Babyz

Babyz is a computer game in which one can play with and take care of a group of babies who live in a virtual house on the computer. The game was released in 1999 by The Learning Company and developed by PF.Magic.

Gameplay
Babyz runs on top of the Petz 3 game engine, adding additional AI and voice recognition. Players can teach their Babyz how to talk, how to play with objects, and how to walk. Babyz can form relationships with other babyz that can result in sibling rivalries or friendships. At release, there were 15 babyz the players could adopt and care for, as well as various toys that babyz could interact with. There are different rooms to explore and numerous clothing items. Babyz reused some of the Petz toyz and had a similar home setting for its play scenes.

Third-party content
A Babyz Community launched on the official site, which has since been shut down. The website offered adoptions and discussions. It was discovered that one could hex edit the babyz to introduce new features, called "hexies" or "hexed babyz". These were available on fan websites alongside other custom content.

Babyz was originally made for the Windows 95/98 Platform, but with the creation of a patch by Nicholas Sherlock, the game can be played on modern Windows. Sherlock's patch, called "Petz A" as it was intended for both Petz and Babyz, made the game run much smoother, with the ability to control many aspects of the game that users originally could not.

Related titles

 * Petz
 * Oddballz

Papers

 * Creating Emotional Relationships with Virtual Characters
 * Virtual Babyz: Believable Agents with Narrative Intelligence
 * New York Times discussion