Niantic's latest game Peridot brings AR pet magic to mobile

Essentially a modern-day Tamagotchi, Peridot uses the power of AR to place fantastical creatures known as Peridots (“Dots'' for short) in the real world with you.

Whether you fancy taking a stroll together on a daily walk, love the idea of exploring new places with your fantastical friend, or feel a spot of 90s nostalgia around Tamagotchi-style pet care, Peridot brings digital pets into the real world for you to love and care for.

Niantic’s use of augmented reality is the perfect companion for bringing these creatures to life, proving just why the technology is as magical now as it’s ever been.

Peridot is a virtual pet simulation game where you bond with one-of-a-kind adorable magical pets, raise them to adulthood as you explore the world together, and collaborate with other players to diversify their species by hatching new generations of 100% genetically unique creatures.

AR gives the game a real-world element. As Peridot’s Creative Director David Hollin explained, the team at Niantic focused on making Peridots feel as real as possible: “They are immersive, amazing magical creatures that eat, sleep, play with toys, explore their environment, get bored, develop unique personalities, and are always in need of a loving adopter like you.”

The game allows its players to pet, play, feed, and teach their Peridots tricks in real life; you can take your virtual pets on solo walks uncovering helpful items in the real world and take photographs, or band together with other players around the world to hatch new generations of creatures and discover infinite combinations of creature looks.

Peridot uses a generative system known as the Perigenetics System to create its distinctive creatures.

Players, known as “Keepers” in-game, can expand the Peridot species through breeding but each player’s Dot is 100% genetically unique thanks to the game’s algorithms that uses a set of unique “genes” to determine each Dot’s appearance.

The team at Niantic were inspired by how real life animals develop their patterns. By adjusting the numbers fed into the algorithm, they were able to generate patterns like “giraffe,” “tropical fish,”“spotted” or create even weirder patterns like “circuit” or “maze,” making every Dot’s pattern truly unique, just like human fingerprints.

AR plays an important role in immersing the pet into the world of the player. Peridots can hang out with the player in real time and even recognize the real life surface they’re on and respond accordingly.

“With our AR tech, we're able to have the creature feel like it's actually there with you, naturally navigating the real world environment, walking behind and between objects in its path, and recognizing the terrain and objects as it's exploring the world,” Senior Software Engineer Will Jackson explained, adding that soft launch players were sharing photos of their Peridots relaxing on vacation with them or hanging alongside their real life pets.

The game allows players to enjoy it at their own pace, and looks to inspire joy and happiness with its gameplay mechanics. It’s a casual, cozy, and guilt-free experience. When Peridots are feeling angry or sassy, it can be quickly mediated with a snack or pet. Peridots can feel sad but are never hurt or die in-game.

There’s no punitive element to the game either with positive reinforcement taking center stage. Tactile interaction through the AR technology helps your Peridots feel happy and thus grow. You can pet your Peridots and play with them by tossing a ball, all whilst surrounded by a real world environment.

Peridot is available worldwide on May 9th 2023 for iOS and Android mobile devices. It can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play stores respectively.

The game previously enjoyed a soft launch in 2022 and was made available to pre-register through the app stores which gave players a free launch-exclusive party hat cosmetic for their Peridots if played within the first two weeks of launch.