Eight months ago I made the very first commit on HibiTomo. Today feels like a good moment to pause, breathe, and look back at how a tiny idea grew into a pocket-sized little world.

Making a whole little world by yourself means wearing a lot of hats, and the biggest one is easily the art hat. Every pet, every dish, every chair and plant and evolution has to be drawn, cleaned up, and made to sit nicely on a tiny screen. May was all about one question: how do I make HibiTomo look good faster, so I can spend more time on the parts you actually play with?

April was the month HibiTomo grew a heart. Up to now your pet mostly needed feeding and a friendly tap now and then. This month I made caretaking real — with warmth, but also with consequences.

March was the month everything clicked. For a long time HibiTomo has been a pile of promising pieces — a screen here, a pet sprite there, a menu that mostly worked. This month those pieces finally snapped together into something you can actually play. For the first time, it feels like a game.

February was all about giving your pet a bit more personality — and giving you a little more to look after. Pets now come in different species and types, food has opinions, the farm grew deeper, and yes, your cozy room can finally get messy.

For months, HibiTomo has been a cozy little room with no one living in it. That changed in January. The star of the whole thing finally showed up: the pet.

Last month was all about stepping outside. Up to now, HibiTomo has lived almost entirely in the room — a cozy little home where your pet eats, rests and gets pampered. But a pet needs somewhere to wander, too. December was about building the first version of that somewhere: the great outdoors.

Hi, and welcome to the very first HibiTomo devlog. I'm a solo creator building a tiny handheld gadget with a little color screen and a few buttons, and inside it lives a virtual pet in a cozy little world you can visit anytime. Think of it as a modern, warm take on the Tamagotchi — a creature you raise that grows to be uniquely yours.