Pokémon in your editor

A side project I shipped on a weekend just crossed 350 installs, and honestly? I'm grinning.

One Saturday in April, I went down a rabbit hole and landed on a spark of an idea: Pokémon living inside your VS Code editor. Stupidly simple. Stupidly charming. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

So I spent the weekend building on it, adding the pieces I always wished existed, polishing the rough edges, and turning it into something I'd genuinely want running on my own machine every day.

Here's what it feels like. You hit a shortcut. A Pokédex slides open. 565+ Pokémon from Gens 1–4 are sitting there, fully animated, waiting. You pick Psyduck. You name him Oscar. He shows up in your editor and starts wandering around like he owns the place. Feeling chaotic? Hit shuffle and let fate drop a random companion in. Want a whole party? Add five more. Don't vibe with one? Gone in a click.

The little details are what made it click for me. Flying Pokémon that actually soar and glide across your editor. Shiny variants with adjustable rarity, so the hunt feels real. Forest, Castle and Beach themes to set the mood. And companions that remember where they were between sessions, so they're there when you open your laptop in the morning. Quietly judging your code. Lovingly.

Almost two months in: 350+ installs, a first five-star review, zero marketing. Pure word of mouth.

The lesson? The internet still rewards small, joyful things. Build the stuff that makes you smile; it turns out a lot of other developers are quietly looking for the same kind of magic in their workflow.

Try it on the VS Code Marketplace. It has since passed 1,100 installs.

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An earlier version was posted on LinkedIn.