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24-399: The original Petz games — Dogz: Your Computer Pet and Catz: Your Computer Pet — were developed by PF.Magic , released in 1995 and 1996 respectively. They reused the graphics engine used in the game Ballz . Rob Fulop developed the first title in the series, Dogz: Your Computer Pet , following the controversy surrounding his previous title Night Trap and with the desire to make

48-484: A Petz Player web browser plug-in, allowing players to publish their Petz online in playable webpages. The Petz Publisher does not work anymore, due to the fact that the website has been remodeled with the newer Petz games by Ubisoft. The initial games were limited to dogz and catz, but additional animals were also introduced. These animals include Pigz, Bunnyz, Monkeyz, Dolphinz, and Hamsterz, some of which received their own games. Users learned how to reverse-engineer

72-462: A "revitalisation" of the series, in direct response to the success of Nintendo's Nintendogs . Many of the successive games were localised games from Japan or Europe in origin and were simply rebranded with the Petz name. In Dogz: Your Computer Pet and Catz: Your Computer Pet , the player choose a dogz or catz to adopt and name in the breedz and gender of their choice as a puppyz or kittenz. After

96-445: A freeware game in which the player interacts with a couple whose ten-year marriage is in trouble. PF.Magic was born out of a failed hardware venture with AT&T and Sega to build a Sega Genesis accessory called "The Edge", which was to allow for online multiplayer over telephone lines. AT&T pulled out of the venture due to the cost of the device, leaving the company with half their initial funding. The company's predecessor

120-505: A game that was "so cute and so adorable that no could ever, ever say it was bad for kids". He claims to have consulted a shopping mall Santa Claus to understand "exactly what kids wanted" who informed him that puppies were a popular gift request every single year, leading to the idea of a virtual puppy. After earning revenues of $ 8 million in 1997, PF.Magic was acquired by The Learning Company 's Mindscape division for $ 15.8 million in 1998. In 2001, Ubi Soft (Ubisoft, since 2003) acquired

144-401: A period of time, the petz become adults. In Petz 3 , Petz 4 , and Petz 5 , adult petz can breed to have more kittenz or puppyz of their own. Cross-breeding can create different types of petz, called mixed breeds . There are a number of toyz, food and water bowls, and treatz available. Petz can learn tricks with positive rewards such as petting and treatz, or trained not to do something using

168-483: Is Going to Be OK to include these experiences and comment on how gaming culture, and culture in general, enables abusers. In 2019, Lawhead went public with rape allegations against video game composer Jeremy Soule . Following the release of Everything is Going to Be OK , the title was included in the Museum of Modern Art 's 2022 exhibition Never Alone: Video Games as Interactive Design, an exhibit that included

192-438: Is a compilation of short experimental games that playfully subvert norms of taste in web and game aesthetics. Their 2017 project Everything is Going to Be OK was described by Lawhead as an "interactive zine ," and combines short poems, games, and animations to express personal experiences with trauma. Lawhead's career started as far back as the mid-to-late nineties, with various pieces of net-art and poetry, culminating in

216-490: Is a series of games dating back to 1995, designed by Adam C. Frank and Ben Resner. The player can adopt, raise, care for and breed their own virtual pets . The original Petz has sold over 3 million copies worldwide, and the brand has grown to over 22 million copies since coming under Ubisoft . The player starts at the Adoption Center and chooses a Dogz or Catz to adopt of a Breedz and gender of their choice. Once

240-545: The 1999 Game Boy Color games negatively compared to Tamagotchi , and 2005's Dogz for the Game Boy Advance , being seen as an attempt to ape Nintendogs . By 2007, Joystiq recommended buying games in the series only for "people you hate". The Petz series is also notable for the online community that grew around it, which game designer Nathalie Lawhead speculates is part of the reason for its success and enduring legacy. PF.Magic PF.Magic, Inc.

264-521: The copyright on its Petz , Oddballz and Babyz titles. One of PF.Magic's earliest efforts was the 1994 video game Ballz , published by Accolade . The innovative game featured main characters composed completely of spheres . This early game failed in the marketplace, though it would inspire many of their following games, such as Petz . PF.Magic's designer and programmer, Andrew Stern, created an experimental project with Michael Mateas and others for five years. The project became Façade ,

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288-591: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System , and the 3DO . It was developed by PF.Magic and published by Accolade in 1994. The 3DO version was released as a director's cut in 1995. Ballz offered three difficulty levels over a total of 21 matches. Its distinguishing quality was that each of the characters were composed completely of balls, with a pseudo-3D look. Petz ( Dogz and Catz )

312-409: The creatures, the game has various objects ('toyz') that the player and Oddballz can manipulate. Toyz have different uses ranging from playing to disciplining. Babyz is a computer game in which one can play with and take care of a group of babies who live in a virtual house on the computer . The game was released in 1999 by The Learning Company , developed by members of PF.Magic working there at

336-413: The entertainment division of The Learning Company, granting Ubisoft exclusive publishing rights to 88 titles, including Dogz and Catz . Ubisoft would publish Catz 5 and Dogz 5 , in 2002, as the last games following the original style, before putting franchise on hold for three years. After releasing Dogz and Catz for the Game Boy Advance in 2005 and 2006, Ubisoft announced their intention for

360-488: The internet. Lawhead was subjected to online and offline abuse and harassment following their discussion of their game Everything is Going to Be OK at Double Fine 's Day of the Devs event, which increased after they published an article, "YouTube Culture is Turning Kids Against Art Games", on Venture Beat , where they discussed experiences with harassment. As a result, Lawhead further revised and expanded Everything

384-485: The number one gift children requested for Christmas was still a puppy. After this conversation, the idea of doing a title about animals came about, resulting in Petz , which was based on the graphics technology they previously used in Ballz . Petz was an enormous success, became one of the company's flagship products and has been credited with popularizing virtual pets . Ballz is a two-player 3D action fighting game for

408-414: The ongoing issues with inaccessibility and website death caused by changing technologies, imperfect archival materials, and the removal of support for certain programs such as Flash on the larger internet. This history of ephemeral projects has continued to inspire their current body of work, which often adopts motifs of digital graveyards, anarchic technology, and the fleeting nature of artistic existence on

432-552: The player has found a Petz, the user can adopt and name the new Puppyz or Kittenz. After around three days (real time) the Petz become adults. Adult Petz can then breed and have Kittenz or Puppyz of their own in Petz 3 , Petz 4 , and Petz 5 . Cross-breeding can create different types of Petz, called 'Mixed Breeds'. Oddballz is a virtual pet game created by PF.Magic in 1996 as an alternative to their Dogz and Catz titles. The game had 13 creatures that could be cared for. Along with

456-424: The punishment (water) spray bottle. Petz must be looked after properly; abused or neglected petz may run away. Players could share their petz with others who had the game via an email. Each version allowed the importing of petz from all earlier versions. There is also a camera feature, permitting snapshots of petz to be taken and saved. Later versions of the games included a Petz Web Fun Pack , Petz Publisher and

480-432: The release of Blue Suburbia in 1999, a project created in collaboration with their mother, Milena Lawhead. Their work often existed in a middleground, adopting various elements from trends in circles that used Adobe Flash, whilst still retaining an HTML focus common with many net-artists, eventually having their work described colloquially as 'games' by critics online. Lawhead's early work has since mostly been lost, due to

504-513: The system, and began producing additional breedz, toyz, playscenes, clothes, and developer tools for the games, as permitted by PF.Magic , Mindscape , and Ubisoft. The original software was generally well received, with The Salt Lake Tribune giving 1995's Dogz 4 out of 5 stars, and PC Zone and Entertainment Weekly giving Catz an 8/10 and B+ respectively. However, later games where less well received, in particularly compared to other virtual pet experiences that were available, with

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528-471: The time. Nathalie Lawhead Nathalie Lawhead is an independent net artist and video game designer residing in Irvine, California . Lawhead's background is in net art. Their work often invokes the iconography of 1990s-era web design and computing, particularly moments of technical failure, including pixelated lo-fi imagery, glitches, pop-up ads, and error messages. Lawhead's Tetrageddon Games

552-471: Was Interactive Productions, a company Fulop had founded in Foster City after his stints at Atari and Imagic . With their hardware project cancelled, the company needed a new product to work on. Co-founder Rob Fulop saw the controversy generated by Night Trap , a game he worked on, and wanted to make something that was the complete opposite of it. Fulop talked with a mall Santa who told him that

576-492: Was a video game developer founded in 1991 and located in San Francisco, California , United States. Though it developed other types of video games , it was best known for its virtual pet games, such as Dogz and Catz . The company was able to make extra revenue by selling plush toys under the Petz trademark. It was bought out in 1998 by Mindscape, Inc. After changing hands a few more times, Ubisoft now owns

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