Hi all! This is my review for the third week of #33in28 where I focus on a single game. This week’s game is Alex Roberts’ Precious Little Animal! It seemed really cute and positive, which I think is something all of us could benefit from this week. Precious Little Animal is a journaling game where you tell positive things to an animal friend and is currently on Kickstarter!
Precious Little Animal
By Alex Roberts
The General Idea
Genre Tags: solo, lonely, journaling, positive, mindfulness, cute, exercises
Replayable? Yes!
Actual Play Available? Examples in text
Length: 10-20 minutes a day for 7 days, Journaling (At your own pace)
Precious Little Animal is presented in zine format for #Zinequest3, and the design is at present (in the version I recieved) plain white pages with handwritten, large text that details the instructions with hand drawn sketches of cute animals. It is easy to read because the handwriting is clear, and feels very zine quality.
You play for a short period (10-20 minutes) every day for seven days, writing and drawing either in the zine or a notebook.The text describes the game as “a short game for one player about noticing the good things in your life by sharing those things with an imaginary little animal friend” and encourages you to have a friend, partner, or otherwise join you by making their own little friend to share with. Another great example of solo games being shared! Love this.
You begin by drawing a precious little animal and/or describing the animal with words. I liked the little possum included in this page that I decided my precious little animal was a grubby lil possum, too, so I drew them in Photoshop since that was easier for me. I gave them the name “Skittles.”
Next, you make some things true about your friend, like where they live (I chose little town), what they do for fun (collect rocks), and who is most important to them (Bumblepig, who just makes jokes) – each with three options and a blank fill-in option. Then, to play, you share three good things that happened each day for 7 days, in as much detail as you like.
For example, on one day I shared:
- I got a part time job that gets me out of the house and involves creative work!
- I took some really good product photos!
- I got to see dogs!!!!
Then, you translate these into things that would happen in your little animal’s life!
I translated mine as:
- I traveled around town and did my daily trash rummaging!
- I found a bunch of really pretty rocks by the creekside!
- I got to have a good laugh with Bumblepig!
The list of what is a “good thing” is a really good reminder that things can be small and good and that you should respect whether you would want something like that to happen to your animal. You also record a fond memory on the mind of your animal the first day (each day has a different final prompt), and mine was I found a tasty crawfish under a big rock!
This was really fun and simple to play through, and it encourages you to continue writing three good things any day you feel like it, which is really nice and a good mindfulness practice (and therapeutic practice) as well! I found this a pleasant experience with little negative to rest on, and I intend to play it again. As someone who struggles with finding positive things, it’s a really good exercise!
Precious Little Animal is a cute and positive journaling game by Alex Roberts. It’s a great way to remind yourself of positive things that have happened each day and further explore them by translating them into your animal’s life. Check it out on Kickstarter today!
