Hi everyone, I'm Hyunjun, the solo developer behind Hamdori.
Honestly, I didn't expect Hamdori to get this much attention. Before launch I was mostly just worried, so all your support, kind comments, and seeing Hamdori in the Featured list and The Leaderboard newsletter meant more than I can say. Thanks to you, I think I'm going to love this little hamster even more.
Hi Product Hunt,
I'm a solo maker from Korea. Hamdori is a 3D golden hamster who lives in a small window in the corner of your screen.
I'm at my laptop most of the day and wanted something small and alive down there. Most desktop pets I found were pixel art, so I tried to make one that looks and moves more like a real hamster.
You can pet him with the cursor and he'll close his eyes. He nibbles seeds while you type and stops when you stop. If you walk away he digs into his bedding and falls asleep, then wakes up when you move the mouse.
There's also a 25-minute focus timer (he empties his cheeks on the break), a few toys, a small drawer for files, and a list of memory-heavy apps you're not using when memory gets low. He only closes an app after you pick it.
It doesn't ask for Accessibility, Screen Recording or Input Monitoring. On a Mac it only gets a count of key presses, and on Windows only the time of your last input, never which keys. There's no account, and it only goes online to check your license and when you press "Check for updates".
Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows. One-time purchase, $3.99 until the end of November and $4.99 after that.
Next I'd like to add more hamsters to pick from, like cream and black Syrians, a long-haired one, and maybe a little dwarf hamster.
This is the first app I've ever sold, so I'll be here replying all day.
Cute! I wish there was a trial option before paying!
@onur_dincer Thank you! No trial right now, sorry. But if you buy it and change your mind before entering the key in the app, just email me and I'll refund it.
I love hamsters. Overall, it looks like a Tamagotchi for businesspeople.
@maria_anosova Ha, I’ll take that! One difference: he never gets sick or sad if you’re away for a week. He just naps until you’re back 🐹
@mine__cayenne ❤️
Hamdori is just too cute — I love that he closes his eyes when you pet him and just naps while you're away. Which of his little habits is your favorite to watch while you work?
@ms_harita_kanuri Thank you! My favorite is watching him hold a seed in his tiny paws and nibble it open while I type. During a focus session, he stuffs whole seeds into his cheeks one by one, so they slowly puff up 🐹
Finally, a coworker who doesn't schedule meetings or ask for updates. Just eats seeds and takes naps lol
@jamieg Ha, best coworker ever! Though with Break Together on, he does tell me when it's time to rest 🐹
one detail I'm stuck on: no Accessibility, Screen Recording or Input Monitoring permissions, but he nibbles while you type and you mentioned a key-press count on Mac. what API gives you a key-press count without some form of input monitoring? genuinely curious, not doubting it, just haven't seen that combination before.
@galdayan Thanks for asking! On macOS I use CGEventSourceCounterForEventType(kCGEventSourceStateHIDSystemState, kCGEventKeyDown). It returns a count of key-down events, with no key codes, characters or app names. Hamdori checks it every 0.1 seconds, and when the count goes up, he nibbles.
The app never asks for Input Monitoring, and in my testing this call works without any permission prompt.
On Windows I use GetLastInputInfo, which only gives the time of the last input, not a key-press count.
This made me smile. A hamster who closes his eyes when you pet him is the kind of tiny joy a desktop needs 🐹 How light is he on CPU when idle?
@suleymankasikci Thank you, that's exactly the feeling I was going for 🐹
Honest numbers: when he's just sitting there, he uses about 1.7% of total CPU on my 8-core M1 Pro (Activity Monitor shows it as ~13%, since it counts per core), and about 3% on my Windows test laptop (Ryzen 5 4500U). He's a real 3D model being drawn the whole time, so it isn't zero, and I'm still looking for ways to bring it down.