Parents’ guide

What it is

Nekoshi & Friends is a desktop pet for Windows. A small pixel-art cat, or one of 13 other friends, hatches from an egg and lives on top of the windows on your screen. It needs feeding, playing with and cleaning up after, a bit like a Tamagotchi.

Age rating

Our official rating is pending. It will come from the IARC, the system app stores use, once Nekoshi launches in stores. We expect it to suit players aged 13 and up, mainly because friends can die and because of the dark ritual described below.

What your child will see

• Poop and mess. Friends poop, and some make other mess on screen. It all has to be cleaned up, or the friend gets sick.
• Cartoon rough-and-tumble. Friends can be picked up and thrown. A hard throw gives them a bandage, and Ember breathes fire.
• Friends can die. Dropping an egg, overfeeding, or handling a friend too roughly can end its life. It leaves a gravestone you can bring flowers to.
• A dark, occult-style ritual. Boo the ghost can bring a dead friend back. Drop Boo on a recent grave and the game asks whether to sacrifice Boo. If you choose to, a glowing red pentagram and symbols appear behind the gravestone while a creepy, demonic-sounding chant plays. Then the dead friend rises again as a see-through, floating zombie with glowing eyes. It is deliberately spooky.
• Being ignored has consequences. A friend left hungry or dirty for too long holds a grudge. After three, it leaves for good with a note.

Money

• Pebski the rock is free.
• Every other friend is $1.99, or all friends for $14.85.
• Some extras are optional add-ons you can buy once, like the Recycle Bin, which lets you drag mess away instead of sweeping it.
• Every purchase is something you pick. There are no paid random rewards and no loot boxes.

Online, chat and data

• There’s no chat and no other players in the app. It works without the internet.
• Your child’s friend is saved on your computer. Right now the app doesn’t need an account.
• Leaderboards are planned. They will show the name a player chooses, so it’s worth agreeing on one together.

Settings that help

• Extra annoying can be switched off when the friend hatches, and later from the tray icon. With it off, friends leave the mouse pointer alone and play far fewer pranks.
• Ctrl+Alt+H hides the friend at any time, and it hides by itself when a game or film goes fullscreen.
• Friends sleep through the night, and their sounds are quieter late at night.
• The ritual can’t be switched off yet, but it never starts by itself. It only begins after the “Sacrifice Boo?” question is answered with Sacrifice. Choosing Keep Boo leaves the grave alone.