NoSlack Pets: Lo-Fi Paws

[h1]Does anyone remember going to third places to study/work, essentially body doubling with multiple strangers?[/h1] In university, I used to go to coffee shops, study rooms in public libraries and at school, fast food restaurants, book shops, etc., solely for the purpose of body doubling with many strangers. Great memories. I miss it a lot. NoSlack Pets: Lo-Fi Paws feels like the online productivity app version of that. What sets NoSlack Pets apart from other productivity apps on Steam: 1) Large group body doubling: If you choose to go into the public lobbies, it feels like you're actively body doubling with strangers. It's helpful to feel like you're all studying or chilling in the same space. 2) Abundant gamification. There are a ton of mini games and activity types that could work to focus you better if you have ADHD. If you prefer a simple application that acts as a pretty pomodoro timer, then this is not the application for you. If you have ADHD brain and get bored/distracted with the usual pomodoro/productivity apps, then this might be for you. Or if you want to have more to do in these productivity apps that feel more gamified, this may also be for you. That's because there are several "activities" and multiple productivity tools within this one application. To break it down simply: First off, you can switch between two variations for your pet: Desktop pet mode + Companion mode * [b]Desktop Pet mode[/b]: free roam mode where your pet wanders around, climbs things, teeters over edges of things, sits where any cat should be sat and you can move it around too. Just all-out adorableness occurs. * [b]Companion mode[/b]: static apart from the pet's eyes, which you can toggle off in settings and you can see your desk and items, etc. Miino, the cat, has many dialogue lines when you click them. Secondly, NoSlack Pets has 4 main sections to its features, accessible through the ☰ menu icon. 1. [b]Decorate[/b]: You can spruce up your character's skin (+ completely customisable patterning)/clothes/headgear/house/desk and also access Steam Workshop. You can also see your collection of items (collected whilst you use the app) and synthesise collected items to upgrade them into rarer items. There are also weather options for your house like snow/rain. And you can change your char's animal type and even expressions (usual expression vs. expression when typing etc). 2. [b]Focus[/b]: Music player, white noise player, pomodoro timer, to-do list, sticky notes The white noise player can be layered with up to ten different noise types. You can import your own tracks to the music player outside of the offered selection. There is also a Cat Bus feature (that I'll get into later) and an awesome stats page for your app usage. 3. [b]Activity[/b]: Study room, multiplayer lobby, fishing, fish farming, pool party, minigames. The Meow Code claim menu is also here for any events codes, etc. The activities are exactly what they sound like. Outside of the pool party (I never figured out how to stay alone in that), you always have the option to do the activity alone/with friends/with randoms. There are 7 minigames with more to be added. They're awesome and many have multiple difficulty levels. You get a ticket every 5 hours and can hold 9 tickets max. You can buy 5 additional tickets a day with 100 Meow Coins. There are leaderboards. You can play for free in the practice mode. The minigames are fun. Currently we have Schulte Grid, 2048, Minesweeper, Sudoku, Triple Match, Memory Match, and Number Sliding Puzzle. A good way to wind down between study sessions, but not distracting. 4. [b]Task[/b]: Daily Quests, piggy bank (your claimable coins that are already shown with your Companion Mode pet), achievements. There are a TON of UI elements to make the app more seamless. If you ever get lost, in the Settings/Options menu you can click the ? question mark icon for the Tutorial & FAQ (two books, each with multiple tabs). It's adorably written out and ADHD-friendly with lots of colours, arrows and visual aids. But don't worry, the app is very intuitive despite first impressions making it seem overwhelmingly, adorably cluttered. Organised chaos is my favourite aesthetic so it works well for me. The one unintuitive feature, Cat Bus, was confusing to me at first. But it's essentially a taskbar just for this app. You can minimise all the activities you're doing into that Cat Bus task bar and pull it out or just open it for a bit etc. - whatever you like. Reminiscent of the [i]My Neighbor Totoro[/i] Catbus. You can also Fullscreen Mode different activities and have it as a wallpaper or just keep it up. It's great as a background. I definitely recommend having a second monitor, but you can still use it with one. The windows can get kinda cluttered if you like seeing everything at once. Overall, the Cat Bus keeps everything as streamlined and clean or as messy as you'd like. The skins are numerous and all very, very cute. I didn't feel time-gated, DLC-limited or anything negative like that. I saw users from all over, like the US, East Asia, SEA, the EU, RU, everywhere, really. You can add friends through the app or you can turn that feature off; everything is very customizable. There are two in-game currencies: the gold Meow Coins and blue Exp Points. Both are acquired over time naturally, and also by completing activities (detailed in the FAQ). You accumulate stat points called "Helping Others" and get some coins for it too. So I like to keep multiple activities up and help others get their drops. I've been helped a great deal by other players whilst I was AFK, so definitely hop into the public rooms when you are able to. Chat is available, but it's a productivity app so I don't see people chat. Now, the biggest reason I decided to even write a review is because I experienced an error with my white noise duration achievements for two days, so I eventually used the in-game feedback option to send the devs a message. They popped my achievements within 2 hours of me sending the message, which alarmed me because it was 1) fixed 2) fixed so promptly 3) it was very early hours for CHN, and I think it's made in CHN? Anyway, I am super grateful. The problem achievements all popped at the same time, which is funny, but it'll be a good reminder for me about how responsive the devs are. I guessed it was them after checking the achievements logs of my Steam friends who use this app, as others have had them pop normally. It's hard to list absolutely everything because there's just too much detail in the app. All in all, it's very well designed and thought out. I recommend it to anyone who likes productivity apps. It has everything you could imagine. Also, to my fellow Hangyodon lovers out there, it has a cute Hangyodon item in it. Possibly a nod to Hangy being Chinese. Whenever I type, my catto pats my Hangyodon and gives me lots of good vibes like Romance +1 Promotion +1 Wealth +1 Health +1 Fortune +1 etc.; it's the cutest thing ever. There are so many little details like that which make my time spent on the app very satisfying.