My Pet Dino

My Pet Dino is a real-world AR game where your steps hatch rare dinosaurs. Hunt for eggs, trade on a player-driven market, and build your ultimate high-stat roster before the PvP Arena opens!

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🦖 My Pet Dino

The ultimate AR dinosaur game and real-world GPS virtual pet simulator!

The real world is your Jurassic nursery. My Pet Dino transforms your neighborhood, local parks, and city streets into a living, breathing habitat for prehistoric creatures. Whether you are a casual creature collector or a dedicated dinosaur handler, a new species is always waiting to be discovered. But finding the egg is only the beginning—you have to incubate, hatch, and keep it alive!

Inspiration

The project began with a vision to modernize the beloved Tamagotchi game loop by merging it with the thrill of Augmented Reality (AR) and real-world exploration. Dinosaurs capture the imagination of every age group, providing a fun, educational, and universally loved theme for a location-based adventure. We wanted to get players off the couch and out into the world, transforming their daily walks into prehistoric safaris.

What it does

My Pet Dino is a location-based AR pet simulator that lets players discover, hatch, and trade virtual dinosaurs.

Real-World AR Hunting & GPS Radar: Using a map radar, players track down rare dinosaur eggs spawned globally near their location. By walking to real-world parks, zoos and aquariums and opening their AR camera, players can capture eggs.

Tamagotchi-Style Incubation: Captured eggs are sent to a personal digital Nursery. Players must log in daily to keep the egg warm, monitor health metrics, and manage the incubation timer. Neglected eggs will not survive!

Dynamic Rarity & Progression: Eggs hatch into unique species across five distinct rarity tiers:

  • Swift Tier – Agile and fast hatchlings.
  • Shield Tier – Sturdy, defensive species.
  • Titan Tier – Massive, powerful prehistoric giants.
  • Special Tier – Majestic flying species.
  • Apex Tier – Ultra-rare, legendary dinosaurs every collector dreams of owning.

The Global Amber Marketplace: Players can trade, buy, and sell hatched dinosaurs with collectors worldwide using "Amber." You can flip rare hatchlings for a profit, visit the store for guaranteed rare eggs, and build the ultimate prehistoric collection.

How we built it

We utilized a combination of geolocation tracking, mobile AR frameworks, and a robust backend database to handle the real-time spawning and global marketplace features.

To optimize database performance and keep queries lightning-fast during AR encounters, we designed a clever data inheritance model. A hatched dino dynamically inherits its visual background directly from the egg it came from; this background data isn't stored in the dino table at all, saving massive amounts of redundant storage as player collections grow.

Challenges we ran into

Architecture is always a focal point at the start of any build. With this in mind, we always find it necessary to reassess the build structure; this became especially evident when implementing RevenueCat to handle our in-game economy.

Integrating real-time marketplace transactions with live GPS data forced us to completely rethink our state management. We successfully re-engineered our data flow to ensure that when you flip a legendary Apex hatchling on the Amber Marketplace, the payout is instant, secure, and globally synced. We essentially built a prehistoric Wall Street that fits right in your pocket! Imagine walking past your local coffee shop, receiving a radar ping, and pulling a high-value Apex egg that you can instantly flip to a collector across the globe—the thrill of the hunt translates directly into a living, player-driven economy.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Seamless AR Integration: Creating a smooth, believable transition from the GPS map to the AR camera overlay where the eggs actually feel grounded in the player's real-world environment.

High-Stakes Tamagotchi Mechanics: Striking the perfect balance in the nursery where players feel genuinely attached (and a little pressured!) to keep their virtual eggs alive.

Unique Pet Customization: Ensuring that every hatched dinosaur feels 100% uniquely owned, complete with custom naming and individualized stat tracking.

What we learned

Building a hybrid AR/GPS application taught us the importance of battery optimization and streamlined UI. Players won't stay immersed if the game drains their phone. We also learned how crucial database structuring is when building a global marketplace where thousands of dynamic assets (eggs, dinos, and Amber) could be exchanging hands constantly.

What's next for My Pet Dino

The Jurassic era is just beginning! We are actively working on expanding the world with:

  • PvP Arena: We've already begun building an arena for users to pit their hatched dinosaurs against others in strategic challenges.
  • Upgraded Visuals: Integrating larger, higher-resolution pictures and richer AR models for maximum immersion.
  • More Dinosaurs: Expanding the fossil record with dozens of new legendary species to track, hatch, and trade.

Put on your walking shoes, open your radar, and begin your AR adventure today!

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