Whimside is a creature collection game that sits at the bottom of your screen & fits easily into your routine. Capture rare creatures, create new species & decorate your whimsical space while you’re working, studying, or relaxing!
Developed by: Toadzillart, Tadpoly
Played on: Steam
Lenght: N/A
A review key was provided by Future Friends.
If you’re on the hunt for your next idle game, and you grew up with a little game called Pokémon, this cozy creature collection game might be right up your alley. Developed by Toadzillart and Tadpoly, Whimside is a relaxing creature collector that sits at the bottom of your screen and prioritises playing at your own pace.
In the world of Whimside, your main goal is to capture and create new species of Whimlings. These procedurally generated creatures are cute to say the least, but the art of breeding the right ones becomes technical in a hurry. Each Whimling comes with different ears, heads, bodies, and tails inspired by real-life and mythical creatures. Capturing the right ones, then breeding the right combination of features, makes this a game of both luck and patience.
While collecting is part of the main sell of the game, breeding new species is the actual key to progression. Each quest in the game presents you with a specific Whimling to create, which then unlocks everything from new biomes to new decorations. For some players, the garden is where they’re going to be spending the most time, decorating and populating it with rare Whimlings you’ve discovered along the way.
This is where we should note the differences between Whimside and its other bottom-of-the-screen counterparts. While other idle games have mostly adopted automation-lite gameplay, Whimside involves a lot more micromanaging. There are certain aspects that involve waiting for time to pass, such as waiting for Whimlings to breed and gems to spawn, but there isn’t much active progression happening when you’re not looking at the game.
Whimside circumvents this with a comprehensive notification system that allows you to customise its various sound alerts. After fiddling around with it myself, I landed on notifications for Legendary Whimlings sightings and Breeding Grounds. Provided you’re not too obsessed with the idea of constant progression, the game strikes a fairly good balance between leaving it idle and giving you things to do.
Where the game stumbles for me is its long-term replayability. Starting a new idle game typically translates to upwards of 50 hours of gameplay for me; the more time you can spend with an idle game without you getting tired of it, the better the game design. But for players who aren’t particularly invested in the breeding mechanic, its gameplay can come across as repetitive and overly manual.
That being said, Whimside is a cute concept that could shine with some quality of life polish. But until that update drops, perhaps I’ll put a pause on the breeding for now.
Verdict: A Little Too Much To Manage
If you’re a fan of a little game named Pokémon, you might find a lot to love about Whimside. The main goal of this cozy creature collection game is to capture and create new species of Whimlings, unlocking new biomes and decorations as you progress through the game. Although it struggles with long-term replayability, players who enjoy its main gameplay mechanic may continue to find reasons to return to this title.
Wishlist Whimside on Steam, and top up your Steam Wallet on Codashop to earn bonus rewards.
