This DIY Tamagotchi Could Be Your Byte-Sized Bestie
Paul Lagier’s Raspberry Pi Pico 2 gadget eases remote work solitude by building bonds through interactive games and digital "care."
Working at a computer all day certainly has its advantages. This arrangement offers a lot of flexibility, and you never have to break a sweat. However, this convenience — especially when paired with remote work — often comes at the expense of lost social connections. While digital messaging and video calls can bridge the distance in some respects, they don’t give us the full experience of interacting with others in person.
In some cases, that’s just the nature of the job, so we have to deal with the situation as best we can. Paul Lagier thinks that while digital desk companions may not be the perfect solution, they can help all the same. For this reason, Lagier built a Tamagotchi-style desktop companion that acts like it’s alive. It won’t make you more productive or solve any problems, but it does offer everything it has, which is companionship.
The device was built around a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 development board. This is connected to a 1.28-inch round TFT LCD display that serves as the gadget’s face. A touch sensor and buzzer round out the user interface. A 1,000mAh battery and charging module supply power, and the hardware is all installed in a 3D-printed case.
The job of the user is to meet their digital companion’s basic needs, which are fun, interaction, and sleep. Playing minigames with the device brightens up its day and increases the amount of fun it has. When the battery gets low, the companion needs to be plugged in or it’s not going to be happy. And when the lights go out, the device goes to sleep. Neglecting any of these needs will change the digital companion’s mood for the worse.
However, if you take good care of the companion, it will slowly build a relationship with you. Quick sessions of taps will not form bonds — the software is coded to value consistency over time more. If you stick around for the long haul, the companion will even age subtly.
Everything runs entirely on-device, so there is no need for a Wi-Fi connection or cloud services that could compromise your privacy. If you want to learn more about how you could make your own desktop companion, be sure to give the video a watch.