I woke up very very late. My 11 o'clock goal slipped, and i never set a hard backup time, so it never happened. again :P

I don't want to wake up late again, so I need to get these out before midnight, even on bad days like these past 40-something. I'll try 23:30?

I did mess around with something today!

When I have the drawing done, and the new site up, I want to start practicing a few skills for hobbies; drawing, coding, making music, etc.. For programming, a project I'd like to tackle is a bare-bones Virtual Pet, like Tamagotchi, Digimon, or the Pokewalker.

I'd love for it to be a smartwatch app, but I don't know how I'd go about it right now. I have a PineTime, and it's lovely, but its operating system doesn't let you launch any arbitrary app. The hardware is very constrained, too. If a magical PineTime 2 came out, with a bit more chutzpah, and there was an easy way to make and add a 3rd party app, I'd be elated!

Until then, i'd keep my expectations low and it would stay a little desktop program.

Something I liked about the Pokewalker (and its spiritual successor, StreetPass on 3DS), was that you could make some progress by taking steps! So I was wondering if for my game, other tasks could help you progress. Like if filling those silly fitness circles on Other Smartwatches did something!

And why stop at fitness? Let users define goals of their own -- getting out of bed or spending some time drawing could help your pet along! It'd be heavy on the "honor system", for sure.

It turns out: there's a (proprietary) phone app that tries something like this! It leans heavily into the mental health aspect. I thought I'd give it a try, to see what I like and dislike.

First impression: The free version is constantly showing you what you're missing out on in the paid version. Constantly. On every screen, on every menu, there's something shown off with a little "lock" icon. I just roll my eyes, but it's definitely predatory. Others could find it really distressing!

Second impression: The virtual pet aspect seems very lite. A few minutes into the game, my pet went on an 8 hour scour mission where I couldn't interact with them at all. I like scour missions! But... now there's nothing to do.

You only get the one pet, of one species, but you can choose between a few colors. It hasn't shown any personality yet, despite the questionnaire that followed the color choice. It's not clear how long it'll take to grow to its next stage, or how it will look when it does. My theory is that it'll look the same, but a bit bigger.

So instead I poked around with the tasks. Completing tasks gives you currency, which you use to buy outfits or furniture for your pet. But the art style doesn't appeal to me, and these cosmetics don't look any better.

The task creation is... okay? Tasks can be set to a "time", but it's not clear if that's a "start at" or "finish by" time. And if you set the task to be done multiple times each day (toothbrushing, for instance), you're stuck with one "time".

So, I don't like it much. I'll try and stick with it for a while, regardless. I don't expect an app to Fix My Life, but I do know that environment is everything! So if I keep this around in an otherwise hostile environment, maybe it can have an impact.

But that's getting away from the important bit -- the virtual pet! For my game, I think custom tasks would be a lot of baggage. What if someone keeps track of their tasks somewhere else? I don't think I could import that easily, and it'd be a pain for a user to manually keep them in sync.

Relying on steps alone would be easier, if it were on a watch that let you access the pedometer. But I don't have a watch like that. The PineTime 2 isn't real! ... I just ran to check their site. It's still not real, phew! (Actually, they haven't made a blog in 3 months. I hope things are good over there!)

Anyway, for when I start programming, I'll focus on pure Virtual Pet mechanics first. step counting and other extra fluff can be a 2.0 item =w=

But I need to get my drawing and site done before that! and I need to sleep! It's 23:46 now, I've been writing forever. I'll try 23:30 what a fool i was.

I have lots to do tomorrow. I'd better make some time to draw. (but, I have no tools to make good on that threat).

Goodnight!