Playing with Chao

[ChrisOfChaos]

Lately I've been thinking about features to add to my Chao Garden fangame to make it stand out a little more and make the gardens more interactive. Aside from feeding them and saving them from drowning there really isn't a whole lot to do in the main game gardens. I thought about this and had the idea to implement a "playtime" feature where you could play a game with Chao inside the garden! Basically you'd walk up to a Chao and go through a quick menu to play a game with them in the garden. Because Chao are more like children than pets, I mostly came up with children's games rather than something you'd do with a cat or dog.

What I've come up with so far:
-Tag: You could play this with a Chao to improve it's Run stat.
-Hide and Seek: Chao would hide somewhere in the garden and come out if your time to find it runs out. Would improve Chao's Intelligence stat.
-Catch: Simple tossing game. Would Improve Chao's Power stat.

Any suggestions?

[The Thunder]

Didn't the Tiny Chao Garden have those mini-games?

[chaoadventures]

^There wasn't a catching game or a tag game, but the Tiny Chao Garden SADX gave had a Hide and Seek game of sorts.

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

And the TCG minigames weren't really playing with Chao so much as a way of getting money to feed them, buy eggs, and buy toys, and for most of the minigames, feeding was the only thing that didn't require ridiculous amounts of ring grinding.

Though, speaking of toys, were any of the ones you could buy in the TCG or win in SA2 races fully implemented? I can't even remember what most of the toys were and I might've just not been paying attention, but I can't remember seeing any of my Chao actually playing with any of them.

[The Thunder]

And the TCG minigames weren't really playing with Chao so much as a way of getting money to feed them, buy eggs, and buy toys, and for most of the minigames, feeding was the only thing that didn't require ridiculous amounts of ring grinding.

Though, speaking of toys, were any of the ones you could buy in the TCG or win in SA2 races fully implemented? I can't even remember what most of the toys were and I might've just not been paying attention, but I can't remember seeing any of my Chao actually playing with any of them.

All the Beginner and Jewel Races in SA2:Battle gave Chao toys of some kind, the exception being the shovel and watering can, which they need for planting seeds and growing trees faster. I've seen Chao play with just about every single toy. The rattle, the toy car, the Sonic doll, the broom, pogo stick, picture book, the box of crayons, and the bubbles. I've seen them all. I've even seen the garden prizes earned from the Hero, Dark, and Challenge races.

[Lunar Dust]

That's actually an adorable idea!

I would definitely play hide-and-seek. I imagine that their small bodies would make it a bit of a challenge.

Also, cute Chao doing cute things. I'm always up for seeing that.

[The Thunder]

Also, cute Chao doing cute things. I'm always up for seeing that.

And SA2:Battle wasn't good enough?

[Lunar Dust]

And SA2:Battle wasn't good enough?

Chao are utterly adorable as they are, very true. But, like the spoiled brat I am, I want more!

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

In all fairness, in the Adventure games, the Chao spent most of their time crawling/walking/running around the garden, eating, or sleeping. It was rare enough for them to do anything else that one could pass out from boredom waiting for it to happen. Plus, most of the behaviors either required a certain level of training, giving the correct animal, or a trip to the Kindergarten to learn or involved multiple Chao behaving in a way that made many people falsely believe they were interacting with each other, and even player-chao interactions were really quite limited(petting/attacking your chao, whistling for them, picking-up/holding/carrying them(and even then, every character held them more like presenting something or holding something nasty at arm's length rather than affectionately holding a pet or young child), and giving them items.

Here's a few ideas for basic interactions between player and chao:
The default holding pose for child Chao has the character cradling them like a new born.
The default holding pose for adult chao has the character holding them upright, an arm under the Chao's butt, similar to how one might hold a toddler.
Player can shift among several different holds including the above, by the arm pits(both with the chao facing the player and facing away), Mutual hug, piggyback, on shoulders, and grasping the Chao's hands and letting them swing from the player's arms, with any one-armed holds having both left and right-handed versions.
Depending on the hold, various actions will be available. For example, cradled in one arm will let the player hand-feed the Chao or shift to a two armed cradle to rock the chao, most one-handed holds will allow petting, stroking, tickling, and pinching(both soft and hard variations), Piggyback will let the player drop to all fours and crawl around with the Chao on their back, The player can spin around in the arm swing hold and have the option to let go in mid spin, etc.
Some holds allow the player to hold multiple Chao. For example, Piggybacking one and cradling one in each arm.
Different Chao react differently to various player actions. For example, weak flyers might get scared when the player throws them or lets go during an arm swing spin, while strong flyers enjoy the boost they get from being thrown. Chao with low power stats might cry when hit or upon hitting a wall or the ground after being thrown while Chao with high power might just dust themselves off, or accept the player's challenge to a fight. Chao of a particular type might be prone to actions beyond their skills(such as a power chao with a low power stat holding back tears when hurt or a flying Chao jumping from heights it can't yet fly from).
In addition to whistling, player characters can clap, stomp, or use a vocal call to get Chao's attention. If you can add in text-to-speech or voice recognition capabilities, perhaps even make specific Chao respond to their name if they have a high enough intelligence stat(with an even higher intelligence allowing them to respond to character specific nicknames or distinguish their name called by a character they like from it being called by a character they don't like.

Some ideas for Chao-Chao interactions:
Pretty much everything people have thought was chao-chao interaction in the Adventure games but was really just coincidence.
Chao may play simple games without player prompting such as pattycake or tag.
If one Chao starts playing a musical instrument, drawing, or dancing, nearby Chao may come to watch. Depending on personality and/or skill, the first chao might enjoy the attention or stop what they're doing. Watchers who know the same skill might join in, Dancers may start dancing to the music and Musicians may start playing for dancers. Given a high enough intelligence, watchers might pick up the leader's skill without formal lessons at the kindergarten. Given enough Chao who know the right combination of instruments and dances, the whole garden might turn into a hoedown or a formal ball or a break dance competition, or total chaos if the garden is full of dancers and musicians, but not enough of the right combination for them to agree on a style(Perhaps a hoedown requires at least one each of country guitar, fiddle, banjo, and country piano and 4 square dancers while a ball requires one each of violin, flute, Trumpet, and classical piano and 4 Waltzers, but a fiddle, country piano, flute and trumpet with 2 each of square dancer and Waltzer produces something that is a hybrid of hoedown and ball).

Some Ideas for Garden equipment:
Swing set with special actions for certain stats. For example, Chao with high run might make a running start in hopes of swinging over the bar while good fliers might use the swings to launch themselves into the air(and a good runner/flier might do the former to enhance the latter).
A larger ball. Chao may just roll it around or climb on top of it, but skilled enough Chao might attempt acrobatics on top of it.
A slide. Runners might use the slope to build momentum.
A swe-saw, requires at least two Chao. May see two smaller Chao riding opposite a heavier Chao. Fliers might sit on one end and ask power Chao slam the opposite end down to launch them into the air.
Merry-go-round. Requires at least 4 Chao or player intervention to get spinning at a decent rate. Big enough to hold the entire Garden.
Sandbox. Sand sculpture is another activity that one chao may learn from the Kindergarten, have other chao with high intelligence learn by example and multiple Chao work together for masive builds.
Maybe a dedicated playground area, but I think each garden should have at least one or two pieces of playground equipment.

Other things:
Perhaps a day/night cycle and a seasonal cycle, neither necessarily linked to real-time. Since a Chao Year is ~3 hours, perhaps make seasons last 45 minutes of garden time with the day/night cycle lasting nine minutes and each garden on it's own cycle. To keep things lively, some Chao are nocturnal and some might have sleep cycles with durations other than 9 minutes. Spring is more likely to see Chao trying to plant the seeds left behind from the fruit they eat, Summer sees Chao spending more time in the water or lounging in the sun, Autumn has them playing in leaves, and winter has them building in snow and enjoying the differences to the sandbox, or sliding across the frozen parts of the water.

Most of these ideas are probably pipedreams(some of these I'm not sure where to begin with coding, and I'm the resident Bachelor of Computer Science on this board), but hey, if you can implement even a fraction of these along with recreating most of the SA2B Chao Engine, that would still be quite the accomplishment for a Chao fangame.