Looking for a game like Neopets or the Zen Garden from Plants vs Zombies
January 24, 2011 10:26 AM Subscribe
Please recommend a Tamagotchi-like game where I can grow pets/a garden/a city/whatever.
I'm looking for a game like Neopets or the Zen Garden from Plants vs. Zombies. Something where I can just check in a few times a day and water the plants, or feed the pets, or whatever.
It's very important that it only takes a few minutes at a time, since I want to use this to get a short breather after doing a lot of work. I do not want there to be mini-games, because those will distract me for hours on end (I'm looking at you, Plants vs. Zombies).
I'm looking for a game like Neopets or the Zen Garden from Plants vs. Zombies. Something where I can just check in a few times a day and water the plants, or feed the pets, or whatever.
It's very important that it only takes a few minutes at a time, since I want to use this to get a short breather after doing a lot of work. I do not want there to be mini-games, because those will distract me for hours on end (I'm looking at you, Plants vs. Zombies).
Creatures (PC) may be a little more than you're looking for, but tons of fun. And the creatures are all kinds of cute!
posted by MuChao at 10:44 AM on January 24, 2011
posted by MuChao at 10:44 AM on January 24, 2011
Response by poster: On PC? Console? Web?
Either PC or web please.
posted by giggleknickers at 10:45 AM on January 24, 2011
Either PC or web please.
posted by giggleknickers at 10:45 AM on January 24, 2011
for iPhone, Dogs 2 is a sweet little app. It's free but they try to convince you to buy things sometimes. you collect coins and "level up" but it's entirely casual gameplay. There's a cat one as well.
posted by ghostbikes at 10:46 AM on January 24, 2011
posted by ghostbikes at 10:46 AM on January 24, 2011
Have you heard of a thing called FarmVille?
posted by elsietheeel at 10:48 AM on January 24, 2011
posted by elsietheeel at 10:48 AM on January 24, 2011
oops, missed your comment. for PC, if you can find any of the Petz games (Catz or Dogz 2 or 3 in particular) those are awesome games. There's also a Tamagotchi PC game, I'm not sure how hard that is to come by now.
posted by ghostbikes at 10:49 AM on January 24, 2011
posted by ghostbikes at 10:49 AM on January 24, 2011
Response by poster: Have you heard of a thing called FarmVille?
Farmville is something where you check in for a few minutes and you're done? I haven't tried it, but I got the impression that was one of those games you could play for hours.
posted by giggleknickers at 10:51 AM on January 24, 2011
Farmville is something where you check in for a few minutes and you're done? I haven't tried it, but I got the impression that was one of those games you could play for hours.
posted by giggleknickers at 10:51 AM on January 24, 2011
Farmville is a trap! You think you can check in once a day and do a little gardening, but in reality, you will find yourself setting an alarm to remind you to pick your crops (or they will die). Some crops ripen once a day, some every few hours. Plant the wrong thing, and you get brown stalks instead of veggies.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 11:04 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by The Light Fantastic at 11:04 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
Having successfully resisted the lure of Farmville (and managed to block it entirely from my FB feed, hah), I succumbed to a Cityville invitation from a friend.
So while I don't know exactly how Farmville works, I can tell you that the latest product brought to you by the Farmville people is a giant chain letter of annoyance. I like building little cities. I like little computery farming things (until very recently I had a subscription to something where I could run round growing tomatoes and marigolds while the other person in the flat asked why I wasn't doing quests and slaying dragons). I don't like being told that you can't make your city any bigger until you guilt three of your friends into becoming council officers or postal service employees. I don't like the 'oh noes! you have run out of energy for today! would you like to buy some more for real cash money?' messages, or the way you get points for begging for snowflakes and chocolate from your FB friends. I strongly suspect Farmville is much the same.
posted by Lebannen at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2011
So while I don't know exactly how Farmville works, I can tell you that the latest product brought to you by the Farmville people is a giant chain letter of annoyance. I like building little cities. I like little computery farming things (until very recently I had a subscription to something where I could run round growing tomatoes and marigolds while the other person in the flat asked why I wasn't doing quests and slaying dragons). I don't like being told that you can't make your city any bigger until you guilt three of your friends into becoming council officers or postal service employees. I don't like the 'oh noes! you have run out of energy for today! would you like to buy some more for real cash money?' messages, or the way you get points for begging for snowflakes and chocolate from your FB friends. I strongly suspect Farmville is much the same.
posted by Lebannen at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2011
Farmville has a lot of annoying things built in that try to force you to interact with other people, but the core idea is basically what you're looking for. You plow the land, plant the seeds, wait a few hours/days, pick the crops and use the proceeds to do it all over again. It's been a year or so since I last played it, but I think the extraneous annoying stuff is optional.
posted by MadamM at 1:32 PM on January 24, 2011
posted by MadamM at 1:32 PM on January 24, 2011
Best answer: Even aside from Farmville there are a general ton of apps/games on Facebook that are similar to what you're looking for, but pretty much all of them will to some extent or another rely on your friends also playing, even if it's just to accomplish things quicker rather than waiting around forever.
A few possibilities, aside from what was already mentioned (you can do a search for these in Facebook):
Ravenwood Fair (create your own fair visited by cute little animal-people)
Restaurant City (by Playfish, another "big one" albeit not as big as Zynga, and more annoying with wanting you to pay for stuff and not giving you the game credits in other ways)
Country Story (also Playfish, but an alternative for Farmville)
Monster Galaxy (a Pokemon-ish game, not sure if those also tickle your gaming bone, but at least it doesn't rely as much on friends)
Chocobo's Crystal Tower (actually put out by Square, so high quality, but not as many people playing oddly)
Outside Farmville, well, you've already mentioned NeoPets so you've found it. The other one that's immediately coming to mind is:
Gaia Online
This one might not really be what you're looking for since it does have mini games you might get caught up in if you're not careful, but in general it's just a cute little thing where you try to snazzy-up your avatar, your aquarium, etc etc., plus it acts as a community type thing. Not exactly what you mentioned, but close enough in some ways that it might appeal.
posted by Stormfeather at 2:13 PM on January 24, 2011
A few possibilities, aside from what was already mentioned (you can do a search for these in Facebook):
Ravenwood Fair (create your own fair visited by cute little animal-people)
Restaurant City (by Playfish, another "big one" albeit not as big as Zynga, and more annoying with wanting you to pay for stuff and not giving you the game credits in other ways)
Country Story (also Playfish, but an alternative for Farmville)
Monster Galaxy (a Pokemon-ish game, not sure if those also tickle your gaming bone, but at least it doesn't rely as much on friends)
Chocobo's Crystal Tower (actually put out by Square, so high quality, but not as many people playing oddly)
Outside Farmville, well, you've already mentioned NeoPets so you've found it. The other one that's immediately coming to mind is:
Gaia Online
This one might not really be what you're looking for since it does have mini games you might get caught up in if you're not careful, but in general it's just a cute little thing where you try to snazzy-up your avatar, your aquarium, etc etc., plus it acts as a community type thing. Not exactly what you mentioned, but close enough in some ways that it might appeal.
posted by Stormfeather at 2:13 PM on January 24, 2011
Best answer: This is the proper link to PsyPets. I got so excited about your question and about being able to share the site with you that I didn't even think to check it. At any rate, it probably deserves a more in-depth explanation. This is from the homepage:
PsyPets is not like other pet games:
* It's the creation of one guy who just happens to like programming, and is happy to do it for free.
* It's a simulation of "human" behavior. Your pets act based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, personality theory, and common sense; they eat, grow, give birth, and can even die!
* It's not not for kids (though you must be at least 13 to sign up), but it definitely caters more to 20 and 30-somethings than to young teens.
posted by TheCavorter at 5:19 PM on January 24, 2011 [3 favorites]
PsyPets is not like other pet games:
* It's the creation of one guy who just happens to like programming, and is happy to do it for free.
* It's a simulation of "human" behavior. Your pets act based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, personality theory, and common sense; they eat, grow, give birth, and can even die!
* It's not not for kids (though you must be at least 13 to sign up), but it definitely caters more to 20 and 30-somethings than to young teens.
posted by TheCavorter at 5:19 PM on January 24, 2011 [3 favorites]
If you decide to go with Farmville my suggestion is to set yourself up with three or four fb accounts and run one as the main and the other ones purely as the source of supplies you have to get from friends. then you don't have to beg for snowflakes and mittens and chocolate.
Frontierville on fb is all about the missions so I would not recommend that. City of Wonder on fb might work, although again you can end up needing to make endless begging requests or dealing with annoying pop-ups suggesting you pay real money for virtual currency.
You could try "Haven and Hearth" (on-line free Java game) but I find it can capture you with just one more interesting chore and the forum is full of 4channers so getting help and advice is tricky. It's one of the most fun farming and crafting games I've encountered... but it also has pvp and has attracted a ton of griefers, so this suggestion is a long shot.
I enjoy solo minecraft but it is more building than farming.
You could try "Harvest Moon" using an emulator so you can play it on your pc. Free download of emulator and the game should be available.
Ranch Town on fb is sweet but is more of a game to play when you can interrupt yourself once every five minutes for half a minute. I study when I play Ranch Town so that I do a page of workbook, fill my feed troughs, harvest and visible resources and get right back into the next page of work.
Have you considered designing your own game? I've played several home made variations either solo or with family members using polyhedral dice to randomly generate things like terrain, weather, crop yields, what comes up available at the market etc. We've done pioneer, neolithic and other versions. Because you design it yourself you can set it up to make each turn quite short. When I design games like this I shamelessly download pictures from the internet to provide visuals without regard to copyright, since after all I'm not re-posting them or sharing them.
Another really long shot... I've got a Playmobil figure set up with a miniature office at work. When I want to take a two minute break I pose her at the coffee machine taking a coffee break, or make her a miniature filing folder and the papers in it, or print out a two inch square motivational poster from some website, cut it out and put it up above her desk, or otherwise change the display a little bit. I enjoy making tiny doll house size things. If no computer game presents itself as suitable you could do something similar with a small doll or small animals. Of course this will only be possible if you work at home or in an truly easy going environment!
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:33 PM on January 24, 2011
Frontierville on fb is all about the missions so I would not recommend that. City of Wonder on fb might work, although again you can end up needing to make endless begging requests or dealing with annoying pop-ups suggesting you pay real money for virtual currency.
You could try "Haven and Hearth" (on-line free Java game) but I find it can capture you with just one more interesting chore and the forum is full of 4channers so getting help and advice is tricky. It's one of the most fun farming and crafting games I've encountered... but it also has pvp and has attracted a ton of griefers, so this suggestion is a long shot.
I enjoy solo minecraft but it is more building than farming.
You could try "Harvest Moon" using an emulator so you can play it on your pc. Free download of emulator and the game should be available.
Ranch Town on fb is sweet but is more of a game to play when you can interrupt yourself once every five minutes for half a minute. I study when I play Ranch Town so that I do a page of workbook, fill my feed troughs, harvest and visible resources and get right back into the next page of work.
Have you considered designing your own game? I've played several home made variations either solo or with family members using polyhedral dice to randomly generate things like terrain, weather, crop yields, what comes up available at the market etc. We've done pioneer, neolithic and other versions. Because you design it yourself you can set it up to make each turn quite short. When I design games like this I shamelessly download pictures from the internet to provide visuals without regard to copyright, since after all I'm not re-posting them or sharing them.
Another really long shot... I've got a Playmobil figure set up with a miniature office at work. When I want to take a two minute break I pose her at the coffee machine taking a coffee break, or make her a miniature filing folder and the papers in it, or print out a two inch square motivational poster from some website, cut it out and put it up above her desk, or otherwise change the display a little bit. I enjoy making tiny doll house size things. If no computer game presents itself as suitable you could do something similar with a small doll or small animals. Of course this will only be possible if you work at home or in an truly easy going environment!
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:33 PM on January 24, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 10:31 AM on January 24, 2011