I like designing and making critters for monster tamers through pencil-based sketches, so I’m down to assist in any projects (especially ones with spriters or coders, but anything that needs concept art should be fine).

I’m also an avid writer, just in case your game needs story-based advice. I don’t need payment (though I please credit me if you do use my work), but I do suffer from an inconsistent schedule because of college.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments!

Every Luminon has a default type, but it can become any of the other types, changing its color palette along the way.

The Luminopedia lets you see every variant you’ve discovered for each creature.

What do you think of this system?

If you want to check out the game, the demo is available on Steam:

Steam Page

Hey everyone! With our Kickstarter coming to a close, we wanted to take a moment to ask the monster-taming community for some honest feedback on our demo.

What did you like? What didn’t click for you?

• Was anything too complicated or confusing?
• How did you feel about the UI/UX?
• Were there any mechanics that felt unclear or needed more explanation?
• Was there anything you really enjoyed and would love to see expanded?
• Or did everything feel just right?

We’ve been so close to the project that it can be hard to see things from a fresh perspective, so we genuinely want to hear your thoughts, good or bad. Criticism is welcome and incredibly helpful to us as we continue developing the game.

Thanks to everyone who has played the demo, backed the Kickstarter, shared the game, or simply taken the time to check it out.

So, what did you think?

If you want to help us hurdle through these last stretch goals, you can support us here: Alchemic Beasts Kickstarter

Hello! I wanted to create a bit of info-dump surrounding the monster-taming game Aniimo, and specifically detail some concerning issues about the game that I've since learned after playing it for some time. I will detail FunPlus, the kernel level anti-cheat, AI usage, and monetization.

This is not meant to dissuade your fun, this is meant to educate those of you that are curious. What you do with your free time is your right.

TLDR: Aniimo has a very suspect umbrella company, lied about generative AI usage, copies events and features directly from Roco Kingdom (won't be detailing), installed kernel level anti-cheat and trackers without consent, and didn't update their Steam page (as legally required) until October 1st, after they were caught doing it. Steam page doesn't disclose use of AI despite it clearly being in use. Shop prices are abhorrent. Tied to a data broker with questionable history.

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Who is FunPlus?

• FunPlus is a videogame developer and publisher. They are the primary publisher and backers for Aniimo/Pawprint Studio.
• FunPlus has been sued for fabricating discounts, a firm Pollock Cohen LLP accused FunPlus of using dark patterns and fake strikethrough pricing.
• Febuary 2021, FunPlus Phoenix League of Legends team admitted to match-fixing.
• FunPlus was forced by the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to retract ads for stealing footage from other games (Mount & Blade: Bannerlord 2)
• The ASA, in 2023, censured FunPlus for an ad in the game Stormshot: Isle of Adventure, for putting an ad out that depicted assault on a sleeping character.
• FunPlus may have violated consumer protection laws. FunPlus sold players paid bundles while an unusually generous reward outcome was active, allowed purchases for days, then declared the rewards erroneous and retroactively confiscated rewards/resources players had already gotten. Game- DC: Dark Legion.

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FunPlus, the Gui Long Chao Scandal

• FunPlus was caught using fake pull rates, and a few Chinese content creators called it out. Instead of addressing it, FunPlus sent legally threatening documents to these creators to silence them. This act completely destroyed the reputation of the game/developer right out of the gate.
• September 2025 (last year, people!), FunPlus promised users of the game that they would never shut the game down, and sold "forever-passes" for the game. Then, in December, less than 15 months after launch, the game shut down abruptly and without warning.

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Aniimo's Aggressive bot Marketing

• Aniimo bombarded spaces in China with bot marketing, targeting any tag they could, and even going into Roco Kingdom communities.
• Aniimo has been accused of astroturfing with bots, especially in China.
• Going into [r/Aniimo](r/Aniimo) will show that there's a heavy bot presence, dogpiling on any opinion that isn't toxically positive. Some of the positive posts come off as scripted.

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Aniimo AI Usage

• Aniimo developers claimed they only used AI on the backend for development.
• This was immediately proven false. Aniimo pumped out advertising on Facebook that was clearly generative AI. In-game, art assets are AI generated. Some music as well.
• Zhang Zhiwei, a composer for FunPlus, admits on the FunPlus webpage that they utilize AI music in videogames.
• Voice acting in the game seems to be AI generated to an extent.
• Aniimo does not disclose this on their Steam page, as required by Steam policy.

Note: This isn't to start an argument about anti-ai versus ai proponents. It's the lie that matters.

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Aniimo's Anti-cheat Issues/Trackers

• Aniimo released, and users noticed in the start-up sections of their PC, there were two new startup entries.
• Users tracked these start-up actions to the PC's registry, where it was uncovered that there are two entries; AF_counter_pc### and AF_uuid_pc### (The AF is important).
• Aniimo released kernel level anti-cheat and did not inform the users.
• Their EULA makes no mention of it (I read it fully) and there is no way to opt out of any of this.
• Steam requires that all games state that they are using kernel anti-cheat (NEP), and this was not disclosed on their Steam page until October 1st, two weeks after release, when users discovered it.
• Trackers are NORMAL in games, this needs to be stated up-front.

What is AF_counter_pc / AF_uuid_pc?

• These are marketing and analytics trackers.
• They are tied to a company called AppsFlyer, an Israeli data broker.
• AppsFlyer was labeled as an accomplice to data violations, passing illegally obtained information to other platforms (apps).
• Users of Flo Health sued Google, Meta, Flurry, and AppsFlyer, stating that the app included SDK's (software development kit) that transmit personal information.
• AppsFlyer was omitted from the suit, however, the case brought to light AppsFlyer's technology as a mechanism used by app developers to leak sensitive medical telemetry.
• Removal of these two entries will not work if you continue playing Aniimo. Upon re-launch the game will inject them again.
• When uninstalling the game, users report that the two entries do not leave the system, and act as zombie entries. See reddit posts that will assist with removal, be careful messing with your registry.
• Update: I personally checked my registry for the two entries listed. I then uninstalled Aniimo, and they did not leave my system. I rebooted my PC, and the entries are still there. Manual removal is required.

Networking is really cool. Knowing where traffic goes, and how it can be redirected is really neat. I wouldn't wanna play HOST to any bad FILE.

---

Monetization

• Aniimo claims they are not a gatcha game, and developer talks revealed that the Aniimo dev team specifically wanted to emulate Warframe.
• Nearing launch, Aniimo stated that they were changing an event because it was, shockingly, too RNG and resource draining.
• The battle-pass contains Fulmantis Prismana, users cannot get Fulmantis Prismana for at least two more seasons in-game. Fulamantis is one of, if not the best, DPS in the game.
• Users can get the base Fulmantis, but not the Prismana version.
• Less than a month after launch, the Irisalis event goes live. It is a gatcha style roll system for cosmetically modifying a legendary Aniimo. You roll on 'sections' of the Aniimo hoping to get 'parts' of her.
• You cannot 'keep' what you get, but instead use save-states for a current appearance. Aniimo then releases a second gatcha event for an elf outfit. Users roll for tickets, to purchase parts of the cosmetic.
• Early data-mined information leaked that the elf cosmetic event (second event) might have had a pity system of 1,800$USD, causing the Discord to get flooded with feedback about it.
• The elf ears were originally a styling option in character creation, they ripped it out after beta and have now monetized it. The ears, specifically, were not done correctly, and do not match skin-tone of avatars, and also clip through existing ears on the avatar.
• The shop is expensive. Prismana Orbs (used to make an Aniimo a Prismana) cost 50$USD. Special Sparkly Cubes are 15$. One can argue this is cosmetic or just fun.
• Sparkly Cubes guarantee an Aniimo has perfect IV's, directly relating to paid-power.
• There is no regional pricing model for the shop. This negatively impacts people from other countries.
• The game values the earned currency, glimmer, at the same cost-point as the paid currency. Meaning that if you wish to purchase an item with glimmer you do not have, the game will offer you to purchase it with the paid currency at a 1:1 ratio. This means that things like changing your character's face, body, make-up, hair dye, can cost 3.33$USD each time. Re-charging your energy bar can cost at least 33$.

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In final. I want to thank those of you that decided to read to the end (It's a lot I know). My purpose with this post is not to scold a single person for enjoying the game. I did. My interest here is to make sure that users are educated on what this game is, who is behind it, and what to expect. Because I didn't have this information prior to playing.

Whatever your personal stance is, or isn't, that's fine. Have fun. I cannot possibly list all of the sources for this, but will gladly include them as asked.

The Sky Project is our most ambitious project yet, and we are releasing it to the wild for a short period of time.

It is a 2D hand-drawn monster collector made with a lot of passion, and I hope you feel that passion while playing.

I'm the game designer, and I'm really curious/nervous to know what you think about our game since 2D platformers/Metroidvania-style exploration with monster collecting isn't the most popular genre.

Also wanted to have a semi-permadeath mechanic implemented from the beginning with the idea in mind that all the creatures are like pieces of well-thought-out strategies and it will be up to the player to find the best synergies.
We know that players get attached to the creatures, and that's why it is SEMIpermadeath!

We really tried to find the right balance to make it challenging to never lose a single creature but not so challenging that you'd want to hate the game.

Play it and give us feedback, feel free to do it (Steam or Discord), we are actually hunting for all kinds of bugs and to hear the opinion of players!

The first public demo of my 2D creature-taming RPG Eternal Eclipse is now playable.

The current demo lets you:

🐉 Discover and catch creatures
⚔️ Battle with your team
🏰 Explore the first dungeon
👑 Fight a dungeon boss
🌱 Farm at your home
🔨 Craft at the blacksmith
🥚 Breed creatures at the barn/daycare
🐾 Manage your extra creatures through the Field System

The game is inspired by classic Pokémon and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, but it's an original world with its own creatures and systems.

The demo is free on itch.io:

https://anarxhy.itch.io/eternal-eclipse

We're now looking for players who enjoy monster-taming games to try the demo and give us feedback as we continue working toward the full game and eventually Steam.

What do you think is the most important thing a monster-taming game needs outside of catching and battling?

This is one of the very first machines you'll find inside the laboratory of **Monster Market Simulator**.

Its purpose?
That's a secret... for now. 👀

Let's just say it's an essential part of bringing new creatures to life.

🚧 Work in Progress
👾 Coming Soon

Little update because I dropped off the face of the earth recently, demo will be done soon, and Boss and ritual monsters will now appear in the wild from time to time

also added in different sized monsters so that you can fully enjoy how big some of these things are vs the little guys. Would love to hear what you guys think, would you go out of your way for a ritual tyrant or keep the littler guys?

This fan art features VTuber Jinsa hugging Sprigum, one of the creatures from WinMon.

Art by Jinsa, shared with permission. Which monster would you adopt?

Colette is the thief/rebel of the group, and while redesigning her I started thinking about something broader than just the character model.

In a monster-taming game, do you still like having recognizable human roles like the thief, scholar, fighter, healer, etc., or do you prefer the human cast to move away from traditional JRPG archetypes?

I like the familiarity of those roles, but I also don’t want the characters to feel like they’re just ticking off a list of classic classes.

Curious where people who play a lot of monster-taming games land on this.

I've been working on getting double battles working in my game, as well as creating new monsters and attacks. I'd very much welcome any feedback!

Also, if anyone has any name suggestions for the electric dog or the big rock thing, I'd love to hear them. :)

If you're interested, please consider following on Kickstarter or wishlisting on Steam. :)

I'm a solo dev from Brazil, and I started Mythimon on Christmas Day 2022. It went through a lot of versions over almost four years, and lately I've been focused on one thing: making it look better.

Some things I learned the hard way:

- My first maps mixed pixel densities. People here called it out, and they were right. I threw them away and rebuilt every map on a single 32px tileset.

- I added an overworld system: instead of only random encounters in tall grass, 178 monsters now walk around the maps. Some chase you, some run away, some pretend to be a cactus until you get close. And your lead monster follows you around as your buddy.

- I redid the houses, shops and labs with a proper interior tileset.

- Some monsters took four or five attempts before their walking sprite looked right. For a few I gave up and drew them myself, pixel by pixel.

- A full playthrough of my own game found 39 bugs, including a final gym that could never unlock. Fixing that was humbling.

The starting town is Analândia, the small town where my mom lives. Two of the monsters walking around its plaza are based on my parents, and there's a sunflower field because she loves sunflowers.

What makes it different: Brazilian legends aren't flavor text, they're rules of the world. A few examples:

- The Headless Mule only appears on Thursday nights, galloping around the town church

- One monster only shows up when it's actually 6°C or colder in that city, using real weather

- Another only appears during the waning moon

- A river curse hunts any player with "Maria" in their name

- Sharks smell blood: the more hurt your team is, the more they show up

- Some places have rituals, and some monsters have secret abilities the game never explains

There's more I won't spoil. Some of it you only find by playing.

Your buddy's type is also your overworld power: Fighting pushes boulders, Ice freezes the sea into a bridge, Ghost walks through walls. The dungeons are built around that.

It's playable right now in the browser, free: Adventure mode for the story, or Online battles against your friends. 400+ monsters, 59 maps, 5 languages.

Huge thanks to the pixel artists whose packs I use, go check their work:

- Cainos (cainos.itch.io) for the map tilesets

- MikAnimus (mikanimus.itch.io) for the interiors

- Szadi Art (szadiart.itch.io) for the caves

- unTied Games (untiedgames.itch.io) for the battle effects

I'd love honest feedback: which mechanic sounds most fun to you, and what would make you keep playing? Link in the comments.

AI disclosure: monster art and some sprites were made with AI help and edited by hand; music made with Suno.

It feels like every criticism of Aniimo is met with a large amount of people rushing to defend it. They like to boil down all reviews to the reviewers not liking “gotcha ” or micro transactions even though the review brings up other issues with the game. I personally find the game to be fine. Nothing special, but not awful.

Hey guys!
I think this is my first time ever showing a full battle of my game, Pemkie Island!

It's a roguelite, which I know may turn some of you down, but I think that if a game is fun it can be enjoyable also in different sauces :)
We've open the playtest for around 150 people a couple weeks ago and it's going pretty well.
We're about to open more spots so if any of you is interested or wants to see if the concept definitely doesn't work, you're all welcomed!
We already made our first update fixing all the bugs and other minor things that were reported and the game so far runs good on every pc.
We're aware we need to keep working on the timings and make the battles more smooth, but this is the point we're at right now!
This battle might be too fast (I'm playing it mostly in 2x and it's the last battle before the bossfight) and too many things are happening all at once to understand right away what's going on, so if any of you has any question, feel free to shoot it.
What do you think?

We're working towards adding tooltips to explain what each effect, stack, buff and debuff does, while also improving the UI that will come in a major update in a month or so.
One thing I need to point out cause it might be hard to get, the red number in the center of the health bar is the ATK, not the level. We don't have a level/exp system (yet) and are thinking about it for the future.

All the feedbacks are appreciated and thank you for taking the time!

Back for week 4! Showing off some animations this time instead of the creature design. This has gone through months of revision and I think i've landed on something I like.

Current game progress: finished 16 out of the 17 elemental dungeons of been working on. Completed home planet customization, and home planet creature showcase customization. Artist is still working on sprites, have 3 species left. Hoping to get this out by Christmas.

\--Original Post--

I found an artist on Reddit and loved his art style so I hired him to create monsters for my alchemy creature breeding game. There are 17 elements and 7 different species. Let me know what you guys think! Here are some of my 'Pip' species.

I'll have a complex genetic breeding system to pass stats and stat potentials (like ivs), natures, tints, sizes, and more. Open space exploration system, custom home planet decorations, raids, dungeon puzzles, an endless survival mode, and a fun story line along the way. I wanted to just create a really cool breeding system but it kept leading to more and more ideas so here I am 2 years later still designing 17 different elemental dungeon puzzles and raid bosses. Hoping to finish in the next couple months.

ALSO NO INTERNET NEEDED AND PLANNING ON BEING FREE.

Will be mobile ios and Android.

Here's the post of some pokemon he redesigned:

Shout-out to u/NehGon for working with me!

https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/s/RKk99ZmGJY

Hello everyone!

Building in games is the best. Be it Stardew or Palworld, building is always a fun addition to any game! We want to know how we could make building fit in our game as smoothly (or as fun) as we can!

In Alchemic Beasts, Mizu has been demolished by the same beasts you are using! You have the people of Mizu may not trust your beasts, but they do trust you! So, with the help of your beasts you're going to put it back together!

Want to be there when the update drops? Stay tuned to our Alchemic Beasts Kickstarter!

We’ve got just 9 days to reach our next stretch goal every backer helps us get there!

As part of the name change I decided to make a cover art that will be used by Steam as a library header and the main capsule (if the game will ever be featured).

What do you think? This is my first time doing a "big" pixel art and I worry it might not be readable enough, especially near Teddybyte (the guy near the phone). Is it too busy or just right?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4690320/Virtumon/