Deskmate — a little friend who lives on your desktop

It really lives there

It walks around your desktop

A transparent, always-on-top window with click-through, so it stands on top of whatever you are doing and never gets in the way. Eleven animals, and every one of them walks differently.

Everyone walks differently

Birds hop with their feet together, the pig waddles, the elephant lumbers. Four gaits, picked from the animal's own geometry.

Never quite still

Standing around it flicks an ear, swings its tail, shifts its weight, lifts a leg, looks away and back again.

Stretches, then yawns

It wakes from a nap with a stretch and a yawn, shakes itself off coming out of the house, and sneezes after digging.

Rolls, digs, chases its tail

Fifteen gestures layered on top of whatever it is already doing — so it can shake its head while sitting, or bow while walking.

Brings the ball back

Ten toys, each with its own physics. The paper plane glides, the balloon floats up, the yarn ball rolls forever. It will catch things mid-air.

Rub it and it laughs

Press the cursor onto it and scrub quickly — that is tickling. Wave near it instead and it will pounce.

It has its own day

Sleepy in the afternoon, ready for bed late at night, and if it falls deeply asleep it dreams.

And it remembers you

Double-click to talk. It knows what it owns, where it has been and what day it is — and each animal talks in its own way.

The best part

It goes out on its own — and mails you a postcard

One hundred real cities. It picks one itself, runs off the edge of your screen, and while it is away you can watch it fly a real great-circle route on the tablet in its room.

1
Give it a bowl of water
That is the only condition. A thirsty pet stays home.
2
It picks a place and leaves
A big heart floats up, and it runs off the side of the screen.
3
A postcard arrives
It flies in from off-screen, drops into the mailbox, and the little flag springs up.
4
It comes home with something
A souvenir, or something it ate out there. One trip a day, and a full day of rest after.

108 hand-painted postcards, one per city

100real cities
108painted postcards
6–39ha round trip, door to door

Double-click the little house

There is a room in there, and it is inside it

A small house sits in the corner of your screen. It walks back to it on its own, goes in, and climbs on the roof. Double-click it and you are inside — a drawn room, with the animal actually wandering around on the floor.

The cupboard — everything it has collected
The fridge — feed it, and see what it has tried
The book on the sofa — a real album you page through
The tablet — a world map showing where it is right now
The flower frame — how long you two have been together

No UI floating on top of the room. Every way in is something drawn in the picture.

The room inside the house — The album opens on a hand-drawn sea chart with every place it has been

No levels, no streaks, no progress bars

It earns its things itself

Six things to start with — one lit square in every drawer, so nothing looks broken. Everything else it brings home one trip at a time. Nothing ever expires and nothing is ever due.

71things to unlock

2 × 50catalogue slots

37hats, glasses, scarves

10toys

Sell a duplicate souvenir for a coin, and a new companion can move in. Eleven animals — up to three on the desk at once.

Deskmate 同桌的你