Alkogochi: a Tamagotchi for grown-ups

That familiar pocket-toy feeling

The first version was drawn entirely in code and came in at around 100 KB. It worked, but we wanted it to feel like the sort of toy you once carried everywhere. The current version sits inside an illustrated black-and-yellow case, against a warm, worn backdrop. The case is artwork; the screen is live. Its little room, resident, cat and mini-games are all drawn by the browser. The artwork is bundled with the game in a single HTML file, now roughly 1.4 MB. It is a deliberate trade-off: a larger download for a more distinctive setting.

• Tap to play. The buttons on the case and the icons on the screen are interactive.
• Or use the keyboard. Up and down move through a menu; left takes you back.
• More backgrounds are an idea for later. For now, the backdrop stays the same throughout the game.

Getting the tiny screen right

A convincing old-school LCD needs crisp, square pixels. At this size, a standard font can look blurry or take up too much space, so we drew our own letters on a pixel grid. Both alphabets use the same approach, with variable character widths and room for the extra marks used in Russian. You do not need to notice the typography for it to work. The point is that the whole screen feels like a tiny handheld toy, rather than a web page squeezed into one.

Life goes on when you close the tab

One second in real life is one minute in the game, so a full day takes 24 minutes. He gets hungry, tired and gradually sobers up. The room changes too: night falls, the moon comes out and the cat goes to sleep. We wanted that sense of an ongoing life without making the game another obligation. When you return after closing the tab, the game catches up, but puts a floor under hunger and happiness so those needs do not kill him while you are away. He may need attention when you get back; you do not have to organise your day around him.

A shop where you can see what you can afford

The 21-item shop covers drinks, food, medicine and things for the flat. Some purchases have lasting benefits: headphones improve his mood, a better fridge makes drinks more enjoyable, and a new sofa helps him recover more energy while sleeping. One useful fix was simply keeping his cash balance visible at the top of the shop. Before that, you had to leave the menu to check your money. It is a small version of a familiar checkout problem: asking people to make a decision while hiding the information they need.

The neighbours have opinions

There are fifteen random encounters. Your ex calls. Mum turns up unannounced. The neighbour complains about the music. A local police officer wants to know who abandoned a fridge in the shared hallway. Each gives you two or three choices, with consequences for your money, mood or both. Invite the neighbour in and the complaint might become a drinking session. Lie to the officer and you might get away with it, or pay a bigger fine. Some choices also unlock achievements, giving you a reason to try a different response next time.

Even carrying a beer can be a challenge

The task is simple: get a full mug from the fridge to the sofa without spilling it. Use the left and right buttons to keep your balance. How hard that is depends on his condition, including alcohol level and hangover, rather than a difficulty setting. We also made the liquid stay level as the mug tilts. That small visual detail makes the action immediately clear: you can see which way you are leaning and why the next correction matters.

The 45-second limit that fixed the money problem

Another mini-game pays you to catch empty bottles in a crate: 45 in-game roubles per bottle. Originally, a shift lasted until you missed three. A good run could earn around 8,000 in a minute, making the other ways to earn money almost pointless. We added a 45-second limit. It was a small change to the rules, but it gave the rest of the game a reason to exist again. A generous reward stops being fun when it makes every other choice irrelevant.

Keep an eye on his stats

The status screen brings the main indicators together: mood, alcohol level, liver health, energy, food, cash, character stage and days survived. You can check what needs attention instead of guessing why he is struggling. That makes it easier to experiment, recover from a bad decision and plan a better run next time. The same principle applies to a shop checkout: when customers can see the price breakdown and delivery charge, they have a clearer basis for deciding what to do.

The soundtrack gets tipsy too

The music is composed as you play, using short phrases, chords and light percussion generated in the browser. Most of the time it is bright and easy-going: something to play with your morning coffee. When he falls asleep, it slows down, thins out and loses the percussion. As he gets drunk, the tune becomes less predictable, dropping notes, adding others and changing the rhythm. The variations still follow a beat, so it sounds increasingly unsteady without turning into random noise. As he sobers up, the music gradually settles down.

• You control the sound. Music starts only when you turn it on, and has its own volume slider.
• No abrupt changes. The tempo and arrangement shift gradually from one phrase to the next.
• No tracks to download. The browser synthesises the sound as you play. No music subscription needed.

Making sure all seven endings are possible

There are seven endings, twenty achievements and eight character stages. Some runs end through poor health, hunger or debt. In keeping with the joke, staying sober for a whole day earns the “Traitor” ending. The winning “Legend” ending takes almost two hours to reach, so testing every route by playing it repeatedly would be slow. Instead, we keep the rules separate from the display and run automated simulations. These check whether each ending is reachable and whether changes upset the balance. Early tests found two unreachable endings and an earnings loophole. We fixed them, then ran the checks again. Browser testing still matters for controls and presentation; simulations let us test the long-term consequences much faster.