It is time to get off that couch and start walking your Animal Pal. There have been a couple releases featuring AR pets, but nothing comes as close to the Animal Pal app, where you have to “train” them to progress further into the game. This works especially well for people who have always wanted pets, but have never been in a situation allowing them to actually own one. Now, all you need is a mobile phone.
Because of how new the app is, there are only 2 animals to choose from, leading to exciting future updates and room for more characters to come. You can choose from a cute teddy bear-looking puppy and, wait for it, a shark. Yes, a shark. As strange as a shark may sound, it actually looks pretty cool. Take your pet dog, or shark, to your favourite park or street for an afternoon stroll, the perfect little chore just to get out of the house or to get your step count up and closer to your daily goals.
When you first download the Animal Pal app, you will not be able to communicate with your pet. Just as it is in real life, it takes time to train and build trust between pet and owner. As for your Animal Pal, you need to take it for a walk and collect word cards. The more you walk, the more cards you collect, leading to more words you will have available to choose from to form a sentence.
In line with the developer’s vision, which is ‘believing in the tremendous power of bringing people together beyond devices”, the game allows you to meet other players on your walks to trade word cards. The team believes that sharing time together in the real world is of utmost importance. And with this game, they “envision a world where any physical location becomes a space for all kinds of shared experiences”.
The Animal Pal pet-walking AR mobile app is available for free on App Store and Google Play.
