I've been on Figment for about 24 hours now, and it does still feel very incomplete, but it's for sure the foundation of something wonderful. It's already a delight to play around with, limited as it may be.
Most obviously, the art is absolutely gorgeous, and I love the whimsical, mystical aesthetic. I look at that globe and daydream about the cool vistas we're going to see for the different areas someday. The ability to buy completely unique custom-painted pets is super cool--even though I might never be able to get one myself, just seeing other people's custom pets adds a lot more excitement and dynamism to the site as a whole, so I love that it's an option. And I really, really love that the site is trying to center inclusiveness--having mobility aids among the first couple hundred items created already, an androgynous body type option instead of only male and female bases, a skin tone range with a darker option than some similar sites offer (though it could still stand to have a little more variation in brown skin tones--which I mentioned to the artists and they were receptive to) and items that don't feel like they're all designed to coordinate with light skins. The main two features right now are dressup and exploring. Dressup is really fun to play with, and it's currently pretty easy to collect enough money to get a few different outfits' worth of items. I really love that you can completely customize how avatar items are layered, and there doesn't seem to be any limit on how many you can equip at once (even better, there are no "slots" that limit you to only one item per body part), so it's incredibly versatile. Between those mechanics and the current ease of buying items, it's very easy to quickly make a lot of different looks. And I really just adore the design and aesthetics of the items offered! They range from lolita to flannel to draconic armor, and there are both whole-outfit ensembles (sold as very modular, remixable separate items, which is something I really appreciate compared to a site like Gaia Online) and standalone pieces. As for exploring, the mechanic is kind of boring (keep clicking a button hoping the RNG gives you stuff until you run out of "steps") but the snippets of writing in it are charming and set a great atmosphere. I do like it being so simple and quick though, it's something you can keep coming back to for just a few moments in between IRL tasks, and the steps mechanic helps me to not get sucked in forever--exploring is a good little relaxing activity to keep open in a spare tab to make you smile when you take a break from working on stuff. This is one of the ways that Figment feels to me like it's designed with self-care and gentleness in mind. Altogether the biggest thing I love about it is just, it really does capture that sense of magic that sites like Neopets seemed to have back when I was a kid. It makes Figment feel like a triumph against sites like Neopets and Gaia Online becoming corporate-owned and sterile and money-grubbing.
What stands out to me the most about Figment is the dev team, how active and passionate and engaged they are, and what pleasant people. Many of the devs are very active in the Discord server, readily available to answer questions and handle the inevitable problems, and just being a lively and fun part of the community. As an example, tonight I saw a user say a pet was accidentally deleted and within 15 minutes a mod responded with how they would restore it (not to promise it's always so efficient, but I was impressed, and it's evidence that the team is really actively engaged and paying attention). I saw one of the mods last night putting tons of time and dedication into handling the increased workload from all these new signups, sending out activation codes late into the night. All their energy--and the big number of them who have that energy--gives me confidence that this site isn't going to be a flash in the pan, that the team really cherishes it and has the dedication to see it grow, and that they are genuinely concerned with community feedback and creating the best possible experience for the players. I've been around in the beginning days of an avatar site before, and although that site is still going strong, it did not have the level of passion from the devs or the community that Figment does. They also have stated that the team takes the issue of crunch/burnout seriously and they prioritize the devs' wellness, which for one is just an attitude that I really admire, plus the slow-and-steady approach gives me more faith in the longevity of the project.
To address the elephant in the room: no, I don't believe that this game in its current state is worth $5. It's not even necessarily supposed to be, because it's not ready to market to everybody yet. By paying for early access (if you were to buy an alpha account key separately and not as part of the bundle) you would be giving them the money they need in order to expand the server to allow that growth to happen. And unless I'm mistaken, registration will be free once the game becomes stable and shifts out of alpha. So no, I would not have paid $5 for access to this game if it weren't part of the bundle, but I would absolutely have eagerly waited for the day when it becomes free to join. And to the complaint someone raised about having to make extra purchases in order to play--you can buy custom artwork and extra pets, basically, but that doesn't change the actual playability in any way. You can still adopt pets and dress up, they just won't be as sparkly and colorful as the custom designs showcased here. And the price for custom designs is quite fair given that each purchase literally pays for the labor of that design being created. I find that these paid bonuses are very unobtrusive and the site never pushes them on you at all, which is quite a relief. Though if you're someone prone to envy, then I guess you might find it stressful to see other people's beautiful custom pets when you can't afford one yourself.
To the potential player: You should know that the images and features on this page do reflect premium content (bought separately or won in events). As a basic user you can adopt two pets; there are several different breeds of dog and cat, which each come in a few different colors, but all starter pets have realistic fur colors instead of the rainbow colors seen here. Breeding is, I think, exclusively a premium feature. Otherwise, all other features and gameplay elements are available to new players without any extra cost. Most of the outfits shown under "Dress Up Your Avatar" are in fact not premium and can be purchased with the fictional currency of Feathers (afaik the four avatars in the middle are Feather shop outfits, and the sheep one on the left has a colorswap in the Feather shop). In my opinion, the Feather shop contains dressup items every bit as exciting and gorgeous as the premium Patreon items, so you're not missing out on anything huge. There's even a wide variety of wings available in the Feather shop, not even at a particularly high price!
The things you can do on the site currently are:
-create two pets and feed them to maintain a hunger stat; set one as active to see it in the sidebar as you browse the site
-"explore", which means clicking a button for a chance to see random flavor text about the environment and maybe receive Feathers (it's admittedly very repetitive and not super exciting but supposed to be replaced with a new mechanic soon)
-buy items and dress up your avatar and your pets; human avatar store currently contains about 400 items (including color variations in that count, probably more like ~100 distinct kinds of item)
-trade items/pets with other users
-post in the forums (though there is currently more conversation and community on the Discord server than on the site forum)
-there are not any minigames yet.
Also, you should probably be aware that since it's in alpha, some features might disappear (like maybe forum posts could be lost?), and when the game progresses to beta you will lose your Feathers and Feather-bought items. Mods have stated though that any items players paid real-world money for (so, the special mermaid items and creature from this page) will be safe and will not be removed, and you will keep your pets too.
And a little bit of advice: choose your starter avatar carefully because, so far, there's no other way to acquire the starter items and they can't be traded. Also once you're done making your account you CAN change the layering of clothing items. (this is the whining of a fool who loved the starter tunic but didn't pick it because I thought it would be stuck in the bad layering from the preview)
To the lovely devs: I love this game and I love the work you're doing, but I do have to concede, this itch.io page isn't very transparent about which features are free vs premium and which features are implemented yet or not. I think it would serve you well to make separate sections in this game page for the current features vs the planned features so that people can better understand what they're getting, especially people who might be considering buying this outside of the bundle and would have more grounds to be concerned about getting what they thought they paid for. Though I did end up loving Figment, I was initially disappointed too and even felt like I'd been a little misled when I realized that breeding and brightly colored pets shown on this page need to be bought or won. Imo this page should showcase not just the best of Figment's content, but also show the starter pets and the things that new users can immediately expect. I'm also among those who would love if there were a development roadmap posted or more transparency about which aspects you're working on in what order, but I know yalls are really busy and of course it's more important to work on the actual game instead of this meta stuff! (And I know you don't have solid timelines because you're not like, a full time studio, but just knowing generally 'first we're gonna work on x then work on y' etc would be cool.) Keep rocking on and building this beautiful adventure, and thank you for all your hard work!!
In summary: I would not necessarily recommend spending money to access this game yet, but I think it makes a great addition to the Bundle for Racial Justice (maybe even my favorite item from the bundle that I've tried so far!) and if you have access from the bundle then I would very highly recommend joining and giving it a try! Or I recommend joining the Discord to get a feel for the community and the content to decide whether it feels worth money to you.
Pros: Great art and item designs and world/lore design, super flexible dressup system, great community and dev team, relaxing and inclusive atmosphere, really good ideas for future plans. Super cool and unique options for those who are willing to spend real money on in-game content. I joined 24 hours ago and haven't stopped feeling giddy about it since.
Cons: Not much content besides dressup yet, some features aren't fully fleshed out (e.g. still grumpy I can't get the other starter clothes lmao), can be laggy or unstable at times, a lot of what you do in this alpha phase will be deleted when the beta comes, pets look rather mundane (but still cute!) unless you buy custom designs.