Chrome Critters

Get Ready to Hatch Egg
Egg Hatched
Critter Passed :(

Inspiration

We were heavily inspired by Digimon and Tamagotchi, as well as pomodoro timers for this project. We wanted to make something both fun and useful that we could learn something from the creation of.

What it does

Our Chrome extension is designed turn staying focused into a game! Hatch a friend to be your study companion, keep it healthy by staying on task. Set a timer to designate study time -- but beware: leaving the tab while focusing will have consequences!

How we built it

We built our Chrome extension using React and Vite to handle the front end, and relied on a few key Chrome APIs to bring the core functionality to life. The Chrome Alarms API powers the timer logic, while the Tabs API checks whether the user switches away during a focus session. To keep everything consistent, we used Chrome Storage to save local data, like your pet’s state and name, across sessions. All the sprites were designed in Asesprite by Dakota, giving the project a charming personal touch.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into some early problems when creating a repository and trying to use Vite to start the dev server. Additionally, during our coding we also had several merge conflict that stalled progress. The biggest bug we had involved figuring out how to automatically update the timer without needing to refresh the extension.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

It works! It's alive! We were also able to add a few of our "nice to have" features on-top of our MVP.

What we learned

We had to get comfortable with many technical aspects of this project, such as React, Chrome APIs, and Vite, quickly in order to finish it in time. Additionally, we learned about time management and how to effectively work together.

What's next for Chrome Critters

We hope to expand into adding more critters with more colors for you to collect! Track your critters-dex on www.chromecritters.garden and see who else you can collect! We also want to, harkening back to our digimon inspiration, have the critters evolve. We are thinking these evolutions would vary depending on a variety of factors like average focus length, etc. We also would like to expand the usability by allowing users to make "allowed tabs" that won't break focus, as well as other features that may increase the usability of the app. We had several "nice to have" features we would love to add as well, like a graveyard to see all your previous critters.