I Turned My Editor Into a Pokémon World That Levels Up When I Actually Ship
Repo: https://github.com/UribeJr/pokedev Most editor pets are wallpaper. Cute? Sure. Connected to the work you’re already doing? Not really. So I built PokéDev — a VS Code / Cursor extension where your partner lives in a nostalgic 2D overworld (or classic floor pets), and Trainer + Partner XP come from saves, commits, coding time, and successful builds/tests — including Shopify theme/app outcomes…
I developed an extension for VS Code and Cursor called PokéDev that creates a Pokémon world inside the editor. This Pokémon world levels up based on real work activities such as saving files, committing code, coding time, and successful builds or tests. Users can also earn XP from verified successes with Shopify themes and apps when that workspace is being used.
The extension provides a living Pokémon layer for the editor, where partners roam a 2D overworld or classic floor pets as they level up. Users can choose their Pokémon partner and watch it explore the overworld while earning XP for their real work. Optional DEV Community badges can be displayed on a Trainer Card or PokéGear, linking to the user's public GitHub identity.
PokéDev also offers optional views for status, activity, badges, party, bag, and daily challenges. The extension is aware of DEV actions, checking themes, push actions, and app builds/deployments only when those are verified as successful. Idle clock features include auto/manual/agentic modes to ensure honest coding time tracking, even when an agent is being supervised.
The extension is designed to be privacy-conscious, using local-first storage and only reading public GitHub and DEV data without OAuth or telemetry. Built with TypeScript, VS Code Extension API, webviews, webpack, and local extension storage, PokéDev brings a nostalgic Pokémon experience to VS Code and Cursor, turning it into a truly interactive development environment.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
