MilobGotchi: Computer Companion
Designer & Developer
Valentines Day 2026
Mac & Windows Widget
introduction
I really like my partner and wanted to put him in my pocket and take him with me on my adventures, and maybe sometimes feed him the occasional cheese.
the problem !
I miss my partner! A lot.
I am a long distance yearner!
Long distance or online relationships come with cravings of
companionship
missing your partner,
& a whole bunch of yearning.
"But Daisy, why don't you guys just call or text? "
Because this is more fun.
context
I was in a creative mood and wanted to make something cool for my partner to celebrate our first in-Person Valentine's Day together- so I created the MilobGotchi.
With us both being long distance and working- we are always looking for more fun and meaningful ways to interact.
The goal was never to replace communication but to created opportunities for small touchpoints throughout the day.
The MilobGotchi gives us a playful alternative to dm to dm communication, providing companionship, windows for interaction, and play.
designing for delight
the process of it all
designing, doodling, animating, developing and claude
Milobgotchi was built through rapid, playful design workflows that combined illustration, animation, ux design, and a iterations of AI- Assisted programming and human prototyping.
1. sketching on paper
Old reliable babyee!
I sketched initial designs and wireframes on pencil and paper. For sprite art I used graph paper (the original acoustic pixel canvas).
During this phase I designed:
initial interface layout
emotes
font styles
egg-casings
I had a ton of fun with it, threw away a bunch of paper, saves a bunch of other scraps, and really started to define the personality and behaviors I wanted to see from my widget.
animated
Asperite my love!!! I've been using Asperite for my pixel art- which I highly reccommend to anyone getting into pixel art, or pixel animation. I've used it for years now for various game dev projects and I highly reccommend it!
wireframed in figma
Once all my assets were created, i moved everything to Fimga.
After having made all my art and faithfully recreated my vision on a screen, I took my sprites and designs to figma for wireframing.
This is where I really translated and polished my interaction flow and layouts, and where I was able to:
translate sketches into structured layours
refine interaction flows
map user actions to Milob repsonses
finalize UI decisions
design and development & Claude
I took to claude with my wireframes.
AUGHH I KNOWWW!! AI! TERRIBLE!! AUGH!!!!
I was used Claude as a collaborative coding assistant to help with project implementation, code editing, and scaffolding which in turn allowed me to focus more on interaction logic, and design.
>:D
designing for play
game design, playful interaction, and -,`da future`,-
designing, doodling, animating, developing and claude
Milobgotchi was a small but incredibly personal and meaningful exploration into playful interaction design, one of my first times experimenting with Vibe Coding- and Design/AI workflows in creative projects.
To check our the project for yourself- check out updates on my github!
At the moment it hasnt been released to the public- but project updates are up on github for those curious to see :3.
da future!
daisy's design drabbles for da future
this was a ton of fun! I was able to successfully design this version for my self ad my partner for a 1:1 conection and messaging integration!
I do have a couple things I'd like to work towards in the future though!
diy milobs
at the moment, the milobgotchi I designed is incredibly personal, as it is modeled after my partner lol- but I do have plans to make it customizable! Id love to add a create milob feature where a user can create a mini version of theit partner- kind of like creating a mii on the DS lol.
two-way milobs
the lobs are 1 way only right now! At the moment its been a little tricky to develop for a silmultaneous lob interaction, by which I mean right now if you have partners A and B. B could create a lob of A and use th milobgotchi to send A messages, sun interactions, and have fun- but all A would have a view of is the response window- I'd love to make a way for both partners to be able to see each other's milobs and their respective interactions- or maybe even interactions between the lobs ha!
shell color personalization
the shell is set to my default at the moment, but I think it would be cool to have a shell canvas feature one day where a user can diy their own milobgotchi shell in a canvas or maybe even add clear png's on top as stickers! That would be so cute.