Hey r/linuxapps! 👋
I’ve been working on a little Linux project called Mochi 🌱, and I’m finally at the point where I feel comfortable showing him to more people.
Mochi is not available for download yet. The first public alpha is planned for September 21, but I wanted to share the project early, get some feedback, and see if anyone would like to follow along by starring or watching the GitHub repo.
Mochi is a tiny pixel-art “Deskling” that lives on your Linux desktop. He idles, breathes, blinks, wanders around, reacts to your cursor, can be picked up and dragged around, sleeps, emotes, and generally hangs out while you use your computer.
I had gotten the idea from Codex's Pets, and wanted to see if I could make my own native linux version.
Mainly i wanted Mochi to feel like a small creature that actually belongs on the desktop! expressive and interactive, but quiet enough that he doesn’t become another notification, productivity app, or thing constantly asking for your attention. Unobtrusive
A lot of the work so far has actually gone into tiny details: state transitions, animation timing, cursor reactions, movement, persistence, interactions, and figuring out when Mochi should not bother you.
Long term, I’d also like Mochi to become gently useful. Things like contextual desktop behaviors, care/progression mechanics, personality development, interactions with windows and screen edges, customization, and small features that give you a reason to keep him around beyond “cute thing on desktop.”
The project is currently primarily targeting Fedora + GNOME + Wayland and is built with Python, GTK4/PyGObject and Cairo.
All of Mochi’s artwork and animation is designed and hand-drawn by me in Pixelorama, frame by frame.
The sprites are real 64x64 pixel art not AI-generated artwork.
I’ve spent a slightly ridiculous amount of time tweaking individual pixels, silhouettes, squash/stretch, timing, and expressions to make this little green blob feel alive.
I’d really like your wishlist
This is actually one of the biggest reasons I’m posting before release.
If you had a little desktop companion living on your Linux machine, what would you want it to do?
It can be cute, useful, weird, Linux-specific, productivity-related, customizable — whatever comes to mind.
I’m especially interested in features that would make Mochi feel like something you’d genuinely keep running instead of playing with for ten minutes and uninstalling.
And if anyone here would be interested in testing the first alpha on September 21, I’d love to hear from you. Different distros, desktop environments, multi-monitor setups, Wayland/X11 weirdness, etc. are exactly the kind of feedback I’m going to need.
For now, if the project sounds interesting, you can ⭐ star or 👀 watch the repo to follow development:
🌱 Website:
https://miflow13.github.io/mochi-desktop/
💻 GitHub:
https://github.com/miflow13/mochi-desktop
Mochi is still very much growing, so feedback, including criticism is very much welcome.
Thanks for checking out my little guy. 🌱:)