Gamertell

Halloween is almost over and soon everyone will be preparing for the following holiday season. More and more children will begin begging their parents for pet-related games and toys for the holidays, then eventually beg for a real pet. A pet based on their virtual or toy pets that turn into more responsibility than they can handle or become aggravated with because the pet is nothing like their virtual ones, leaving the animal’s fate in their parent’s hands.

But one game company, Spil Games, created a game to help educate young girls about the importance of caring for a pet through their free online game Animal Shelter at GirlsGoGames.com.

It’s not as simple as pointing at the readily available food and toys on a screen or playing with a virtual pet that is always happy and healthy. Real pets can get hurt or sick and need attention that can’t be clicked on with a tap of a stylus or finger.

I was given an opportunity to interview Peter Hofstede, Games Director for Spil Games, about Animal Shelter and what he shared was his hope to educate girls that pets are not toys that you can just toss aside when you’re bored. A pet owner, it takes a lot more responsibilities to raise an animal than giving hugs and petting them on the head and I think this game expresses that responsibility.

I asked Hofstede what he hopes young girls learn from this cute game.

“We hope to increase our players’ awareness of the important fact that animals need good care. Unlike toys — which you can throw out or give away if you get fed up with them,” he said. “Animals need a lot of time and attention, and lots of TLC. We also hope that our players learn about the hard work involved in running an animal shelter. That’s something many people take for granted.”

And he’s not joking.

When you first play the game you’re given a list of tasks you must perform on top of making sure the animals in your care are given proper medical attention, fed a nutritional meal and exercised daily based on their health charts. For example, in my care I have a few dogs, cats, bunnies, turtles and even a hamster in my adoption center (see image on right). Each animal has its own needs much like a real pet. I have a turtle that is sick most of the time and requires more medical attention than the rest as well as a dog that’s often bored and hungry.

You also have to keep the areas clean to prevent their conditions from worsening and to keep your center from being closed.

Hofstede added that animal care alone just isn’t enough when they created this game so I asked what was the inspiration behind this game and what makes this virtual pet game different from the rest already out for handheld and console gaming systems.

“We know that cute animal games are very popular with our GirlsGoGames audience, so the idea of making a game about an animal shelter came up pretty quickly. However, it took some time to figure out the game’s core design and how to make it stand out from similar games,” he said. “Animal care by itself wouldn’t have been enough. That had already been done. But the advertising and ‘photography aspects hadn’t been done in other animal care games, so we added those two popular elements. We decided it was important for players to learn about the importance of keeping to a budget, so we added that element too. Lastly, we added movie events to build awareness about how commercials and movies can trigger people to get a pet, something our players may not have considered before. By combining these fresh and informative features, we ended up with a fun, successful, and unique game with an educational twist.”

Photographing the animals is not as easy as it seems. The camera moves and so does the animal. You have to take the right photograph of a pet and find the right words to use in your advertisement that will draw potential pet owners to your shelter. Patience is a virtue here because the animal moves around, looks away and even growls at the camera. If you’re patient enough you may be able photograph an adorable pose to post in the newspaper, fliers or even a television ad. Once the right photo is captured, then you must provide a decent description about animal you want to advertise for adoption.

Based on your success of getting the animals adopted as well as keeping the animals and the center in good condition, you are given donations that can be used to upgrade the food, medical care and toys for your animals. Just watch your budget because you don’t know when the next animal will be adopted or when the center will receive the next donation.

The game is adorable but takes strategy to get all the animals adopted and raise the donations needed to keep the animals fed, clean and healthy.

I asked if this game would eventually be made for a console or if there were any other educational games they are about to launch.

“We launch new games every single week but it’s really heart-warming when we can also take part in spreading awareness and educating our players with games like Animal Shelter,” Hofstede said. “We hope our players will enjoy the gameplay, of course, but we also hope that they enjoy learning about proper animal care and the process involved in animal adoption. Also, we want to let your readers know that they can expect a lot of new, exciting features and content in the near future. Our team here at Spil Games is working hard to develop ever richer and ever more entertaining online gaming experiences!”

Site [Spil Games] Site [GirlsgoGames.com]