Rootlings · Stillcraft

What's inside

Everything Rootlings does.

Catch them all

The phone's own camera takes the photo, and the spirit takes the green of your leaves from it. Then pick the species from 133 houseplants, or describe your own: look, light, watering, humidity, winter rest.

Windows that know

Press the back of the phone to the glass and the compass says which way the window looks. Then say what's outside: open sky, trees or a wall close by.

The real sky

Light on every sill is worked out hour by hour from the sun's position and the real direct and diffuse radiation over your town (Open-Meteo, MET Norway as a fallback). The panes show the real clouds, rain, snow and night.

Moods and seasons

Spirits bask in the sun, pine in the gloom and sleep through winter; cacti take their winter rest. When it's been below +8° outside for five days, the radiators are on and they feel the dry air.

Soil, not a calendar

Each pot dries by its species, its light and the heating. When it's time, the spirit asks for a finger check: dry, damp or wet. Every answer teaches the estimate your home.

Three forms

Count new leaves, and once a month take a molt photo from the same spot, before and after side by side. With enough growth the spirit evolves, flickering like in the old games.

The nursery

A cutting in a glass of water or in soil is an egg. When the roots show, a spirit hatches with its ancestry: “child of Whiskers ← grandma Zoya's spider plant”. Give it away as a text code a friend pastes in.

Battles

Pick the symptoms and meet one of 12 real troubles, from spider mites to root rot and sunburn. The moves are the real treatment steps, the repeat sprays unlock on their real days, and it's super effective.

Screens

Captured in Rootlings.

Rootlings: The sills — **The sills**Real sky in the panes, light hour by hour.

Rootlings: A spirit — **A spirit**Light, soil, forms and the monthly molt.

Rootlings: Catching — **Catching**The phone's camera, then the species.

Rootlings: A species — **A species**Care, forms and the ones you have.

Rootlings: A battle — **A battle**Spray again: the eggs have hatched.

Rootlings: The nursery — **The nursery**The roots are out!

Rootlings: The dex — **The dex**Caught, seen and shadows.

Rootlings: Night — **Night**Everyone's asleep.

Rootlings: Welcome — **Welcome**Every plant at your window has a spirit.

Wild troubles

Trouble	Nickname	First sign
Spider mite	WEBBER	Pale specks, then fine webs
Scale insects	SHELLBACK	Brown bumps, sticky leaves
Thrips	SLIVVER	Silver streaks with black dots
Mealybug	FLUFFLE	White fluff in leaf joints
Fungus gnats	BUZZLET	Black flies over wet soil
Root rot	SOGGLE	Drooping in wet soil
Sunburn	SIZZLET	Pale patches facing the glass

Get it

Get Rootlings.

Install

Version: v1.0.0
File: Rootlings.apk
Requires: Android 9.0 (API 28) or newer. No Google services needed.
Permissions: Internet, only for the town search and the weather; notifications, for the finger checks. Photos go through the phone's own camera app. No account, no ads, no analytics.
License: MIT · font m6x11 by Daniel Linssen · weather Open-Meteo and MET Norway (CC BY 4.0)

Download the APK on your phone.
Open it and allow installs from this source when Android asks.
Add the window your plants stand at and catch the first spirit with the camera.

Care advice is general; every home is different, and your finger in the soil has the last word.

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; every picture is pixel art drawn in code (25 plant shapes in three forms, 13 moods, 12 pests, the windows and their sky), and the catalogue, pests and moves are TSV.

git clone https://github.com/bigdevwhale/rootlings.git
cd rootlings
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest assembleDebug
./gradlew assembleDebug -Pdemo              # app.rootlings.demo: three windows and half a year of care
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest -Prender --tests '*RenderArt*'   # the spirits, the windows and every screen to PNG

Good to know

Questions people ask.

Will it tell me when to water?

It tells you when to check. A pot's drying is only an estimate, so the spirit asks for a finger in the soil, and your answer corrects it for that pot.

What if my plant isn't in the catalogue?

Describe your own species: its look, type, light, watering, humidity, winter rest and flowers. It goes into the dex like any other.

What leaves the phone?

Only the town search and the chosen town's coordinates, for the weather. Plants, photos and notes stay on the phone.