I put a tiny zoo on my desktop — 8 free desk pets, each with its own focus timer

DeskZoo — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 06:59:43 +0000

I got tired of pomodoro timers that feel like spreadsheets, so I built DeskZoo: a tiny zoo that lives in the corner of your Windows desktop.

8 animals. One shared core — a 25-minute focus timer ("snack timer"), a flag-waving break reminder, personality voice lines, idle animations — and one signature trick each:

🍊 Capybara · Calm Master — orange timer + stoic one-liners. Nothing rattles it.
🐱 Cat · The Aloof Overlord — pet it 10 times, 6 times it just flicks its tail: "I heard you." "Dismissed." Affection, strictly rationed.
🦊 Fox · Mood Thief — every launch, it steals one bad mood from you: "Got it! Stole your anxiety."
🦔 Hedgehog · Night-Study Buddy — after 9 PM it curls into a ball and keeps you company while you study.
🦦 Otter · Slacker Pro — rubs its lucky pebble. Idle? Rubbing. Focusing? Still rubbing. Oddly mesmerizing.
🐼 Panda · Professional Eater — munches bamboo all day. Watching it eat beats meditation.
🐰 Rabbit · Metronome Officer — taps a steady beat while you focus.
🐕 Shiba · Hype Dog — triple-jump celebration every time you finish a focus round.

Every focus timer is named after that pet's favorite food: yarn-ball timer, fish timer, apple timer, pebble timer, bamboo timer, carrot timer, bone timer, orange timer.

The design rule: desk pets usually die of "three days of novelty, then ignored forever". My fix: same useful core for all 8, but one signature behavior per pet — switching pets actually feels like adopting a new animal.

Free forever. Windows, unzip & run, no account, no internet needed. Pay what you want if you'd like to fund the next batch of animals (already sketching).

👉 Download: https://deskzoo.surge.sh/en/
🗂️ Also on IndieDB: https://www.indiedb.com/games/deskzoo

Which one would you adopt? I'm partial to the cat, even though it ignores me.

DEV Community: DeskZoo

I put a tiny zoo on my desktop — 8 free desk pets, each with its own focus timer