovered!
