Weathergotchi – an open-source climate Tamagotchi

The YouTube video [0] is quite funny, I like when someone doesn't take themselves too seriously.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I44iGj7gLGA

I’ve been wanting to do some projects like this from the software side. I want an e-ink display + ESP32 inside a case. But I don’t want to do that myself for the nth time as it doesn’t feel novel or interesting. Is there any decent hardware option that begins fully open?

Also: If I take very good care of my Weathergotchi, do I get to change the weather?

I get the weather- part, but I don't get the -gotchi part... Do you have to keep the device alive by... seeing new types of weather?

As opposed to the climategotchi, which just shows a dead guy on fire.

This is charming. E-paper is such a good fit for ambient data like this — always visible, no glow, basically no power. How often do you refresh the display, and does partial refresh ghosting become a problem over time?

This doesn’t look as fun as a Tamagotchi.

Calling this a tamagotchi is silly. The only thing this and tamagotchis have in common is that they’re small electronic devices with a screen (and even that tech is different).

When you compare a project to something that it isn’t, you’re doing it a disservice. The people who are intrigued by the tamagotchi angle are disappointed, while the people who are uninterested in it (but might still like the project) won’t even give it a change. Everybody loses.