Figment
A downloadable pet game
✨ Figment: Petsite ✨
🐶 Game | Discord 🐱
Inspired by Neopets, Figment is a fantasy pet + avatar dress-up game. It was created to evoke nostalgia for an adult audience. With compelling lore, vibrant custom artwork, and a whimsical + light theme, this browser game is built to enrich creative minds. Come explore…
ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE BUNDLE FOR RACIAL JUSTICE & EQUALITY
In our bundle, you get:
1. Black Lives Matter x Pride Special Edition Critter (Below)
2. Mermaid Magic Avatar Set (Below)
Plus: A complimentary Alpha Key to Join the Closed Alpha Testing of Our Game — Today!
Disclaimer: Figment is an early-alpha build project. Expect broken pages and features, along with the expected bugs. This is not a complete or fully playable website yet, but we would love to have you along for the ride as we develop our game!
More Sneak Peeks
Natural Pet Colorations
Dress-up Your Avatar
Avatar Mobility Aids
Collectible Critters
Unique Hand-Designed Custom Pets
Breedings Designed by Hand
———
✨ IMPORTANT LINKS ✨
Questions? Email us: admin@figment.pet
Thank you for your support! 💖
Status | In development |
Category | Other |
Rating | Rated 3.1 out of 5 stars (25 total ratings) |
Author | Leef |
Genre | Simulation |
Tags | Animals, artgame, Cats, Character Customization, Colorful, Cute, Fantasy, Sandbox, Story Rich |
Average session | A few seconds |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard |
Purchase
In order to download this pet game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Comments
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no key :(
I still haven't received my Alpha Key and I'd really like to play
Do you guys have a changelog anywhere? It’d be nice to keep up with even like little stuff that gets updated
I also got the game as part of the BLM bundle and I was also told my code is invalid.
Hi Ridara! As below, if your code is giving you an error message, send us an email reply to let us know and we will help! ^^
Just got this game as a part of the BLM bundle but it says our alpha key is invalid?
Hi Questa! If your code is giving you an error message, please reply to the email your code was sent in and let us know. :)
Been with Figment for a year almost, joined on launch day for the Alpha. Was led to the bundle by Leefy. I'm really happy to be able to donate for equality in the name of this game.
PS- pet 423 is a custom of my service dog, the goodest girl ever. <3
There's a lot of mixed comments on here so I'm just going to poke my nose in.
First off, if you're expecting a fully functional online game such as neopets, subeta, flight rising, or many others, you are going to be disappointed.
My suggestion? Don't go into this expecting a fully functional game.
This game is in *closed Alpha* currently. It's not a finished game - heck it's not even in beta yet. It says that right at the top that it's in Alpha :P
What it IS, is an amazing opportunity to get involved in something from the beginning. How many times have you joined a site years after it opened, wishing you could have been there from the early days, and not missed out on things you'd have otherwise been involved in?
This is an opportunity to get involved in something from the time of its development. And the staff? Hell the staff is one of the most involved groups I've ever seen, and one thing I love about them is that as they do things (behind the scenes or not) they regularly ask the community's opinions about things. They have a suggestion channel on their discord and they actually pay attention to it, unlike a lot of places where requests fall on deaf ears.
One of the biggest frustrations I have as a masculine-presenting guy (who also loves pet games, fight me) is that these sorts of sites always seem to favor feminine leaning outfits. When I first started getting involved, I noticed that it was the same here too, much to my dismay. But rather than sulk silently, and poke around the few outfits that worked for me, I brought it up in the suggestion board. Another male member said they felt the same.
And do you know what happened next?
The artists took that to heart! They began ensuring that there were more masculine-style options in their works. Now I have more choices than I know what to do with.
It feels awesome that, despite guys generally being a minority in games like this, feelings on the matter were still taken to heart and kept in mind as things moved forward. My avatar is currently a very grumpy Mer-man thanks to this bundle. My avatar is usually grumpy, but now he gets to be grumpy under water ;)
Heck, they even have an androgynous model - nobody has to fit into a shoe-box they don't feel comfortable in and everyone can make an avatar that they feel actually reflects them. There is no Professor Oak here creepily asking "are you a giiirrrlll? Or a booooy?"
Anyhow - don't look at this as paying for an unfinished product. This comes as part of an enormous, amazing bundle, for a fantastic cause, and you get to be there to watch as things develop and unfold. You can voice yourself and be heard, and impact things. As you can see from some of the other comments made on this item, that the staff are involved, respectful, and they take the feelings of their players seriously.
And if you don't enjoy getting involved until things are more finished... well there's like a thousand other games in the bundle you can play and I for one hope to see you later on when there's even more to enjoy :)
Peace.
Figment User - Sin, #27
I've been on Figment for about 24 hours now, and it does still feel very incomplete, but it's for sure the foundation of something wonderful. It's already a delight to play around with, limited as it may be.
Most obviously, the art is absolutely gorgeous, and I love the whimsical, mystical aesthetic. I look at that globe and daydream about the cool vistas we're going to see for the different areas someday. The ability to buy completely unique custom-painted pets is super cool--even though I might never be able to get one myself, just seeing other people's custom pets adds a lot more excitement and dynamism to the site as a whole, so I love that it's an option. And I really, really love that the site is trying to center inclusiveness--having mobility aids among the first couple hundred items created already, an androgynous body type option instead of only male and female bases, a skin tone range with a darker option than some similar sites offer (though it could still stand to have a little more variation in brown skin tones--which I mentioned to the artists and they were receptive to) and items that don't feel like they're all designed to coordinate with light skins. The main two features right now are dressup and exploring. Dressup is really fun to play with, and it's currently pretty easy to collect enough money to get a few different outfits' worth of items. I really love that you can completely customize how avatar items are layered, and there doesn't seem to be any limit on how many you can equip at once (even better, there are no "slots" that limit you to only one item per body part), so it's incredibly versatile. Between those mechanics and the current ease of buying items, it's very easy to quickly make a lot of different looks. And I really just adore the design and aesthetics of the items offered! They range from lolita to flannel to draconic armor, and there are both whole-outfit ensembles (sold as very modular, remixable separate items, which is something I really appreciate compared to a site like Gaia Online) and standalone pieces. As for exploring, the mechanic is kind of boring (keep clicking a button hoping the RNG gives you stuff until you run out of "steps") but the snippets of writing in it are charming and set a great atmosphere. I do like it being so simple and quick though, it's something you can keep coming back to for just a few moments in between IRL tasks, and the steps mechanic helps me to not get sucked in forever--exploring is a good little relaxing activity to keep open in a spare tab to make you smile when you take a break from working on stuff. This is one of the ways that Figment feels to me like it's designed with self-care and gentleness in mind. Altogether the biggest thing I love about it is just, it really does capture that sense of magic that sites like Neopets seemed to have back when I was a kid. It makes Figment feel like a triumph against sites like Neopets and Gaia Online becoming corporate-owned and sterile and money-grubbing.
What stands out to me the most about Figment is the dev team, how active and passionate and engaged they are, and what pleasant people. Many of the devs are very active in the Discord server, readily available to answer questions and handle the inevitable problems, and just being a lively and fun part of the community. As an example, tonight I saw a user say a pet was accidentally deleted and within 15 minutes a mod responded with how they would restore it (not to promise it's always so efficient, but I was impressed, and it's evidence that the team is really actively engaged and paying attention). I saw one of the mods last night putting tons of time and dedication into handling the increased workload from all these new signups, sending out activation codes late into the night. All their energy--and the big number of them who have that energy--gives me confidence that this site isn't going to be a flash in the pan, that the team really cherishes it and has the dedication to see it grow, and that they are genuinely concerned with community feedback and creating the best possible experience for the players. I've been around in the beginning days of an avatar site before, and although that site is still going strong, it did not have the level of passion from the devs or the community that Figment does. They also have stated that the team takes the issue of crunch/burnout seriously and they prioritize the devs' wellness, which for one is just an attitude that I really admire, plus the slow-and-steady approach gives me more faith in the longevity of the project.
To address the elephant in the room: no, I don't believe that this game in its current state is worth $5. It's not even necessarily supposed to be, because it's not ready to market to everybody yet. By paying for early access (if you were to buy an alpha account key separately and not as part of the bundle) you would be giving them the money they need in order to expand the server to allow that growth to happen. And unless I'm mistaken, registration will be free once the game becomes stable and shifts out of alpha. So no, I would not have paid $5 for access to this game if it weren't part of the bundle, but I would absolutely have eagerly waited for the day when it becomes free to join. And to the complaint someone raised about having to make extra purchases in order to play--you can buy custom artwork and extra pets, basically, but that doesn't change the actual playability in any way. You can still adopt pets and dress up, they just won't be as sparkly and colorful as the custom designs showcased here. And the price for custom designs is quite fair given that each purchase literally pays for the labor of that design being created. I find that these paid bonuses are very unobtrusive and the site never pushes them on you at all, which is quite a relief. Though if you're someone prone to envy, then I guess you might find it stressful to see other people's beautiful custom pets when you can't afford one yourself.
To the potential player: You should know that the images and features on this page do reflect premium content (bought separately or won in events). As a basic user you can adopt two pets; there are several different breeds of dog and cat, which each come in a few different colors, but all starter pets have realistic fur colors instead of the rainbow colors seen here. Breeding is, I think, exclusively a premium feature. Otherwise, all other features and gameplay elements are available to new players without any extra cost. Most of the outfits shown under "Dress Up Your Avatar" are in fact not premium and can be purchased with the fictional currency of Feathers (afaik the four avatars in the middle are Feather shop outfits, and the sheep one on the left has a colorswap in the Feather shop). In my opinion, the Feather shop contains dressup items every bit as exciting and gorgeous as the premium Patreon items, so you're not missing out on anything huge. There's even a wide variety of wings available in the Feather shop, not even at a particularly high price!
The things you can do on the site currently are:
-create two pets and feed them to maintain a hunger stat; set one as active to see it in the sidebar as you browse the site
-"explore", which means clicking a button for a chance to see random flavor text about the environment and maybe receive Feathers (it's admittedly very repetitive and not super exciting but supposed to be replaced with a new mechanic soon)
-buy items and dress up your avatar and your pets; human avatar store currently contains about 400 items (including color variations in that count, probably more like ~100 distinct kinds of item)
-trade items/pets with other users
-post in the forums (though there is currently more conversation and community on the Discord server than on the site forum)
-there are not any minigames yet.
Also, you should probably be aware that since it's in alpha, some features might disappear (like maybe forum posts could be lost?), and when the game progresses to beta you will lose your Feathers and Feather-bought items. Mods have stated though that any items players paid real-world money for (so, the special mermaid items and creature from this page) will be safe and will not be removed, and you will keep your pets too.
And a little bit of advice: choose your starter avatar carefully because, so far, there's no other way to acquire the starter items and they can't be traded. Also once you're done making your account you CAN change the layering of clothing items. (this is the whining of a fool who loved the starter tunic but didn't pick it because I thought it would be stuck in the bad layering from the preview)
To the lovely devs: I love this game and I love the work you're doing, but I do have to concede, this itch.io page isn't very transparent about which features are free vs premium and which features are implemented yet or not. I think it would serve you well to make separate sections in this game page for the current features vs the planned features so that people can better understand what they're getting, especially people who might be considering buying this outside of the bundle and would have more grounds to be concerned about getting what they thought they paid for. Though I did end up loving Figment, I was initially disappointed too and even felt like I'd been a little misled when I realized that breeding and brightly colored pets shown on this page need to be bought or won. Imo this page should showcase not just the best of Figment's content, but also show the starter pets and the things that new users can immediately expect. I'm also among those who would love if there were a development roadmap posted or more transparency about which aspects you're working on in what order, but I know yalls are really busy and of course it's more important to work on the actual game instead of this meta stuff! (And I know you don't have solid timelines because you're not like, a full time studio, but just knowing generally 'first we're gonna work on x then work on y' etc would be cool.) Keep rocking on and building this beautiful adventure, and thank you for all your hard work!!
In summary: I would not necessarily recommend spending money to access this game yet, but I think it makes a great addition to the Bundle for Racial Justice (maybe even my favorite item from the bundle that I've tried so far!) and if you have access from the bundle then I would very highly recommend joining and giving it a try! Or I recommend joining the Discord to get a feel for the community and the content to decide whether it feels worth money to you.
Pros: Great art and item designs and world/lore design, super flexible dressup system, great community and dev team, relaxing and inclusive atmosphere, really good ideas for future plans. Super cool and unique options for those who are willing to spend real money on in-game content. I joined 24 hours ago and haven't stopped feeling giddy about it since.
Cons: Not much content besides dressup yet, some features aren't fully fleshed out (e.g. still grumpy I can't get the other starter clothes lmao), can be laggy or unstable at times, a lot of what you do in this alpha phase will be deleted when the beta comes, pets look rather mundane (but still cute!) unless you buy custom designs.
Thank you so much for this in-depth review! I'm sure you saw my other message by now, but I so adore this review and I want to print it out for a motivational poster or something. And like I mentioned, I'll be talking over the suggestions you made with the team so we can make some changes and also plans moving forward! Thanks again, this was a great and honest review and warmed my heart to read <3
I'm so glad to hear that it was valuable for you. :') Thank you, too, for the depth of consideration that you're giving to everybody's feedback! (I am floored at how fast you cranked out those black cats after someone pointed out that there weren't any, lol.) I believe in you all and I believe in this game. You're making something amazing and, even more so than the site's development, I can't wait to see what this community grows into. I said this kind off offhand in my review, but Figment truly does feel like its entire design comes from a place of kindness and self-care and healing, and that's so needed right now.
It's pretty neat. The game reminds me less of Neopets and more of a game I beta tested a few years ago that I can't locate anymore (not that I remember the name). There's not much to do yet (I can't exactly figure out where to get breeding potions), and explore is a little laggy, but I've got hopes for it. The art's really nice on the NPCs and pets!
Unfortunately can't use the bundle pet that's sitting in my inventory, but it's a neat looking game regardless.
Hey there! Thanks for the kind words, I'm so glad you enjoy our project so far! For right now, breeding potions are only available through purchasing(via Gumroad) or via winning them in a Discord game or contest! Down the road we'll certainly be offering more options since we know it's super limited! Also, we're in the process of getting our Critters working! We'll post an update as soon as they're usable :)
i originally was going to post my question in the "help" section of the forum of figment.pet, but the help forum is locked to new threads(they say all communication is done over discord which is bonkers in terms of dev transparency) so i'll put it here:
what is the timeline for feature implementation? there is very little to do in this game other than gather feathers and dress up your avatar. don't get me wrong, i love dress-up games a lot, but that's not what this game billed itself as. is there a publically accessible devlog?
im also a bit irritated since yesterday i spent 6000 feathers on seafolk gills and fins(bc if the ability to be a mer is in a game im jumping on it lol), got up to use the bathroom, and upon returning found my account logged out and all my progress gone. granted, it's not that difficult to grind feathers, just tedious, but i have less faith in this game if i can't trust that what i've done in it will persist
at this point this is not so much an alpha as a proof of concept, so i'm posting this so future buyers know what they're getting into. it's not at all like the screenshots they have on the page
Hi there! I'm one of the artists on the site! And I'll try to address this point by point in order:
"the help forum is locked to new threads"
The Help Forums aren't locked to new threads. However we do check discord more often, since the website as it is isn't nearly as functional as we'd wish. Questions, suggestions and any possible issues are replied to quicker if they are posted on the server or by DMing a staff member on Discord.
"they say all communication is done over discord which is bonkers in terms of dev transparency"
The reason our forums aren't where we usually help the userbase with questions and such is because, as you may have seen, the site is broken and going through a complete overhaul behind the scenes. Most of our userbase uses discord, as it is the place to get sneak peaks and participate in game nights. We're aware that it's not ideal, but we're working on it as fast and best as we can.
"there is very little to do in this game other than gather feathers and dress up your avatar"
We're aware of this, and we're working on a complete overhaul of the website layout and features, but that's a lenghty process. We also don't want to overwork our programmer since he has his own life outside of Figment and a day job. For now, however, the website is in Alpha, meaning very early development, and not even close to a finished game. It is, as you said "a proof of concept", because that's what an Alpha is meant to be. We do not have a finished game.
"i love dress-up games a lot, but that's not what this game billed itself as."
It is, actually. The first line on the game's description is "Inspired by Neopets, Figment is a fantasy pet + avatar dress-up game".
"is there a publically accessible devlog?"
Not currently. However we are completely open to questions and suggestions regarding our development, and you can always ask what's going on and we'll tell you and our userbase whatever we're able to disclose.
"upon returning found my account logged out and all my progress gone"
With the influx of people coming through the itch.io bundle, our servers were exploding. We decided to upgrade them so the site wouldn't crash. The loss of data was an unexpected consequence of that, but we did send emails to the new accounts that were wiped that this happened. We're sorry your account was wiped, of course. Any progress is progress and I'd be upset if it happened to me too.
"but i have less faith in this game if i can't trust that what i've done in it will persist"
We were very transparent in what happened, and have since worked to resolve the issue, as stated on the discord, my statement above, and e-mails to people who could have possibly been affected.
And I have to tell you, then, that there will be a site-wide wipe after Alpha is ended and we begin open Beta test. Pets, user IDs, event items etc. will remain, but things like feathers and user-owned avatar clothes will be wiped from the site so newbies and older players can begin with a blank canvas. That way there will be no players jumping the gun with advantages they got in Alpha, and the economy can start fresh. There are users with over 1mil feathers, and that would be a huge advantage over new players, and that and other reasons are why we chose to have a wipe before open beta begins.
"at this point this is not so much an alpha as a proof of concept"
Correct! Well, sorta. A proof of concept is, in fact, what an alpha is supposed to be. Many sites and games that are in alpha might have more features implemented, but an Alpha is supposed to be a proof of concept or a prototype rather than the finished, polished game.
"it's not at all like the screenshots they have on the page"
Those are screenshots from the game itself as it is in its Alpha stage. Right now, with the influx of new users, the website is slower and some images might not load properly because of server issues. However I can guarantee that the screenshots are representative of the website as it is.
Conclusion -- I am very sorry we haven't provided you with a product you're satisfied with, however your statements are misinformed. We understand where you're coming from in your frustration, as we're also frustrated with the lack of features on the website as it is. All in all we'd love to have everything ready as soon as possible, but all of the work that goes into Figment is done at the developers' free time, and most of us have day jobs or other jobs in general. We also always put our developers' mental and physical health first over the game, and we have delayed things due to IRL issues. That's why we don't and can't have a completely finished product right now, but we do pride ourselves in being truthful and transparent with the circumstances behind the scenes, especially when we're asked.
I hope you can understand where we stand, and that you stick with us through development!
if the help forum is not closed to new threads, perhaps you can clear something up for me.
this is a screenshot of the Introductions forum. there's a blue button that says "create thread" at the top
this is a screenshot of the Help Center forum. there's no option to create a new thread. if the forum is not closed to new threads, how do i make one?
not having a timeline or devlog available means we can only go off of what you say is going to happen. a devlog would allow the players to see what's been done in the past, and get an idea of how long it takes for work to be done. it can also be used to alert people to any problems or delays in development. itch.io allows developers to host a devlog on the game's landing page, so why not do that? the lack of transparency is the most troubling aspect of this
and an alpha is not the same as a proof of concept. a proof of concept is like a sketch in drawing, it's there to prove a concept is possible. an alpha needs to have more features, an actual gameplay experience for example. if i'm being generous this could be considered a minimum viable product as it's far more bare bones than an alpha should be
i was really excited for this game, that's why i'm so concerned about how things are being handled. all criticism has been deflected with promises of better things in the future, but with no devlog, no timeline, and the only available communication being thru discord or the comments here, how are we to know you all will deliver?
Alright, first of all, I want to apologize. You were right, actually, on the Help Center forum being closed. It must've been closed accidentally, since none of the staff seems to be aware of it, but still, you were right. And I apologize. And I also thank you for bringing it to our attention! We'll be working on fixing it as soon as our programmer comes back from his job or is available in general.
As for the timeline or devlog-- we're new to Itch.io, as we created this page in order to participate in the bundle for racial justice two days ago, as you can see if you click "More Information" at the bottom of the posting. I personally wasn't aware of the feature, and I'm not sure if my team was either, though it is interesting and worth checking out. From what my team and I talked after receiving your feedback, we are open to doing it. The thing is that it consumes manpower that we honestly don't have. Most of our staff is quite overworked from real life, and that leaves a very small window of where we can or should put the energy we do have. But I will say it really isn't a bad feature to have and we're definitely considering it.
And, when it comes to delays on development and problems, that's what we use Discord for as well. We wouldn't and haven't used Itch.io simply because we haven't had Itch.io outside of participating in the bundle so far.
And regarding whether or not an Alpha is a proof of concept or not: (forgive the text in Portuguese, as that is my native language and what PC is set to)
The Alpha does also have gameplay features. It doesn't have all of them, though, and, yes, you're right, it is a very bare bones site as it is. I won't deny it. I don't want to excuse it, either. However, from what I can understand, and forgive me if I'm wrong, you seem to think that we're selling the game as a finished product, which is not what we are doing. We're selling the Human Avatar Set and the Critter. The key is intended as a free add-on so you can redeem your codes.
And, as for criticism being deflected with promises, I have no intention to deflect criticism, but I also can't show you content that isn't ready to be shown, and therefore I can only promise you we've been working on things behind the scenes. You also aren't addressing the critcism that I did reply to without promises, namely: the one where we are a dress-up game as well as a petsite, both points on the issue with the sudden wipe of new accounts, and whether or not the screenshots on this page are true or not.
It seems your biggest issue with our team is our lack of transparency, but I don't think I could've been more transparent outside of creating a devlog right then and there. I've explained our team's situation and why development is behind, and our intentions with the game. When it comes to our players knowing that we'll deliver, it's because we have, and will continue doing so. We have had contests, a Winter Event, Game Nights, and several handmade custom pets that were delivered properly and on time.
I have a question, too, actually: have you gone into our Discord? We talk very openly about what's going on, and try to answer all questions as much as we're able. We have very much been open about how development has been going. If you'd like to ask our userbase about our transparency, you're completely free to do so.
Even though our game is unfinished, we have done what we can to engage the community, and we want to do even more. I'm happy to hear you were excited about our game! And I assure you we're as communicative as we can, otherwise I wouldn't be here trying to respond to your concerns.
why didn't you make it clear on the game page here exactly what you meant by "alpha"? when i hear "alpha" i think there is a playable game available but not quite finished. there's quite a few alpha games in this pack and this is the only one where i've been completely confused as to why it's unplayable
the only things you can do in this game are click on things to explore and grind feathers, and get clothes for your avatar. if this is the alpha that implies that's all we can ever expect. if that's true why would anyone want to stick with this game?
i didn't address your reply to my comment about it being a dressup game bc i felt pointing out the fact that the forums that i guess aren't necessary(?) are broken was more important. but i am glad you reminded me! neopets was not just a dressup game. when i saw "inspired by neopets" i remembered a game with lore(available to read), games(available to play), and forums with people posting and interacting with one another. none of those things are available here.
why don't you explain what exactly is available on the page here on itch.io? if you had a publicly available devlog you'd be able to let people know about the issues you've had with the server and your employees. it's also concerning you don't seem to have an internal devlog... how are you keeping track of what you've done and what is to come?
"However, from what I can understand, and forgive me I'm wrong, you seem to think that we're selling the game as a finished product, which is not what we are doing. We're selling the Human Avatar Set and the Critter. The key is intended as a free add-on so you can redeem your codes."
yes, you are wrong. nothing on this page mentions how broken the site is, mentions nothing about the apparent issues with devs and coders, mentions nothing about servers being wiped, nothing about server overload. hate to sound like a broken record but that is literally what a devlog is for. you can't blame people for not knowing what's going on when you refuse to make that information publicly available
based on what you're saying, it seems you all bit off way more than you can chew. think about it this way: imagine if your game gets super popular tomorrow. do you think i'm the only person who will have these concerns? how long do you think "just wait, it will be good, trust us" will work to assuage these fears? i want this game to succeed because i want to play it lol. what about people who are far less invested and just want to fuck with you? how are you going to handle that if you can't handle a person only asking for transparency?
Game's bad.
Looks great so far! Love the artwork, especially of the pets (they look really cute)! I'm excited to see what the future holds for this game!
Also I must add, that in my eyes it really isn't unreasonable to pay $5 to get early access to something! So many people do that already with games, artwork, etc. It's just to get an early look! Of course you won't get a polished finished product, it's called an alpha for a reason!
perhaps you can help me then. so far i have only been able to click on exploration tabs and grind for feathers, what about this game makes you want to play it? not what is possible in the future but what makes you play the game each day as it is right now?
Well, there isn't much to do yet! But so far I enjoyed making my avatar and dressing them up. And in general I'm not a person who plays a game each and every day. I'll head on the site once in a while and play a little and since it's still a work-in-progress I'm content with that! :)
That's so sweet of you, thanks Kailynn!
This game is part of itchi.io's charity bundle, but otherwise costs 5 dollars. While 5 dollars is a nice low price for an indie game, the 5 dollars actually gets you Early Access to the game's Alpha.
The game is absolutely NOT worth the asking price. Currently, if you pay the 5 bucks and get Early Access and your in-game rewards, you are asked to adopt two non-unique pets, at which point you have three options:
1. You can click the Explore button which 90% of the time will do nothing, and 10% of the time will either give you money, take away your Stamina, or give you Stamina, and extremely rarely, give you an item. The flavor text repeats itself costantly, with each "Biome" only having one or two flavor sentences for a game where you must mash the Explore button hundreds of times.
2. In this Pet Breeding and Collecting game, you must purchase microtransactions in order to obtain more pets OR breed them.
3. You can view all of the various pages where content would normally be, but they are all currently blank or placeholders.
There are dedicated forums, but on them the developers say that they only post updates and answer questions on their Discord. What purpose does the forum solve?
The game seems to have been in Early Access since last year, but it doesn't appear that there's any content beyond what I described. No timeline, development map, or content guide is present on the site as far as I can tell.
When I redeemed my Early Access rewards, I tried to get access to my BLM Pride Critter, but am given an error message in my inventory saying the Critter can't be activated.
So honestly, your options are to click the Explore button to get money to go to one of the three shops that functions (There's a Critter shop that seems completely broken at the moment), or you can pay microtransactions to try to get more pets or breed pets. The website also says they do "giveaways" on their Discord server's Game Nights.
And to be honest, adding a game to the Racial Justice pack only for it to only be possible to play the game with multiple extra fees seems quite cynical.
At least the artwork is good, for what little there is!
Hi! I can answer some of the qualms/questions you have about this as I am a staff member for figment!
1) the Explore feature will be getting a huuuuuge revamp when we have the capacity to do so! We want to move away from the point and click, boringness of the current system. This system is leftovers from our old ideas for the site which we recognize we're not going to work for our game. We are in Alpha, which means we are testing and changing things, maybe not at the fastest pace, but we've certainly hit our own huge number of roadblocks.
2) The point of the game was not pet collection en masse, but to love and cherish the pets you have. But to address this we have stated that we plan to have the premium currency be earnable without paying out to us, and for users to be able to trade the currency just like other pet sites, and we also plan on having an adoption center with pets available for the non-premium currency as well! The cost for the breeding/customs is because each breeding and custom is hand drawn by our artists to give each pet a unique flair.
3) The page placeholders are due to this site being in Alpha Testing phase, which means the site isn't finished quite yet! There isn't any shame in redeeming the rewards and waiting for us to work to finish the site in it's entirety for beta!
There are many things that don't work quite like they should, but rest assured we are trying our best to keep the site afloat without burning out the people working on it <3
The site is pieced together and we honestly just wanted to do our best to support this cause with what we are able to offer, which is the art we have.
If there are any questions please feel free to contact us at support@figment.pet and we'll reply as fast and as accurately as our staff are able
Hey there! I'm an artist for Figment so I wanted to help give some context and answers.
So just to be clear, we're in early Alpha development and have had setbacks due to irl issues and of course the current pandemic. And while some 'alpha' games are playable or near-full functionality, right now it's absolutely true that ours is pretty bare bones right now. But to be clear, the payment is for the exclusive in-game Critter and Human Avatar bundle; the alpha key is an extra we include for free so those without access can join!
The explore, shop, critter cove, and most large features are all currently being written or rewritten after some heavy coding setbacks and absolutely don't reflect the plan or ideas we have in place for the beta/final site.
Otherwise, for now unfortunately things are limited, yes. Every pet breeding and custom are hand drawn by our artists who deserve payment for their hard work, so until we can include advertisement/etc, so the main way to get these is through real money. However, we frequently give out custom pets, breeding/custom items, and plenty of other goodies through our Discord server and occasionally through our social media pages. We also arrange small in-game events such as our Advent Calendar last December to give out pets, outfits, and other fun stuff.
I'll answer some concerns directly-
>There are dedicated forums, but on them the developers say that they only post updates and answer questions on their Discord. What purpose does the forum solve?
-We don't only answer questions through Discord, but while we work on getting the forums and site itself developed, it's the most active/concentrated area of our community that's also easy to access for anyone. Our website is closed alpha to help limit server strain, so we want to ensure updates are available for everyone interested in Figment, not just those with access to the alpha.
>And to be honest, adding a game to the Racial Justice pack only for it to only be possible to play the game with multiple extra fees seems quite cynical.
-I'm sorry that you feel this way. We're a tiny website in development and simply wanted to show our support for the movement in whatever way we could. There is not and will never be an obligation to pay money to play the final build of our website, that's been emphasized since the beginning. But while we are in early development, unfortunately, our options are quite limited.
>The game is absolutely NOT worth the asking price.
-$5 gets you the exclusive outfit, critter, and game access- plus access to over 1000 other games. It's not for access to the website exclusively; that aspect is simply a bonus given for those without accounts already.
>At least the artwork is good, for what little there is!
-I can assure you that we actually have an absurd amount of artwork, but as we're in Alpha, of course not everything is public or on the site yet.
1. I did 200ish steps of exploring today. I got 10 food items, 5 dressup items, and I believe I found three other miscellaneous items for a total of 18 items. But, Explore isn't complete. I've been around for a while and know this. I actually joined August 10th of last year (Alpha Release date).
2. I have seven pets. I adopted two. I won the other five, including a total custom, from discord events. That's not bad... pet 423 is my total custom and I specifically acknowledged that lineart was a good choice for it. She is based off my service dog.
https://figment.pet/pet/423
In addition, it has been mentioned on and off that pets will be more easily available after backend is done.
3. Well no s%#$ Sherlock. It's an ALPHA. Did you expect a polished site with 100% functional features? If so... why? Alpha is a game that isn't complete. Alpha users are there to give input on development. Beta users are there to Break things. Post-release users are there to play the game. If you've got an issue with an Alpha-stage game, perhaps you aren't familiar with the concept. Let me introduce you to ABLE:
Alpha: Accept the lack of features.
Beta: Break the game.
Launch: Let the devs know about any remaining bugs that escaped.
Elation: Enjoy the finished game that's now bug-free.
Remember ABLE when playing games that aren't finished. It's going to save you a lot of heartbreak and frustration.