Pixel Pals developer implemented games in iOS 17 widgets

Developer Christian Selig has released an updated version of his playful Pixel Pals app that makes heavy use of new iOS features like Live Activities, Dynamic Island, and interactive widgets. The app, which originally came from a feature of his former Reddit client Apollo, features cute virtual pets that run around a dynamic island, a black bar at the top of the iPhone screen.

Unfortunately, Selig was forced to shut down Apollo earlier this year after changes to Reddit’s API policy made it unviable. But since then, he’s been working on a new version of Pixel Pals, 2.0, which offers not only full-featured interaction with virtual pets, but also a number of additional features, including interactive widgets that allow you to play mini-games on the home screen, including the fully interactive PixelQuest, 2048, and Eternal Scroll.

Other widgets include a spinner that can be spun, a mechanical keyboard, and more.

These widgets are essentially little distractions that you can spend time on when you’re bored, instead of mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or Facebook, for example. They’re unnecessary and don’t carry much meaning, but that’s what makes them fun. Clearly, the developer enjoyed exploring the possibilities of iOS 17’s interactive widgets and wanted to see how far he could take it.

Finally submitted Pals 2.0 for review! 🎉 As the smallest hint of the fun to come, here is one of the many little iOS 17 interactive widgets I added

I call it Widget Spinner, and it’s very addictive 😛 pic.twitter.com/JU5X3rNI4G

— Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) September 21, 2023

In the original version of the Pixel Pals app, you could feed and play with your virtual pets, designed in a nostalgic pixel-art style. A dog and cat came with the app for free, but to unlock other pets and new features, you had to pay for a Pixel Pals Premium subscription ($1.99/month or $14.99/year).

With the Pixel Pals 2.0 update, virtual pets become a kind of social network: users will be able to add friends, see their Pixel Pals on the iPhone or iPad home screen, and even participate in battles. Pixel Pals can also run across the lock screen via Live Activities – active widgets that appear when the phone is locked – or appear as widgets when the phone is lying on its side in iOS 17’s new StandBy mode.

As you interact with your friends and increase their affection for you, they’ll be able to transform into “morphs,” or new shapes. You can also do different things with your pets, such as taking them on hikes or to the farm and growing food for them.

In the new Pixel Pals update, to get PixelQuest working as a full iOS 17 home screen game, I had to code in actual procedural chunk loading for the map because loading the full massive map was crashing 💀 Plus there’s full boundary detection haha pic.twitter.com/yMyQ9qZZC9

— Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) September 21, 2023

In addition to the game widgets, the app has a standard photo widget and a transparent widget.

The app is still available as a free download and in-app purchase to go full-fledged on iPhone and iPad.