Hamster Playground – EGX Preview

by Lord Badger

The first game I had the absolute pleasure of getting hands-on with at EGX 2022 was the cuteness overload that is Hamster Playground! A smooth blending of Tamagotchi and Sims-like gameplay all bundled up in a heart-melting cuteness overload.

Developer

Hamster Playground is developed by Polish indie developer We Dig Games who have an interesting origin story. We Dig Games is an offshoot of Polish developer Mass Creation.

Mass Creation is known for its action, FPS games such as Corridor Z and Shing! A creative shift into a title like Hamster Playground doesn’t really fit into that line-up so We Dig Games was created.

We Dig Games is going to focus on a more casual style of games. Their first offer Hamster Playground is incredibly casual.

Premise

The premise of Hamster Playground is incredibly simple (as all the best things are). You are tasked with looking after and training up to six hamsters. This involves looking after their basic care such as eating, sleeping, washing, and yes even pooping.

Once you have made sure your hamster’s needs are met you can then have your hamster undertake tasks to boost his stats. The stats in question are strength, dexterity, determination, and intelligence. The reason you need to increase the stats is so you can enter your Hamster into races.

Races

Races are events that you can enter your Hamster into in order to earn money. You then use the money to buy cosmetic items and upgrades to your hamster’s home. The events available are:

• Maze Race – Probably the most difficult of the events. Maze Race sees your hamster navigate a maze and try to get to the end before his opponent. You can help your lil buddy along by completing quick-time events quicker than your opponent’s owner can do.
• Eating Contest – This event sees your cute companion stuffing his adorable little face as quickly as he can. You help him along by correctly matching cards as quickly as possible.
• Skateboarding – This event is my favourite and by far the cutest! Your tiny friend has to navigate a skateboard across a hot wheels track. Again you can help him along with quick-time events. Completing each quick time event will result in your hamster kicking his skateboard along (which is the cutest thing ever!) to increase his speed.

Release Plans

You have seen how adorable and laid back Hamster Playground is so no doubt you are screaming at your screen asking where you can get your very own hamster menagerie. Quick answer…Here.

Hamster Paradise is available in early access on Steam right now. It is free to play and 90% of the cosmetic items will be able to earn and unlock for free. The last 10% of items can be locked by purchasing in-game currency.

There are plans to release a console version of Hamster Paradise ( I am begging for a Switch version) while this will not be free to play all cosmetic items will be available to earn. As the console version will be a premium game instead of Free to Play the in-game currency will be removed.

Final Thoughts

I had absolutely no idea that Hamster Paradise existed until I asked for indie games to check out at EGX on Twitter last week. I am so glad Hamster Paradise appeared in the replies.

Hamster Paradise is just so god damn cute! By Nimah, I just wanna grab each and every one of them and squish them! The gameplay is so chilled and relaxed that you can pop on for a couple of minutes to check your hamsters are ok. Or you could easily lose hours looking after their needs, upgrading their home, and much much more.
Hamster PAradise is definitely getting downloaded the moment I get home from EGX 2022 but I hope and pray that we get a Nintendo Switch version soon. Hamster Paradise will be a guaranteed hit on the Switch