Whimside

8/10: I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. It’s tagged as an ‘idle’ game, but it’s really not idle at all. it needs way more hands on attention. I ended up trying it on my steamdeck (which isn’t fully supported), and somehow got hooked anyway. xD It honestly felt like I was playing a mobile game, constantly checking on my newly bred whimlings. Even though it’s not truly idle, it does require a lot of patience due to the whole whimling breeding mechanic. You’ll need specific combinations to progress through certain objectives, so expect a bit of trial and error. If you’re looking for an idle game, this probably isn’t the right fit~ but if you enjoy creature breeding and slow burn progression, try this game.

idk if i'll play this much more but i really like that it exists and i want to see more games like it

It's not really much of a game. Once you collect every gene from an area - there's really no reason to go back to it. Once you have all the genes - there's no reason to ever check the maps again. After you finish breeding up for the achievements / quests you can continue to breed to make the whims you want but there aren't full genes for every species introduced either. There's really no way to interact with any whims you create other than a click every 2 minutes. They have no real interaction with items and they often stayed in one area of the garden despite having the whole area open. I can't downvote the game - it's straight forward and offers what it says. It just doesn't have a lot to offer. There's not enough here to leave it running in the background once everything has been completed. The playtime will also only really vary depending on how long it takes the random gene(s) you're missing to spawn. It has some nice sounds to alert you when missing genes spawn, eggs are made, and such to help you clear the goals though.

what a delightful little adventure! i really enjoyed the breeding mechanic and being able to mix and match traits. the game has a couple little bugs here and there but nothing game-ruining (in fact, one i encountered let me open up some areas with just crystals without breeding the 2 whimlings, which was easier!). my first save did get corrupted when i was almost done doing everything, but i think that was on me and steam cloud saves vs the game itself. it isn't too long of a game, you could probably do everything in 10-15 hours depending on RNG (and the last 2-5 hours is exactly that, i'm looking at you butterfly head), but well worth the price and is certainly a game you could play for longer just to breed the coolest looking whimlings.

game's broken. it allowed me to pay for a gate before i had the required creatures and now the whole game is broken... i can't progress because even tho i got the creatures for the gate after i paid for it, it no longer recognizes or accepts the creatures and the next gate is locked cause the game thinks i haven't finished the one before

do not get if you have (arch) linux i bought this while i still had windows sadly enough on arch linux it just doesn't work at all, half the (right) screen is just cut off making it impossible to open inventory go to settings etc the timers are too long to wait, but too short to do something else in between also im bummed the demo version progress did not transfer over to the non demo version i love the the pixelart and the creatures its easy to get lost in the game and keep you entrained the music is pretty nice but can get repetitive the sound effect are great the little noises they make are too cute but i did enjoy(the demo) when i still had windows so i wont give it a negative