Nooklings · Stillcraft

What's inside

Everything Nooklings does.

Four ways to catch

Ten seconds of sound from the microphone; the light of a photo taken with the phone's own camera; three minutes of real quiet, where only the loudness is measured; a walk from the step counter, which can catch walks on its own.

One tap, one jar

Weather, a walk, tea and food, warmth, something new, people, something made by hand. The jar fills with its colour and gets a label in handwriting, the date, the town and the weather it was caught in.

Six lodgers

A cat on the stove, a dormouse in a teacup, a moth in glasses on the lampshade, a bullfinch on the windowsill, a hedgehog in a felt boot, a raccoon in the yarn basket. Only the cat and the dormouse live here at first; the rest knock at the window when they smell their kind.

Nobody dies

A hungry lodger goes pale and sleeps in a knitted scarf until the next jar. Full ones glow, and in the evening, when everyone is full, they pile up by the stove.

Dreams and gifts

Now and then a lodger dreams a riddle: the moth dreams of the smell of old paper. Bring that kind of cosiness and the dream comes true, with a gift that stays in the room: a rug, a candle, a postcard, rowan berries, a maple leaf, a string of lights.

Open a jar

It plays what it caught; jars without a recording sound like their kind: rain, a kettle, a crackling stove, pages, voices, knitting needles. The stove flares and everyone gathers to listen.

Jam

Two jars cook into a new one that feeds both lodgers. Snow and thunderstorms make rare jars that glow brighter, and the first snow of the season gets its own jar.

A real window

Your town outside: the real time of day, sunrise and sunset, rain, snow and fog from Open-Meteo or MET Norway. The lamp and the stove light the room at night.

Screens

Captured in Nooklings.

Nooklings: The room — **The room**Evening, the lamp is on.

Nooklings: Catch — **Catch**Sound, light, quiet, steps.

Nooklings: The pantry — **The pantry**Every jar ever caught.

Nooklings: Lodgers — **Lodgers**Six of them, each its own taste.

Nooklings: The moth — **The moth**Dreaming of old paper.

Nooklings: Daytime — **Daytime**Sun in the window.

Nooklings: Hello — **Hello**We eat cosiness.

Who eats what

Lodger	Lives	Eats
Cat	on the stove	warmth, tea and food
Dormouse	in a teacup	quiet
Moth	on the lampshade	something new: books, places, first times
Bullfinch	on the windowsill	voices, laughter, talk
Hedgehog	in a felt boot	weather and walks
Raccoon	in the yarn basket	things made by hand

Get it

Get Nooklings.

Install

Version: v1.0.0
File: Nooklings.apk
Requires: Android 9.0 (API 28) or newer. No Google services needed.
Permissions: Microphone, for ten seconds of sound and the quiet meter; physical activity, for the step counter; internet, only for the weather in the window. Sounds and photos never leave the phone. No account, no ads, no analytics.
License: MIT · fonts: m6x11, Marck Script

Download the APK on your phone.
Open it and allow installs from this source when Android asks.
Next time something is cosy, press «Catch something cosy».

Everything stays on the phone: the sounds and photos live in the app's own folder.

Download APK All releases

Build from source

JDK 17+ (Android Studio's bundled JBR works) and the Android SDK. Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Room, DataStore, WorkManager; the room, the lodgers and the jars are drawn in code.

git clone https://github.com/bigdevwhale/nooklings.git
cd nooklings
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest assembleDebug
./gradlew assembleDebug -Pdemo              # app.nooklings.demo: a pantry full of jars
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest -Prender --tests '*RenderScreens*'   # every screen to PNG, EN and RU

Good to know

Questions people ask.

Does the app record all the time?

No. The microphone is on only for the ten seconds you catch, or while you sit through a quiet catch, and then only the loudness is measured. Nothing is sent anywhere.

What if I forget the lodgers for a week?

They'll be asleep in scarves, that's all. One jar of their kind wakes them up. Nobody runs away and nobody dies.

Can I take a photo from the gallery?

Yes. The light can come from the camera or from a picture already on the phone; the jar takes its colour.