What is Backyard?

One day I'll be able to say something like this about Backyard:

> Backyard is a cozy backyard creature daycare sim.  Feed, water, pet, play with and otherwise take care of an assortment of creatures each day.    Plant, grow, harvest, organize and decorate your backyard to keep your creatures healthy and happy.  Invite your friends to visit your backyard or build a new one together!

For now, though, this would be more honest of me:

> Backyard is a small collection of little accidents I thought went together nicely after daydreaming about working at a pokemon daycare.  You can give some little pig creatures apples and fill their water dish.  If you don't, they'll cry for help!

The creatures have a sophisticated ai that lets them figure out how to keep themselves happy.  Your job is to make sure that they are able to find the things they need in their environment.  In the most recent build you can shake tress to knock down fruit, which the creatures can find to feed themselves when they become hungry.  There is a water dish out as well that they will return to when they are thirsty.  If the creatures become hungry or thirsty and they need you then they will find you to ask for help :)

I've also adopted a technique described by the creator of A Short Hike that creates a low resolution render of your world to give it a retro aesthetic.

As I develop the prototype I'll go into more detail on design decisions, technical implementation and share new builds with different experiments.  Thanks for taking the time to read this far, I hope you have a chance to try a build and it brings you some joy.