VS Code Pets

Puts a small, bored cat, an enthusiastic dog, a feisty snake, a rubber duck, or Clippy 📎 in your code editor to boost productivity.

Installation

Install this extension from the VS Code marketplace.

OR

With VS Code open, search for vscode-pets in the extension panel (Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows/Linux or Cmd(⌘)+Shift+X on MacOS) and click install.

OR

With VS Code open, launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P on Windows/Linux or Cmd(⌘)+P on MacOS), paste the following command, and press enter.

ext install tonybaloney.vscode-pets

Using VS Code Pets

Congrats on installing joy! Enjoy interacting with these cute pixelated pets. Read below to get a full understanding of this extension. Not convinced? Watch our extension spotlight on Visual Studio Code.

Available commands are prefaced with Pet Coding in the Command Palette:

• Start pet coding session
• Spawn extra pet
• Throw ball
• Roll-call
• Remove pet
• Remove all pets

Configure vscode-pets in the VS Code settings

Open the setting panel with Ctrl+, on Windows/Linux or Cmd(⌘)+, on MacOS. In the search bar, enter “vscode-pets” to see all available options.

Set a default color, size, pet type, position, and theme when you open a Pet Panel.

• Pet Color: black, brown, green, yellow, gray, red, white
• Pet Size: nano, medium, large
• Pet Type: cat, crab, clippy, cockatiel, dog, rocky, rubber duck, snake, totoro, zappy
• Position: panel, explorer
• Theme: none, forest, castle, beach

Restrictions

• Snake can only be green
• Rubber duck & Zappy can only be yellow
• Ferris the crab can only be red
• Rocky can only be gray

Start pet coding session to show your pet

Open the command palette with Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux or Cmd(⌘)+Shift+P on MacOS.

Run the "Start pet coding session" command (vscode-pets.start)

Playing

Pets will interact with your mouse pointer within the open Pet Panel. Additionally, pets will display text bubbles as you move your mouse over the pet.

Adding extra pets

Run the "Spawn additional pet" command (vscode-pets.spawn-pet) and select the pet type and color.

Extra pets will not persist between closing and restarting VS Code.

Throwing a ball

Play catch with your pet! Run the "Throw ball" command (vscode-pets.throw-ball).

• Rocky will not run & catch a ball. Have you ever seen a rock run after a ball? Neither have we.

Roll-call with your pets

Get a description of your current pets within VS Code. Run the "Roll-call" command (vscode-pets.roll-call) from the command palette.

Removing a single pet or multiple pets

You can remove all pets (except the 1 configured) by running the "Remove all pets" command (vscode-pets.delete-pets) from the command palette.

You can remove specific pets by running the "Remove pet" command (vscode-pets.delete-pet) from the command palette.

Themes

Configure vscode-pets.theme to "forest" and let your pets play in a spooky forest.

Set vscode-pets.theme to "castle" for them to roam the ramparts!

Set vscode-pets.theme to "beach" for your friends to play by the ocean.

Contributing

Ideas and discussion

Have an awesome idea for a new feature? Please open an issue describing your idea! You can also help by reviewing some of the existing ideas and leaving your opinion.

Reporting bugs

Something is not working as it should? Please open an issue giving as much information as you can. Writing an effective bug report is a valuable skill as a Software Engineer, refer to the given example below for advice.

Title - Clearly summarize what the bug is with specific details.
Summary - If the title is too long, include a summary with additional details.
Visual/Screenshot - A picture is always worth the time. Include one if possible.
Expected/Actual Results - Explain what you expected to happen and what actually happened.
Steps to Reproduce - The steps to follow should be comprehensive, easy to understand, and short. We want to experience the bug first-hand.
Environment - Share the current version information by copying from Help and clicking About.

Version: 1.72.0  
Commit: 64bbfbf67ada9953918d72e1df2f4d8e537d340e  
Date: 2022-10-04T23:20:47.539Z
Electron: 19.0.17
Chromium: 102.0.5005.167
Node.js: 16.14.2
V8: 10.2.154.15-electron.0
OS: Linux x64 5.19.12-200.fc36.x86_64
Sandboxed: No

Write code

Want to contribute to vscode-pets? Feel free to fork the repository and submit a pull request.

Drawing and Animations

If you want to contribute improvements to the animations, additional pet colors or even new pets, clone the repository and work in the media/ folder.

Most drawings are done in aseprite because you can edit GIFs directly. However, you are free to use any tool to make the animations. Animations should be 8 frames per second. The style of the extension is to have pixelated creatures (although not limited to an 8-bit color canvas).

Don't worry if you don't have enough coding experience to add the changes to the extension to support the new animations, we can help you with that.

The minimum set of behaviors is:

• standing
• walking
• running/chasing
• holding green ball

Testing the changes

• Run npm install.
• Run npm run compile.
• Go to the debug panel on the sidebar and launch the development version with the extension loaded (first option in the debug profiles).
• Refer to VS Code Extension Documentation for additional resources.

Credits

The cat and dog media assets for this extension were licensed from itch.io.

Marc Duiker created the Clippy, Rocky, Zappy, rubber duck, snake, cockatiel, and Ferris the crab media assets.

Karen Rustad Tölva designed the original concept of Ferris the crab.

Thank you

Thanks to all the contributors to this project:

• @marcduiker
• @Vicente015
• @Yukaii
• @robconery
• @JING1201
• @aclaughan
• @Tarang74
• @Harry-Hopkinson