#utility game

There is a whole genre of utility idle games where there are creatures or something that hangs out on your desktop with you. I’ve always been mildly fascinated with these types of games because they remind me of the early 2000s where desktop pet programs were actually very common.

I even had a free one that could travel between friend desktops for a bit, but I couldn’t afford the microtransactions at the time, and I think my computer could barely run it. 

However, as an adult, I tend to avoid these programs like the plague, because they’re kind of terrible if you have ADHD. Yes, they’re cute in that they hang around at the bottom or corner of your desk, but these programs are also interactable. It is far too tempting to want to click on the program to collect things, or upgrade things, or whatever else the program rewards you with for keeping it running.

But for reasons unknown I decided to add the Birdwatching Notebook demo to the list of the things I would try. I supposed I did so because it seemed like the least intrusive one I’ve run across. The way it works is you get a little window where birds can visit you, dropping feathers that you can then sell to upgrade your window to attract more birds.

The program is this really adorable detailed pixel art, and has a neat effect in which birds will fly into the screen and off of the screen. I also appreciate that I can make this screen very, very small if I need to.

I’m not really sure if this is something I would get, it’s likely, despite the fact it exists to be on your desktop, that I might only run the program when I’m doing something that doesn’t require me to actually use my computer.

This is because if I was doing something physical, like physical writing, journal set up or reading, I wouldn’t be looking at my screen. As a result, I am less likely to get distracted by the screen, but could take advantage of the soft music that is playing.