VPet: Pixel Art Companions for IntelliJ

VPet is a delightful IntelliJ IDEA plugin that brings cute pixel art companions to your coding environment. These animated companions live in your IDE's status bar, react to your development activities, and add a touch of joy to your coding sessions.

Features

• 🐱 Adorable pixel art companions animated in your status bar
• 🎮 Interactive pet responds to clicks
• 🎮 Game Mode - cmd + click on the pet to enter an interactive platformer game with collectible coins
• 🖥️ Inline pet appears inside the editor and uses your code as the level during game mode(even modify it while playing!)
• 💻 Reacts to build and execution events
• 🎉 Displays different animations based on success or failure
• 🚀 Lightweight with minimal impact on IDE performance

Preview

---

And here it is zoooommed in:

And here it is running inline inside the editor:

Installation

From JetBrains Marketplace

• Open IntelliJ IDEA
• Go to Settings/Preferences → Plugins → Marketplace
• Search for "VPet"
• Click "Install"

Manual Installation

• Download the latest release from GitHub Releases
• In IntelliJ IDEA, go to Settings/Preferences → Plugins
• Click the gear icon and select "Install Plugin from Disk..."
• Select the downloaded .zip file

Companion Types

Currently, VPet includes:

• 🐱 Cat - A playful pixel cat that celebrates your successes and comforts you during failures

More companions are planned for future releases!

Usage

Once installed, your pixel companion will automatically appear in the status bar. No additional configuration is required!

Game Mode

Click on your pet companion to enter Game Mode - an interactive platformer where you can:

• Control the pet with arrow keys
• Collect coins to increase your score
• See the pet rendered inline inside the editor
• Explore your code editor as a platformer level built from your source code
• Press ESC to exit Game Mode and return to normal pet behavior

Settings

Configure VPet through Settings/Preferences > Tools > VPet:

• Enable Xmas Mode - Toggle festive snowflakes and snowdrifts overlay
• Cat Variant - Choose between different cat sprite variants (Default Cat or Alternative Cat)

Development

Prerequisites

• JDK 17 or newer
• IntelliJ IDEA

Building from Source

1. Clone this repository

   git clone https://github.com/stillya/vpet.git
   cd vpet
   

2. Build the plugin

   ./gradlew buildPlugin
   

3. The plugin ZIP file will be created in build/distributions/

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to submit a pull request or open an issue.

Credits

Pixel art sprites by bowpixel - thank you for the amazing artwork!

Coin sprite from glycin/intellij25 (MIT License) - thank you for the pixel art coin!

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.