Show HN: Koi.rest – watch some fish and regain your balance

hckrnws

Show HN: Koi.rest – watch some fish and regain your balance

216

by hxii

Hi there. My name is Paul. I’m a developer, an explorer and I’ve got ADHD. As of the beginning of August, I’m also unemployed.

This last part, along with everything else this past year, has caused me a great deal of stress.

While our balcony zen garden project is yet to be completed, I had an idea to create a virtual one that everyone can use.

It's an idea that, unfortunately, I’ve been postponing for a while now, mostly because I have no fucking idea how to do it as I don’t know JavaScript, and I don't have the capacity to learn it right now.

So I let perfect be the enemy of good and, well... just kept the idea to myself.

Then I said "fuck it" and used AI to make the thing I really wanted to make.

I realized I didn't want "perfect". I wanted "good enough".

I tweaked, added, removed, drew, researched, questioned, tested... I just wasn't the one coding it.

So now, instead of occupying my brain, it now lives on the internet for others to enjoy.

Yes, there’s something noble about making something entirely on your own, but what good is an idea that just sits in my head?

So here I am. I made the thing. The weird, little, quiet koi pond.

The silly project of passion. The little corner of the internet to let strangers watch fish quietly, together.

I hope this pond helps you as much as it helped me.

dylanhouli
71d
Cool idea but as some others have said the website was running quite slow for me. I noticed it at first when hovering over the 'enter' button (so before even loading the pond) because the hover animation on the button kicked in really late feeling.
Then actually entering took a few seconds and it was quite laggy looking at all the fish.
Once those things are fixed I think the idea is neat. It would be cool to be able to interact with the pond in some way (click lily pads, drop food in the water, click the water to make it splash) but that might not be what you're going for with this
1. hxii • OP
  61d
  Thank you for the feedback!
  During my work on it I’ve been testing it on both my Linux box as well as my MacBook and haven’t encountered lag. I’m not meaning to say “it works on my machine” by this, but simply that I couldn’t have caught this before.
  I will definitely address the lag issue, and find a more “graceful” way for koi to enter and leave the pond.
  About interactivity – I was thinking about this both during the development as well as just when I had the idea and the intention was always to not have any, simply because in my own experience we are always doing “something”, and this was a way to get a little bit of the opposite – to do nothing.
  But I can see how some micro-interactions could be useful. A sort of a “popping bubblewrap” action.
  1. applfanboysbgon
    31d
    > I’m not meaning to say “it works on my machine” by this, but simply that I couldn’t have caught this before.
    If you knew what you were doing you could have reasoned about what your code did, though. Such is the danger of trial-by-error vibe coding. I personally closed the tab because the audio kept cutting off arbitrarily after some minutes. Not to criticise you unduly because this was a cute concept, but I hope you might take away that LLMs are not only not perfect, but are also only "good enough" if your standards for "good enough" are particularly low, and use this as motivation to learn more in the future instead of always relying on them.
    I think no interaction is good for an offline pond, but I do think some tiny little bit of interaction would be nice online since it adds a touch of humanity, being able to see other people and interact with them in some small way.
    nullify88
    21d
hatthew
61d
It's running at 3fps or something like that. Is that a me problem or a "lots of traffic" problem?
1. 40four
  01d
  I haven’t tried it on desktop, but it’s running silky smooth for me on iPhone. No lag at all. I see some others complaining of that too so not sure what the issue is.
JKCalhoun
51d
Exactly how I have found vibe-coding to be. I make things with LLMs help that I otherwise wouldn't be bothered to. I've vibe-coded perhaps a half dozen tools for my personal use and am happier for it.
Keep going.
1. DiabloD3
  41d
  You didn't make anything at all, though.
  Also, please talk to a lawyer before slapping a Copyright on anything you didn't make. Machine-made products cannot be Copyrighted in the US and most Berne Convention countries, and you cannot own the output of an LLM, nor can you legally shield yourself from the consequences.
johnsmith1840
01d
Been on a train of thought recently that with AI making web dev so much easier that we should be making more beautiful experiences.
I have always felt ultra minimalism is partly a way of fighting bugs. Why can't we put more effort to make every site a great experience in of itself?
Been experimenting with going way beyond my usual frontend work for something truly special. This made me think if it. It's 10x the effort but that's about the same effort I put in before manually making a minimal one.
I want more koi fish swimming around my saas.
Paradigm2020
01d
A fellow ADHD sufferer.
I first clicked the enter button and, for once thanks to, slow loading I saw the 15 30 etc options...
So went back and clicked 15 and waited and waited not realizing I needed to press enter. So I'd change that to 15 / 20 / 30 / timeless options and no enter option...
Also after being in the experience for a few second probably I was wondering if the timer was actually running... So maybe show the timer for a few seconds (1500, 1459, 1458,1457 fade...)
Also there was no sound when I entered and then when I clicked the button I got the same text as the hackernews description and it was slightly off and unexpected (slightly off probably being a Firefox + android combo) but yeah would appreciate 2 buttons one settings, one information about or alternatively only show it once and afterwards just the panel).
Also tried to install it as an app as I'd love to have it full screen but kept the bar...
Overall it's brilliant and I'm grateful that you went the ai route and launched.
If you wanted to turn it into a paid project you could go the pixel route and offer this version for free and then the option for a one off payment to add different background, fish representations etc... He made enough money to buy a Mac to make a version for iOS as well and seemingly makes a living off it (oc in argentina, probably not possible in a HCOL lpcation.
Anyway thank you so much and hope there is some useful info here.
Have a great day
rhplus
01d
Pleasant flashbacks to the Windows 95 classic Serene Screen “Marine Aquarium”
https://youtu.be/PprsZgA-kxs?si=waSpdI4J323fNNGh
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/a-former-air-force-p...
jeromechoo
61d
This is neat. I like the zen background sounds. I'm particularly fascinated by digital third places with extremely limited social interaction (like cursor camp by Neal). I think it has something to do with the impossibility of something like this happening in real life.
That said, I'm not sure how real the "koi you see are other people visiting the pond together with you" bit is. I only ever saw 3 swimming koi. Maybe that's the base.
1. hxii • OP
  31d
  Hey! That’s the base, correct. Three are always there so if someone joins and nobody else is using it – they’re never alone.
  In essence, when you someone joins the counter goes up and another koi will spawn locally.
  It’s a bit nerfed from my initial idea to sync the movement of each koi, but I might do that in the future.
  It looks like the way I deployed (Railway) it causes `429 Too Many Requests` to be returned, so I’ll definitely have to look into that. But it’s 1:21 AM so tomorrow.
  Thank you for letting me know!
natnatenathan
01d
I understand your trepidation sharing this, given how often 'vibe coded' is used derogatorily. I like what you made, thank you.
rickydroll
020h
Like others, I'm getting the one-frame every 2 or 3 seconds behavior. But I'm finding something I didn't expect. I'm listening to the sound and not watching the koi, and that is incredibly soothing/relaxing for my ADHD mind. If you generate the audio locally, maybe that should be a single page all by itself and not worry about the fish, or perhaps I should say, And thanks for the fish.
bosunknows
019h
This immediately made me think of the old iOS app Koi Pond. In 2008, it was incredible. I remember being amazed by the water that you could spash/swirl.
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/08/20/the-1-paid-app-koi-pond...
pozol
01d
This is great! The sounds and visuals are a great way to recenter. Only UX thing I’d say, is it would be nice, and less distracting, if other “users/koi” popping in instead kind of faded in. Them suddenly appearing kind of pulls you out of the zen mode. Awesome idea!
samrj12
01d
Seems like quite laggy (I suppose bcz of heavy assets and rendering). I would have liked it more if we had some interactive elments with the pond or the fishes because I can only stare at it for some seconds lol
Cider9986
01d
I really like the UI especially the about page. I don't think you are supposed to be able to see the about page on the playing page (it took a bit to start and then started when I was in about) but it looks good there with the blur.
Here's a list of other sound/relaxation websites: https://fmhy.net/audio#ambient-relaxation.
This one is pretty funny but not relaxing to me. It may be a covid remnant: https://imisstheoffice.eu/
max979
11d
Had a desktop aquarium once, very calming. This digital version is probably less messy and just as effective.
1. kalms
  01d
  If small size, I recommend lots of plants and capping any "live" substrate with sand. Had one going with shrimps and a few endlers for years. I only topped the water up and very occasionally changed the water. Not that it really needed it.
  After the first few weeks, it just soldiered on with minimal algae or intervention needed. It's a lovely thing to have, I can recommend it. (That said, I also have a small aquarium problem according to the wifey)
marcuskaz
21d
Too many koi fish is stressful (and slow)
I'd love a version without the multiplayer and just zen
1. mcint
  01d
  Looks like it locks the number when you first load. I had it open for 30 minutes, with just 3 fish, but after reading your comment, re-opened to find 3 dozen.
  Choice about busyness would be nice.
thoughtpeddler
01d
Super cool, thanks for making this! I've been there with you on the perfectionism. Glad that 'good enough' won this time, and we're all the better for it. Keep going!
farrysaini
01d
This is great! I would really like this as live background on Android.
lakeffect
022h
Running well for me! Would also love some very minimal interaction ability. Making water ripple, etc. Something to ease me into the idea of taking a deep breath and sitting while watching the koi.
Coeur
01d
Have a big virtual hug from me, hxii!
skibz
01d
I dig the voronoi used as an approximation of caustics!
wateralien
01d
I do this with the screensavers on the Apple TV device. They’re amazing.
henrydoughty
01d
sat on this a bit. needed it actually. thanks for putting it up instead of leaving it in your head
grvdrm
01d
Awesome. Top of bookmark list for a daily zen!
lappet
01d
This is really cool! So peaceful.
Suhinnall27
01d
This is honestly super cool, and a lot of fun. I was about to say something about the koi fish spawning and despawning until I read that they are the other users on the site, which is an awesome mechanic. Is there a way to set this as a screen saver or background?
suzukivenom
01d
thanks! had a really rough day
_qua
01d
Love it
bredren
01d
Great post, OP. Way to overcome. Keep it up.
bit_rot73
01d
[dead]
mmwon
01d
[dead]
Jtarii
61d
You might want to prompt ChatGPT to increase the frame rate of the fish animation.
1. ecto
  51d
  You might want to prompt for some manners, and why humans have them.