WatchieBesti: A virtual pet on your Apple Watch that grows as you move

My daughter had a little pet app on her watch that she loved, then one day it stopped working. My wife asked if I could find another one, but I’d already tried most of them and none of them really fit. Some were too boring, some were too pushy, and a lot of them felt like habit trackers with a pet bolted on. I also didn’t want another app built around subscriptions, coins, gems, passes, and numerous drip-feeding tiny purchases after the kid is already attached. So I started prototyping one myself. I had a decent idea of what we wanted by then: something cute, supportive, fun to check in on, and tied to movement without turning activity into homework or guilt. At first it was small, just a pet on the watch with moods and some activity reactions. Then my daughter started giving feedback, beta testers had ideas, and it grew from there. That became WatchieBesti. The goal is still pretty much the original one: a cute Apple Watch virtual pet that responds to movement and gives us a small extra reason to be active, without being annoying about it and without nickel-and-diming them through IAP. Mostly I built it because my kid missed her watch pet, and I thought I could make one she would like better. Works for me (I take the stairs more often than the elevator!) and for her, let me know how you're enjoying WatchieBesti 😄