Pet sites have been something I enjoyed a lot. With active and dedicated communities, I found
myself enjoying
creating web art under the umbrella of virtual creatures, and here I am sharing my thoughts around the places
that sparked my interest. I have grown notably critical of them, and maybe this list ends up helping someone to
get out of a pesky art block or just find a place to click around and look at funny pictures.
For every site I will provide my very biased and opinionated grading on several factors. These are guides for
others to see where they might find a new home for their ideas. The criteria is purely based on the things I
value in an online space where I love to spend my time in.
- Activity refers to not only the user count, but the overall communication and relationship within the player base. I wouldn't consider a site to be active when it has extraordinary player count yet barely any interaction with other people. This may range from rich forum activity to simple gameplay anchors.
- Innovation as the buzz word as it is, I consider within the scope of the medium pet site. I do not care about implemented gameplay mechanics or constant content stream, but the strive to improve and bring new things to the table.
- Cohesion describes the on-going theme of the pet site. How dense is the lore? How much is it intertwined with the gameplay mechanics? How does this translate in the art presented?
- Backlog I understand as the sheer quantity of content that has been presented over the years. These communities have lived over a decade now and for many it shows. The backlog describes what to expect when joining the party to prevent choice paralysis and feeling overwhelmed.
- Expectations is a way to summarize how much time the game demands to remain fun and engaging. I don't want to use the word grind because for some sites, the fun comes form setting your own goals. How attainable those may be is another question and can be observed alongside the game's backlog.
- Gacha has infested all kinds of video games and I despise its implementation as a core mechanic. Gambling addictions can eat shit.
Subeta: Things manifesting in creature
Visit Subeta Read the code files on Subeta Visit my Subeta profileSubeta has been my first real shot at pet sites. I was enthralled by all the amazing assets and creature designs, as well as a promising community that I feel could have turned into an amazing space for artists to express themselves. For my running theme I went for imaginary creatures that would represent some kind of materialization. How could I translate the design of a pet into a concept that I find interesting. How can we manifest emotions into matter and how far can we push a dated layout to look as fun as possible? I also created tribute pets for video game characters that I always loved and have them another twist. Here some profiles I feel fond of!
FlightRising: Big dragons and how to breed them
Visit FlightRising Visit my FR LairI couldn't get past the fact that breeding dragons would be a feature people would feel most-drawn to in the VPS space. FR remains to be the most successful pet site to this day and despite the very 2015-esque aesthetic, I definitely understand where it all comes from. I love clicking my way through fresh hatches and crafting lineages for that one pretty offspring. I personally never went all-out on bigger breeding projects, but researching rarities and speculating outcomes definitely helped me get past some creative hurdles. I never got into the community aspect, yet the amount of work players put into their lairs is astounding and inspiring. Where this site shines to me is the standard they provide to the breeding-based pet site market without biting off more than they could chew.
Other Sites I would love to talk about in the future
- Strudel Café
- Moderneopets
- Lioden
- Pixel Cat's End
- Leayph
- The Final Outpost
- Protochroma
- Poppyseed Pets
- Khimeros
If you have any more pet sites that you think I should take a look at, feel free to reach out to me! I know that there are so many wonderful and not-so wonderful spaces to check out. Which ones inspired you most?