Virtual Pet - Circle & Square

Virtual Pet - Circle | Square are a pair of Iteration 1 games in the Virtual Pet series, released for the RGames Propane on April 22nd, 2021. They are simulation games where the player has to take care of a creature called a Virtual Pet. Together, they are the first games in the Virtual Pet series. Their successors are Virtual Pet - Triangle | Rhombus on the RGames Pentane.

Gameplay
As Virtual Pet - Circle | Square are the very first games in the Virtual Pet series, they feature an extremely basic version of the series' simulation gameplay.

Virtual Pets have 2 meters that decrease over time, which are Hunger and Happiness. Every 60 seconds, either Hunger or Happiness will decrease by 1. Unique to Circle | Square (and their successors, Triangle | Rhombus) is the fact that these meters decrease even when the console is turned off. If Hunger and Happiness are at 0, then the Virtual Pet will die. Unlike later games, there is no way to replace the Virtual Pet once it dies, meaning that you have to replace the cartridge.

In order to replenish the Virtual Pet's Hunger, you have to press L1, while for Happiness, R1 is used instead. Aside from L1 and R1, there are no other controls.

Cartridge
Virtual Pet - Circle | Square are unique among Propane Games in terms of the design of their cartridges. The cartridge for Virtual Pet - Circle is completely red, while Virtual Pet - Square's cartridge is completely teal, as opposed to every other Propane game which has a black cartridge. The hologram part underneath the cartridge has a dotted border and the logo of the game.

On the top of the cartridge, there is a light. The light was added in order to assist with alerting the player of their Virtual Pet's health. When the Virtual Pet is healthy, the light is a solid green, while if the Virtual Pet is dead, the light would be a solid red. If Hunger or Happiness is at 0, then the light will flash between green and red.

Planning Phase
Development on Virtual Pet - Circle | Square originally started as a group of small consoles that could connect to each other and trade Virtual Pets alongside a couple of games on the Propane. However, the idea of having Virtual Pet consoles ended up being cut, leaving only the Propane games. There were also originally supposed to be 3 Virtual Pet games as opposed to 2, which were Virtual Pet - Circle, Virtual Pet - Square, and Virtual Pet - Triangle. Only the first 2 ended up being developed for the Propane, with Virtual Pet - Triangle being developed as a sequel instead.

Development
Virtual Pet - Circle | Square fully entered development in April of 2021. The game remained mostly the same during this phase of development, but some minor things were changed in the final game. Originally the game was to save its data to the cartridges' internal storage, but when chi_chi154_2 tried to implement this into the game it didn't function correctly, so it was replaced with having the Virtual Pet's data be stored using tags connected to selectors. Remanants of this idea still exist in the final version of the games, but are mostly gone.

Release
Around April 22nd, 2021, this photo was uploaded to chi_chi154_2's LittleBigPlanet profile. Later that same day, the pair of games were officially released within the Propane Hub.