Pou (game)

For the main character, see 
Pou is a virtual pet app developed by Zakeh and released for Android and BlackBerry on August 5, 2012 and later on iTunes on March 13, 2014. It soon became viral and was rated 4.3 stars by the players. The game had over 500 million downloads since 2019.
== About the game ==
*Last updated - See Game versions
*Price - Free (Android, i0S from July 23-24, 2014https://www.facebook.com/mypou), $1.99 (iOS)
*Downloads - 500,000,000+
*Ratings - 4.3 stars (Android and iOS)
*Download links (official) - Play Store, App Store
==History==
Pou was created by Lebanese game designer Paul Salameh, the founder and owner of the company Zakeh. He came up with the idea after his previous game, Persian Maze, failed to attract many players. A friend suggested that he should make a game about a cat, but Salameh decided to make it an alien instead. He experimented with different shapes for the alien, such as a circle, a pear, and even a potato. He named the game Pou, which is his own nickname in real life, and he also provided the voice for the alien character. The game was developed from April 1 to September 29, 2011, and actual production began on May 2012. The game was finally released for and on August 5, 2012, and later on on March 13, 2014.
The game became a huge success, reaching over 100 million downloads by December 2013. It was compared to , a popular virtual pet game from the 1990s, but Salameh said that Pou was not really inspired by it.https://www.wamda.com/2013/05/the-24-year-old-lebanese-entrepreneur-behind-pou-top-mobile-kids-game He said that Pou was a different concept and that there were many kinds of creatures in the game. The game also spawned merchandise such as toys and clothing.
In December 4, 2019, the game was temporarily removed from the app stores for a small update. Many fans panicked and thought that the game was delisted forever, but it was just a temporary glitch. The game was restored shortly after.
A freelance artist named OesKy became an employee of Zakeh from 2022 to 2024. She has made changes to the game's graphics and design.
==Gameplay==
The player takes care of a rounded triangle alien (commonly mistaken for a Poo) called Pou, who is colored brown when the player starts playing the game for the first time. Much like many virtual pets, Pou needs to be fed, cleaned, and put to bed. The player can earn in-game coins by playing minigames. Coins can also be used to buy more food, potions, and outfits.
The player's Pou has four status bars: the hunger bar, the health (or vitality) bar, the happiness bar and the sleep bar. These affect the gameplay.
===Hunger===
Pou is fed by dragging the various foods to it's mouth. Certain foods affect Pou's other stats too. On some occasions, especially when fed the same food over and over again, it will refuse to eat the food and make a "no" sound. Pou's hunger increases over time. This will drain the health bar. Pou's hungry when the hunger status is less than 30%. When Pou gets hungry, his eyes water. His eyes return to normal when eating and raising his hunger bar above 30%.
===Dirt===
Pou gets dirty over time. It also defecates, though it only does so in the bathroom, so the feces (poop) can only be seen when the player goes to the bathroom. Pou can be cleaned by being rubbed with the soap and washed off. Pou can also be cleaned by holding the rain cloud over it instead of over the flowers, though this method is unreliable because it gives only half the coins than when done in the bathroom. The feces can be cleaned by simply tapping on it.
===Vitality===
Pou's vitality is drained over time. The rate at it is draining is increased if the food or sleep meter is at 0%.The potions that are used to maintain Pou's health are quite expensive and should be used sparingly. When it drops below 30%, Pou will have heavy eyes and a fever, with a thermometer appearing at his side.
==Features==
===Multiplayer support===
Pou allows the user to make their own profile by typing in their email address and password. Pou's name can now be changed, and now can be searchable online (inside the game only). A player can "visit" another player's house by typing in a username or email address to access that. You can go inside that player's house, even when the owner of that Pou isn't playing the game. This support is the only method one can play Tic Tac Pou and Four Pous. You can play with another player's Pou in the playground too.
Pou also has local Wi-Fi or Bluetooth support, in a mode called Pou vs. Pou (PVP). You can play with up to four Pous (two in some games) on a selected variety of games. These games are Water Hop, Sky Hop, Pet Walk, and Beach Volley.
===Possibilities===
Pou simulates parenting as the baby and the player as the parent; it is quite realistic. The player can feed Pou, play with it, tuck it in to sleep, give Pou medicine, clean it, talk to it and dress it up.
===Achievements===
When reaching a certain goal in the game, you get achievements and a result you obtain coins and unlock scenes, outfits, wallpapers, and more.
==Additional game content==
===Upcoming content===
There will be upcoming content that is going to be added in future updates, read the page above at your own risk since it has spoilers!
===Unused content===
There have been concepts, hidden files and scrapped ideas of Pou that were never used in the game, the link above shows some examples of this type of content.
==Soundtrack==
== Sequel ==
An untitled sequel to Pou was confirmed to be in production by Paul Salameh in the official X (Twitter) page of the game.https://web.archive.org/web/20220321162054/https://twitter.com/paulsalameh/status/1505942323389243395 The game still does not have any footage or screenshots as of .
Many speculate the game to be in 3D, due to the latest images in the (then Twitter) and Facebook pages being in 3D. Additionally, on the end of every Pou update log, the following sentence appears: "Sorry for late updates, we're STILL working on something BIG! ^_^".
There were numerous unofficial attempts to create a "sequel" to the game, that can be viewed here.
==Trivia==
*The production of the game began in May 2012 and took three months.https://www.crp.com.pe/en/noticia/hardly-recommendable-dependence-on-virtual-pets/
*There is an unofficial Windows 10 port of Pou called Mou. This version noticeably lacks many features.
*This game is immensely popular in Latin American countries.
*The game was unexpectedly removed from Google Play in early December 2019. Despite rumors that the game has been finally cancelled, the game was brought back because Paul Salameh simply updated the game.
*The game comes in 22 languages: English, Arabic, Catalan, Mandarin Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian and Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.
*A unique feature in this game is that the player can change the color palettes of some of the minigames. This was made to help colorblind players distinguish Pous colors in games that require matching colors (such as Connect, Color Match, and Pou Popper).
*The maximum level for the game is 270.
*The font used in the logo and the in-game text is called "Pou" in the game files. However, the real name of the font is actually called "Cookies" and can be found here.
*In some older versions of the game dating back to 2012, the font used was the one used in the 1967 Beatles album . ("Magical" as titled in the game files).https://www.dafont.com/magical-mystery-tour.font
==External links==
*Official website
*YouTube channel
*Facebook page
*Instagram page
*Twitter page
*Zazzle
*Google Play
*App Store
==Gallery==
Main article: Pou (game)/gallery.
==Trailers==
File:POU - Trailer HD (download game app for Android & Iphone)|2014
File:Pou- Your Favorite Pet Alien!|2016
==References==
de:Pou (App)
pt-br:Pou (App)
Category:Pou
Category:Games