Using VS Code Pets

Congrats on installing joy! Enjoy interacting with these cute pixelated pets. Read below to get a full understanding of this extension. Not convinced? Watch our extension spotlight on Visual Studio Code.

Start pet coding session to show your pet

Open the command palette with Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux or Cmd(⌘)+Shift+P on MacOS.

Run the “Start pet coding session” command (vscode-pets.start)

Once you have the pet panel open, you can:

Changing your pet

Open the setting panel with Ctrl+, on Windows/Linux or Cmd(⌘)+, on MacOS. In the search bar, enter “vscode-pets” to see all available options.

Set a default color, size, pet type, position, and theme when you open a Pet Panel.

  • Pet Color: black, brown, green, yellow, gray, purple, red, white, orange

  • Pet Size: nano, small, medium, large

  • Pet Type: cat, chicken, crab, clippy, cockatiel, dog, horse, mod, rocky, rubber duck, snake, totoro, turtle, zappy

Usage screenshot

Restrictions

  • Snake can only be green

  • Rubber duck & Zappy can only be yellow

  • Ferris the crab can only be red

  • Rocky can only be gray

  • Mod can only be purple

Place the pet’s window

To switch the pet’s window between explorer (default) and panel, you can use the command vscode-pets.position. Or in the setting panel the option Position.

_images/position-setting.png

Explorer:

_images/position-explorer.png

Panel:

_images/position-panel.png

Playing with pets

Pets will interact with your mouse pointer within the open Pet Panel. Additionally, pets will display text bubbles as you move your mouse over the pet.

_images/screenshot-3.gif

Adding additional pets

To add additional pets, run the “Spawn additional pet” command (vscode-pets.spawn-pet) or click the + icon.

_images/add-pet.png

Once you’ve done this, select the pet type, color, and then choose a name or use the randomly assigned one.

_images/pet-select.png

If you have more than 1 pet, they become friends. When pets become friends, they will say a little “❤️” and then play chase with each other.

You can also click the squirrel icon in the bottom of the VS Code Window to create pets.

Throwing a ball

Play catch with your pet! Click the ball icon in the VS Code Pets panel to throw the ball:

_images/throw-ball.gif

You can also use the “Throw ball” command (vscode-pets.throw-ball).

  • Rocky will not run & catch a ball. Have you ever seen a rock run after a ball? Neither have we.

Want to challenge your pets to a harder game of fetch? Enable the “Throw ball with mouse” (vscode-pets.throwBallWithMouse) option in the settings. Then use the mouse to click and throw the ball:

_images/throw-ball-with-mouse.gif

Roll-call with your pets

Get a description of your current pets within VS Code. Run the “Roll-call” command (vscode-pets.roll-call) from the command palette.

_images/pet-roll-call.png

Removing a single pet or multiple pets

You can remove all pets (except the 1 configured) by running the “Remove all pets” command (vscode-pets.delete-pets) from the command palette.

You can remove specific pets by clicking the trashcan icon or by running the “Remove pet” command (vscode-pets.delete-pet) from the command palette.

_images/pet-remove.png

Importing or Exporting your Pet List

Have a certain pet setup you would like to share with your friends? You can export your pet list by running the “Export pet list” command (vscode-pets.export-pets) from the command palette. The pet list can be imported by running the “Import pet list” command (vscode-pets.import-pets) from the command palette.

_images/pet-import-export.gif

Themes

VS Code Pets comes with themes. Themes are set from the VS Code Preferences Window. Search for “vscode-pets” to find the VS Code Pets specific settings.

Configure vscode-pets.theme to “forest” and let your pets play in a spooky forest.

_images/forest.gif

Set vscode-pets.theme to “castle” for them to roam the ramparts!

_images/castle.gif

Set vscode-pets.theme to “beach” for your friends to play by the ocean.

_images/beach-pose.png