Girb is a tiny rabbit that roams your desktop screen. Interaction is limited to a cute drag and drop reaction. Girb will talk in a silly jargon language, lay down, and overall admire you.
This is meant to be something you can run while also working, so it's relatively small and unobtrusive.
* An open source version exists on github: https://github.com/alienmelon/GIRB.js
Agonized screams for your computer. Give your computer a voice by running this. It will cry for help, "why god why?", and voice its existential torment. This is for those that want to know what their computer is thinking.
* An open source version exists on github: https://github.com/alienmelon/JAAAaaaAAavascript
A cute ghost that haunts your desktop. It floats around, looking at things, and occasionally jumps out at you and tries to scare you. It's very serious about its scariness so you have to act scared. That's the polite thing to do.
The ghost will occasionally talk to you. It's meant to be sweet and kind of unobtrusive so you can run it while you do other stuff.
* An open source version exists on github: https://github.com/alienmelon/JUMP_SCARES_FOR_YOUR_WEBSITE
A mix between a desktop companion, and music player. It's like iTunes but the potato version. Once you open it, drag and drop your music files on it. It supports a variety of formats.
It will generate a playlist for you. You can listen to music on it.
The potato will interrupt the music with comments about your musical taste, enthusiasm about the song, and other remarks regarding what you are playing. A "Shhhhh" feature exists to shut the potato up so you can both enjoy the music.
Other basic functionality exists as well (like looping songs, and rearranging the list).
This is the sequel (extended version) of the original Electric Love Potato.
2.0 has many more features such as the ability to pet your potato, clean your potato, and comb your potato.
Your potato will create art of you (to show its appreciation for the friendship that you share with it). It will sing you songs, and give you ASCII art.
The potato is also a very vulnerable potato and might intermittently get attacked by things. A prompt opens up, warning you that your potato is being threatened. You can choose to save it, or let it succumb to the threat.
If you do nothing, then your potato will succumb to the threat and turn into a rock. After this you will have a pet desktop rock.
This is a feature rich application.
Frog Pets is one of my favorites. You are given three desktop frogs that roam your screen. They need love and care. They will occasionally voice their needs with deadpan computer voices, asking to bet pet, comforted, or fed.
If you do not take care of them, they will complain about it for a while, and then perish based on the neglect.
For example, if you do not comfort your frog after it's asked for it a bunch of times it will die of fear.
* An open source version exists on github here: https://github.com/alienmelon/frogpets.js
This is the original Electric Love Potato. An Electric Love Potato is a potato for your desktop. It takes up a bunch of screen real estate and is generally enthusiastic to have the opportunity to be your virtual friend. It will serenade you, give you potato recipes, and unload a steady stream of compliments.
Electric Love Potato can run while you are working or gaming. It is the ideal companion for its positivity.
A behind the scenes video interview with the original Electric Love Potato is available here:
A smaller open source version, for websites, exists here: https://github.com/alienmelon/electric_love_potato.js
This is an app that generates three desktop flies. The file is stinky and flies get attracted to it, if you open it.
The flies talk about the importance of hygiene, and the various bacteria that flies are known to carry.
You can close them, but it's as hard as swatting a fly.
* An open source version exists on github: https://github.com/alienmelon/stinky_js
This is the most extensive of my virtual pet projects. Cyberpet Graveyard is a collection of unwanted, unlovable, and unsuitable virtual pets that where abandoned and long forgotten. The company that made them erased them from history for a mysterious reason.
There is a story to it that you uncover by interacting with them and exploring all the folders that come with it. It's strongly about exploration and kind of like detective work. There's lots to see, about 40 exe's.
* An open source version, for websites, of one of the characters exists on github here: https://github.com/alienmelon/a-cute-bat.js
A_DESKTOP_LOVE_STORY is less of a virtual pet project, and more in line with virtual inhabitants for your desktop. It's a small love story that plays out entirely on your desktop, between two folders and their file occupants.
You pass about love notes to help their love become real. It's a very unconventional format for playing something, and I'm surprised it got made. It was very hard to build because of system restrictions, which is a wonderful problem to take on for a "forbidden love" story.
RUNONCE is a sweet little friend that you can only run once, and then never again. Downloading it again, or refreshing, or restarting... will not bring them back.
You doom them by running them. They are aware of this, but are touched by the opportunity to exist with you.
RUNONCE talks to you, mostly about existential things, life and death, and just coping with the awareness of death. You can talk back. It will generate art, and save little memories of your interactions to your desktop. Once it's gone, you have these little pieces of memory left.
This is a poetic piece about life, death, loss, coping, and love.
This is a small friend that walks on your screen, and starts sharing its anxieties with you. You have to balance being a good friend by comforting them, relating to them, while trying not to be invalidating to what they are going through. There is a "win" and "lose" state insofar that you can offend them by not "getting" what they are talking about. Then they walk off the screen offended. If you are a good friend, they will leave feeling better.
