I grew up on virtual pet games. Before the Petz brand was bought up by Ubisoft and slapped on countless shovelware titles, it represented simple desktop virtual pets you could customize and play with. These were simple games (you just played with virtual dogs and cats), but they had a lot of charm. Virtual pet games sort of died out after the Wii era, but that’s why I was so excited to try out the demo of Weyrdlets. Developed and published by Weyrdworks, Weyrdlets immediately took me back to those old classics.
The aesthetics and creatures on offer may be unique, but the core gameplay here is as classic as it gets. Players start by adopting their first Weyrdlet from a couple of species choices, and they’re all very cute. As your pets explore their home base or other areas (the demo includes a playground), you’re responsible for feeding and caring for them. There are typical items like food, water, soap, and balls to play with, but you can also get new parts for your pet’s little house. At least at first, there isn’t a lot to do, but it is just a demo. If you take good care of your little creatures, they can dig up currency that lets you buy new supplies and decorations.
Playing with your pets within the game world is only part of the story, though, and this is where the relative lack of things to do (at least in the beginning) becomes less of a problem. Much like the virtual pet games of old, you can have your Weyrdlets hang around on your desktop while you’re busy in other windows. As I type this, my little friend Bunbun seems to be having fun reading my preview (or at least, walking all over it.) This is the real draw of Weyrdlets, I think. You can still feed and play with your pets on the desktop too, so it’s a nice thing to have going while you’re working or browsing the web.
Especially as this is a demo, I can forgive the somewhat clunky UI and the occasional animation glitches. This is an early demo of an indie game, and I’m sure these things will be fixed. What really concerns me about Weyrdlets is its free-to-play model. Right off the bat, even in the demo, it hits you with daily tasks and multiple currencies. It isn’t egregious, necessarily; it isn’t hitting me over the head with microtransactions or anything. But especially in a cute game that will appeal to kids, this kind of thing always feels unnecessary and a little bit insidious to me. I know it’s not the worst thing in the world, and as I said it’s not even that egregious an example of these tactics, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I am very glad that Weyrdlets exists, and I’m excited to see how the final product turns out. I love the idea of having a little buddy on my desktop, and as long as it’s easy enough to unlock new things without paying too much, I’m sure my relationship with little Bunbun will continue to grow. If you want to give it a try yourself, the Weyrdlets demo is available on Steam now, and the full game will be released in just a few days on July 23rd.
