Musashi Wins! said:
You guys who have the game have to be clearer about what you actually do!
The easiest way to describe it to people who are familiar with video games is basically a small-scale Tycoon game in a more colorful setting. It's all about resource management in the end, and the Pinatas are not really pets or something you are going to interact or emotionally bond with, but simply more resources.
You play a cursor, in sort of standard "God-Game" mode, and basically try to fill off check-lists of new Pinatas to continue progression. Each Pinata will have an unknown, but primary list of circumstances that it needs fullfilled before appearing in the garden (for example, finding a large enough patch of grass), a secondary list of requirements to stay a resident (for example, eating two specimens of a given species of Pinata or plant), and then a final list of requirements that are needed in order to mate (two specimens required) and produce offspring, which can hopefully be sacrified to predators without ruining the "production capacity," basically.
There's a few other randomizing "natural disaster"-style elements such as Pinatas fighting amongst themselves for non-predatory reasons and such, as well as a plethora of shops and exchange-points for items-to-currency, but at heart, that's the basic gyst of the game.
Pinata's a new coat of paint, but a very old and trodden game idea for PC veterans. That's certainly not saying it's necessarily bad, it's just saying that I think messaging for this game's marketing has more or less completely confused what this game actually is, or who it's intended for.
Like I said before, I have a hard time believing that little children will actually be able to sit through the instructions. If it's trying to be Animal Crossing, it's horribly failed. But I do think this game has a chance of finding some kind of an audience amongst a different crowd if they could simply narrow down exactly what it is they are trying to accomplish.
At the very least, I'm looking forward to playing more and seeing if it can develop itself.