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Pou (game)

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For the main character, see Pou

Pou is a virtual pet app developed by Zakeh and released for Android and BlackBerry on August 5, 2012 and later on iTunes on March 13, 2014. It soon became viral and was rated 4.4/5 stars by the game's players. The game had over 500 million downloads since May 1, 2017.[1][2]

About the game

History

Pou was created by Lebanese game designer Paul Salameh, the founder and owner of the company Zakeh. He came up with the idea after his previous game, Persian Maze, failed to attract many players. A friend suggested that he should make a game about a cat, but Salameh decided to make it an alien instead.[citation needed] He experimented with different shapes for the alien, such as a circle, a pear, and even a potato. He named the game Pou, which is his own nickname in real life, and he also provided the voice for the alien character. The game was developed from April 1 to September 29, 2011, and actual production began on May 2012. The game was finally released for Android and BlackBerry on August 5, 2012, and later on iTunes on March 13, 2014.

The game became a huge success, reaching over 100 million downloads by December 2013. It was compared to the popular virtual pet handheld Tamagotchi (1996), but Salameh said that Pou was not really inspired by it.[3] He said that Pou was a different concept and that there were many kinds of creatures in the game. The game also spawned merchandise such as toys and clothing.

On December 4, 2019, the game was temporarily removed from the Play Store due to a glitch in a small update.[4] The game was restored shortly after.

Gameplay

The player takes care of a rounded triangle alien (commonly mistaken for a poo) called Pou, who is colored brown when the player starts playing the game for the first time. Much like many virtual pets, Pou needs to be fed, cleaned, and put to bed. The player can earn in-game coins by playing minigames. Coins can also be used to buy more food, potions, and outfits.

The player's Pou has four status bars: the hunger bar, the health (or vitality) bar, the happiness bar and the sleep bar. These affect the gameplay.

Hunger

Pou is fed by dragging the various foods to it's mouth. Certain foods affect Pou's other stats too. On some occasions, especially when fed the same food over and over again, it will refuse to eat the food and make a "no" sound. Pou's hunger increases over time. This will drain the hunger bar. Playing minigames decreases Pou's hunger status at a faster rate. Pou's hungry when the hunger status is less than 30%. When Pou gets hungry, its eyes water. They return to normal when eating and raising the hunger bar above 30%.

Dirt

Pou gets dirty over time. It also defecates, though it only does so in the bathroom, so the feces (poos) can only be seen when the player goes to the bathroom. Pou can be cleaned by being rubbed with the soap and washed off. Pou can also be cleaned by holding the rain cloud over it instead of over the flowers, though this method is unreliable because it gives only half the coins than when done in the bathroom. The feces can be cleaned by simply tapping on it.

Vitality

Pou's vitality is drained over time. The rate at it is draining is increased if the food or sleep meter is at 0%. The potions that are used to maintain Pou's health are quite expensive and should be used sparingly. When it drops below 50%, Pou will have heavy eyes and a fever, with a thermometer appearing at the mouth.

Features

Multiplayer support

Pou allows the user to make their own profile by typing in their email address and password. Pou's name can now be changed, and now can be searchable online (inside the game only). A player can "visit" another player's house by typing in a username or email address to access that. You can go inside that player's house, even when the owner of that Pou isn't playing the game. This support is the only method one can play Tic Tac Pou and Four Pous. You can play with another player's Pou in the playground too.

Pou also has local Wi-Fi or Bluetooth support, in a mode called Pou vs. Pou (PVP). You can play with up to four Pous (two in some games) on a selected variety of games. These games are Water Hop, Sky Hop, Pet Walk, and Beach Volley.

Possibilities

Pou simulates parenting as the baby and the player as the parent; it is quite realistic. The player can feed Pou, play with it, tuck it in to sleep, give Pou medicine, clean it, talk to it and dress it up.

Achievements

When reaching a certain goal in the game, you get achievements and a result you obtain coins and unlock scenes, outfits, wallpapers, and more.

Additional game content

Upcoming content

Main article: Pou (game)/Upcoming

There will be upcoming content that is going to be added in future updates, read the page above at your own risk since it has spoilers!

Unused content

Main article: Pou (game)/Unused

There have been concepts, hidden files and scrapped ideas of Pou that were never used in the game, the page above shows some examples of this type of content.

Soundtrack

Main article: Pou (game)/Soundtrack

Pou only has background music when a minigame is being played, the page above is a list of the songs which can be heard in the game. Most of the songs were made by Ukrainian composer Plastic3.

Sequel

There were two occasions where an upcoming sequel to Pou was announced.

2015

Alleged poster of the 2015 unreleased Pou sequel.

The first announcement of a sequel was allegedly made in a post from the now-defunct Google+ page of the game, which was apparently going to be released in the summer of 2015. The alleged poster of the game included various Pous in a tridimentional artstyle, potentially indicating that the game might have been released with 3D graphics.[5]

The game was never launched, and the post is no longer available as Google+ was discontinued in 2019 and its link wasn't archived.[6]

2022

Official tweet by Paul Salameh from March 22, 2022, in which he confirms a sequel for Pou.

Seven years after the Google+ announcement, on March 22, 2022, Paul Salameh confirmed that a sequel was in production in the official Twitter/X page of the game.[7] This is the second and latest mention of an official Pou sequel as of September 2024.

Many speculate that this sequel was also going to be in 3D like the previous unreleased sequel from 2015, due to the latest images in the Twitter/X and Facebook pages being in 3D. Additionally, on the end of every Pou update log, the following sentence appears: "Sorry for late updates, we're STILL working on something BIG! ^_^".

Unofficial sequels

There were also numerous unofficial attempts to create a "sequel" to the game, that can be viewed here.

Trivia

External links

Gallery

Main gallery: Pou (game)/gallery.

References

  1. ↑ Rita El Khoury from Android Police - Pou, a Lebanese developed Tamagotchi-like game, reaches 500 million downloads on the Play Store
  2. ↑ Android Market Data - Pou
  3. ↑ Nina Curley from Wamda - How a 24-year-old Lebanese entrepreneur found global success by beating Tamagotchi at their own game
  4. ↑ La República - Pou se despide: fans lloran la salida de la mascota virtual de Play Store (Pou says goodbye: fans mourn the virtual pet's removal from the Play Store) (in Spanish)
  5. ↑ License Global - Pou Gets 3D Treatment
  6. ↑ Izzzyzzz on YouTube - Pou: A Retrospective (10:44)
  7. ↑ Paul Salameh (@paulsalameh) on Twitter/X (archived on the Wayback Machine) - "Soon😊🕑🤞"
  8. ↑ Lic. Antonella Galli from Clínica Ricardo Palma - Hardly recommendable dependence on virtual pets
  9. ↑ DaFont - Magical Mystery Tour Font
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