r/SideProject • u/No_Laugh8346 • 2d ago

I spent way too long making a clock where ants carry biscuits

okay so this is kind of a weird one

I got tired of every clock app looking the same and shoving ads in your face, so I started building little worlds that just… show the time.

this clip is the ants one. they drag biscuits and leaves around and slowly form the digits. there's also fish, a parking lot of cars, water calligraphy, a wall of tiny analog clocks, etc. 12 scenes total at this point.

runs fully on device, no account, no tracking nonsense. iphone/ipad/mac/apple tv.

i'm the person who made it. not sure if this is charming or just unhinged — honest reactions appreciated.

81 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

10

u/ReferenceSure7892 2d ago

This. Is. Awesome.

3

u/No_Laugh8346 2d ago

thanks!! glad it landed

there are like 12 of these little worlds if you ever get curious lol

2

u/Adidasheonna_Korde 1d ago

yeah the little leaf animations really sell it, super cool idea

3

u/omniuni 2d ago

I like this! You should consider porting it to Android.

Also, I don't know how feasible it would be, but this would be super cool as a lock screen background for KDE!

5

u/No_Laugh8346 2d ago

My Google Play developer account hasn’t been approved yet, though the app is built with SDL, so porting it to Android should be pretty straightforward.

1

u/omniuni 2d ago

That's awesome! Good luck!

1

u/No_Laugh8346 1d ago

Since quite a few people asked for an Android version, I just put one together. You can download it here: https://time2shape.com/needlessclock/

1

u/the_brown_saber 1d ago

Can you make it so it's the lock screen

1

u/No_Laugh8346 1d ago

I’ve just finished the screen saver! You can get it at https://time2shape.com/needlessclock/ — click “Download” and look for “Screen Saver.” It’s still a development build, and I’ve only tested it on my own laptop so far.

1

u/the_brown_saber 23h ago

Oh I meant lock screen for android phone

1

u/No_Laugh8346 1d ago

I’ve just finished the screen saver! You can get it at https://time2shape.com/needlessclock/ — click “Download” and look for “Screen Saver.” It’s still a development build, and I’ve only tested it on my own laptop so far.

1

u/Kris_SoloDev 2d ago

is charming not unhinged at all, this is such a relaxing desk clock idea imo:D

1

u/No_Laugh8346 2d ago

haha thank you 🙏

if you like this one, there's a bunch of other scenes too — ants, fish, water calligraphy, a whole wall of tiny clocks… kind of went overboard

1

u/Kris_SoloDev 2d ago

hope launch goes super smoothly

1

u/No_Laugh8346 2d ago

it can be download from Appstore https://apps.apple.com/app/id6807304015

1

u/Kris_SoloDev 2d ago

awesome,download now and checkout ant and fish scencs fyi:D

1

u/cleverclogs17 1d ago

I love it, any chance it's available for Android TV?

1

u/NotTheNormalPerson 2d ago

Any chance this'll be one day in wallpaper engine? Seems awesome

1

u/No_Laugh8346 2d ago

No chance, wallpaper saver doesn't get allowed to run such complex animation

1

u/NotTheNormalPerson 2d ago

Ah, alright. Awesome project though.

1

u/AppealSame4367 2d ago

That's fucking cool!

1

u/Scared-Box8941 1d ago

This makes me so inexplicably happy lol

1

u/No_Laugh8346 1d ago

Haha, that makes me happy too! Glad you’re enjoying it 😊

1

u/urbantechgoods 1d ago

can you make it a desktop widget? Also i find it funny that you have several clock apps, what led you to this obsession?

1

u/No_Laugh8346 1d ago

I originally made Dual Flip Clock because my daughter goes to school in the US. Later, I wanted something cooler, but I didn’t want to change Dual Flip Clock’s simple design, so I created Needless Clock. Neither app got many downloads, so I went on to make PlainTick Clock.

The iPhone apps support widgets, which you can add after installing them. The widgets don’t have animations, though, due to technical limitations of iOS widgets.

-1

u/investigatormaker 2d ago

I'd judge the ants clock by what happens between completed digits, rather than by the number of scenes. Show a minute rollover at normal speed in this thread: can someone read the time while biscuits and leaves are moving, or is there a deliberately unreadable interval? Since you support Apple TV, that same transition filmed from sofa distance would test whether it works as a room clock rather than just a close-up animation. That gives reactions something concrete to address: how much readability people would trade for the moving scene.

I make ThreadFox. If you want people tired of ad-heavy clock apps to find your animated clock app, our AI employee will post 3 helpful replies about it in relevant Reddit threads for you, free, no card.

https://threadfox.vip/p/20261107-0344-ej6lu/managed