General Discussion

I saw a discussion about this before but it was several years ago, so I figured I would start a new one here.

I've had an idea for a virtual pet site for a while now, but I have no idea where to start! I can handle some of the art and assets, and I can navigate the basics of HTML and CSS, but other than that I'm totally lost.
My game would be similar to FR in functionality, as it would have 2D virtual pets, breeding, minigames, trading, etc. Although it'll likely be much less complex as I have no team lol
Currently, it's just in the brainstorming phase, but I would like to start trying to actually make the site sometime as a fun project. I hope that one day I might be able to make money from it too!

I'm willing to learn different programming languages and whatnot, I'm just lost on where to start on this project! Any help or advice is appreciated :D

i've got no advice unfortunately, except maybe do some googling and youtube-ing on programming websites and stuff?- i have 0 experience with any of that stuff, BUT i really hope you are able to pursue this !! i'm always up for seeing new petsites, and i'd love updates on it if you choose to continue it!

Have money.

I wish I was joking, but you're going to need enough for hosting a domain that can deal with site traffic, registering your business (if you plan to make any money from the game), and if you can't code right off the bat, you'll want to hire someone who can, or the project won't get off the ground. (This goes double for having a website that you want users to have accounts on - that has to be coded, and those passwords protected!)

You def. need to be organized. Have a plan. A realistic timeline. If you want to raise money (ala Kickstarter, like FR), you need to have something to present (such as mini-games, art, etc.) to make it stand out from the ones that currently exist.

Another thing is to check out failed petsites. Why did they fail? Some of the more recent ones I can think of failed because of RNG mechanics that were required to progress through the game (literally could not go on if you didn't get an extremely rare drop), and staff who had really problematic views that they voiced openly (pushed away a lot of potential players). One petsite I really loved shut down because the owner simply could not afford the webhosting monthly cost anymore.

FR was fairly successful because they had a team who worked on this for years as a side business (many had full time jobs while also running FR). If possible, start trying to piece together your own team! You have a much higher rate of success when there's more than one person working on it, so you don't feel as stressed or burnt out.

I wish you the best of luck! Even though it's hard, it's also really rewarding seeing an idea come to life. (:

I recommend you look into forum or deviantart-based small pet games first. They are focused on art and informal trading and exist off already existent domains so that's not in the way. Try that first before you commit to the massive work that is running a site which depends on catching people's interest (and a lot of money investment). Or even better, try directly approaching the creators of smaller petsites, make some contacts there, they are mostly chill and you might get some more specific help

Good luck!!

@Bunistxr

Hi! I'm hopeless with coding and art but I am GREAT at writing! I could perhaps write descriptions and lore for the game?

Also I'm not allowed to use Discord/email people so we'd only be able to talk over FR. Rip.

@Insidiously I'm writing ur username down rn lol I will try to reach out if/when I get to that part!