I tried something different this time - Echoes of Ember

what is it: an atmospheric 2D game built with Pygame CE

what is the game about: still thinking about the story, but the core idea: you guide Ember, which is a spark, through shadow filled levels toward a lantern to progress. thinking of weaving in mini stories per level as it comes together.

what is done till now:

1. Initialized basic project structure
2. Implemented a working scene manager (start, game, pause)
3. Implemented a player block (can jump, move left and right with acceleration/friction for a smoother feel)
4. All that wired up into main.py

note: the attached clip looks choppy because it’s recorded at low FPS/resolution but the game itself runs at 60 FPS.

what we do next: real platform collision and level geometry, then swapping these placeholder blocks for actual art.

Finally finished polishing up!

what I did:

1. Flyouts now have consistent styling.
2. Updated welcome app.
3. Start button became more functional.
4. Created new custom svg icons.
5. Updated settings app to display system, network and user settings.
6. Made a new browser app
7. Made custom hook for volume to sync it across different components.

what we do next: ship

Did so many changes in AeroOS!

heres explained in detail:

1. Added boot sequence. shutdownScreen > bootScreen > lockScreen > desktop
2. Updated top menu bar with flyouts (system tray, battery, volume, wifi and calendar)
3. Added more apps. (settings, file explorer, media player and games)
4. Moved wallpaper changing logic to settings
5. File manager content like audio, video and image opens through media viewer.
6. Games Explorer currently supports 5 games, all embedded through <iframe>
7. Added custom right click context menu.
8. Added windows like start button.

note: several minor issues, such as unconnected links between the Start menu and applications, are currently known and will be resolved in future.

what we do next: polish

Started working on Contexto!

what is it: a semantic search tool for text files.

expected workflow:

1. throw in a .txt/.md
2. query it in plain english
3. get back the relevant chunks

better than ctrl+f keyword matching

tech stack:
Next.js + Tailwind frontend
FastAPI + ChromaDB backend
embeddings run locally with all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (no external API calls, everything stays on device)

what’s actually working rn:
upload endpoint that reads .txt/.md, chunks it, embeds it, stores in ChromaDB
search endpoint that does semantic query against the collection
basic CORS + FastAPI scaffolding
frontend is still literally the create-next-app starter page lol, haven’t touched the UI yet

what we do next?
real sentence boundary chunking so we stop cropping mid sentence
reranking layer to actually highlight the matching sentence
then build an actual UI (upload + search) instead of the default next.js landing page

Built 2 more apps for aeroOS!

notpad: the notes persist and added bold, italic and underline text formatting too
weather: the app supports realtime search using geocoding api and providing weather results using open meteo api

other updates:

1. added top menu bar, showing the focused app name on left and icons, time on right.
2. updated dock, removed the time and moved it to top menu bar.
3. wallpaper switcher now supports links, also the wallpapers persist on reload.

what we do next?
polish and ship

Added a bunch of new features to aeroOS!

1. a mini dock (temp right now) on bottom left to change wallpapers
2. improved dock design and animation
3. built window component and window manager
4. built 2 simple apps - clock and welcome

what we do next?
build advance apps

Js started working on aeroOS!

based on frutiger aero design aesthetic, which was really popular during the time i was born
anyways

tech stack: next js with tailwind

what we do next?
improve the desktop then we move to apps

well its done guys

what i built?

i actually had no idea what to start with, i saw a webOS listed, thought it was pretty cool…
i love cats, so why not build a cat-styled OS?
u guys can check it out
here: https://meowos-web.vercel.app/

whats next?

just check it out guys (pls 🙏)

note

i wrote a highly technical long dev log but it all vanished when i closed the tab accidently, i dont have energy left to write all over again 😔😔

also follow me on github
https://github.com/armansinghh

thanks y’all

Spent a lot of time this session just making things feel right 😮‍💨

Added boot screen and the best part…
Rebuilt most of the apps from scratch basically.
PawWatch now has an actual analog clock face with cat ears on top and a digital readout next to it.
MeowPad got autosave, word count and char limit.
PawShell now remembers your command history and arrow keys work just like a real terminal.
The settings app (PawNel) got a full sidebar layout, a live desktop preview when picking wallpapers, and an About page showing the stack.

Also added two new apps:
File Cat-alog is a file explorer with a fake filesystem you can navigate.
Also added PrrSurf, it is a browser with a cat themed homepage with shortcuts to Wikipedia, AccuWeather, and Excalidraw.

Taskbar got cleaned up too, the paw menu and control center both feel much more polished now.
Honestly meowOS is starting to look like something I’d actually want to use.

Next up is some final polish and getting it ready to ship 😝

Built the core of meowOS today!!!
A fully working window manager in the browser. Windows are draggable, resizable, and stack correctly when focused.

4 apps so far:
Clock - live time and date
Text Editor - write and save notes, persists with localStorage
Terminal - commands like help, meow, echo, date
Settings - pick from 4 cat wallpapers, choice saves across sessions

Stack: Next.js, Tailwind, Zustand, react-rnd, react-icons.
Next up: File Explorer and Browser app.