ZenPebble

I made ZenPebble because I wanted something on my phone that wasn't trying to get me to do anything. No goals. No streaks. No notifications. Just something calm to look at and touch for a minute when I need to decompress.

The app is a dark water surface with six stones resting in it. You tap a stone and ripples spread out from it in soft colored rings. You tap the water itself and ripples appear there too. You can pick up any stone and drag it somewhere else. That's basically it.

What kept me interested in building it was how satisfying the stones look. Each one is drawn to look like a real polished stone — round ones, flat oval ones, teardrop-shaped ones — with a proper light source, a soft glow, a specular highlight and a shadow underneath. When you pick one up the shadow shifts like it's actually being lifted off the surface. Small thing but it feels good.

There are eight stone materials to choose from. Obsidian is almost black with a deep blue shimmer. Jade is dark green. Amber catches a warm golden light. Amethyst has that purple glow. You tap a stone to select it, then hit the color button to swap it to whatever material you want. You can also add more stones, remove ones you don't want, or clear the whole surface and start fresh.

The water in the background is not a plain dark gradient. There are slow caustic light patterns moving across it, the kind you see on the bottom of a pool. The ambient glow shifts slightly over time. Ripples from different taps overlap and mix colors.

Nothing saves between sessions. Every time you open it the stones are back in their default positions. I kind of like that about it.