Gaming & entertainmentOriginal Reddit post

DeskNeko is a pixel cat that lives on your Mac Desktop

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Problem I spend 8+ hours a day on my Mac and wanted something on my desktop that actually made me smile once in a while. Not another widget, not another productivity tool, just something with a bit of life to it. Turns out I wanted something cute and gimmicky, like a Tamagotchi or a Sim, that I could look after and have constantly there. Comparison The closest app I think of in this area is Dockitty, but it's a bit different in terms fo concept. Dockitty is a cat that lives in your dock and eats files you drag onto it. Fun, but different. DeskNeko is more like a tiny Sim that lives on your desktop. Your cat has actual wants and needs. It gets hungry, bored, tired. You click it to check in, feed it, play with it, put it to sleep. Leave it alone too long and it'll let you know about it. You can customize how it looks by changing the color of its fur and name it. It's not trying to be useful. It just lives on your screen and has a personality. There's not much more to it. DeskNeko also has a "self care" mode, so if you'd rather your cat just "exist" and look after itself, then that is an option :) Built in SwiftUI. Pricing £2.99 one-time on the Mac App Store. No subscription, no upsell, no in app purchases. Let me know what you think! Thanks! *Reposted to adhere to community PCP standards

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u/Bulky-Violinist7187

Dockitty's dev here, welcome to the cat-business!

u/eaeaea0ooo

This is tuff. You should've done a penguin so its kind of like the club penguin nostalgia but cat is chill

u/MeowDevOPReply

Heh that's a good idea. I was thinking about adding different animals! Potentially in the future =3

u/ggbond1979

It's so cute, but I still think it would be even better if it had some dialogue or reminder features.

u/MeowDevOPReply

I did consider a reminder feature, but I didn't want to turn it into yet another productivity or tasks app, do you know what I mean? 😹 But since you bring it up, maybe it'd be a good thing to add!

u/ggbond1979Reply

Just follow your design philosophy; I was only sharing my thoughts.

u/MeowDevOPReply

Hey! If people liked the cat, I'd for sure add more. Someone below asked for a penguin 🐧

u/wassago

The self-care mode is a good touch for people who like the presence without the maintenance loop. Does it drain noticeable resources when it’s idle in the background, or is it basically invisible until interacted with?

u/MeowDevOPReply

The cat is always on top of all windows, and resource use is minimal. Self care I also really like. Whilst I wanted a little pixel cat on my screen because it was cute, it would get overly sad when I was working so I added that feature haha!

u/bogdallica

Would be fun if it required you to do a task for it to get fed, so you do your work or bye bye kitty

u/Nate_Here

We need to have more mac apps that are just fun. Good job!

u/Simple-Welcome-1415

haha I was just thinking about tamagotchis the other day, well done this looks awesome!