This Tamagotchi Dies if You Don’t Vape

Created at a New York University (NYU) event called “Stupid Hackathon,” creators Rebecca Xun and Lucia Camacho turn a simple idea into a cursed reality. Image Credits: Rebecca Xun / Lucia Camacho 

A new take on the Tamagotchi virtual pet has caught everyone’s attention. Originally, this beloved digital pet provided people with a sense of responsibility as they nurtured and cared for their Tamagotchi. The idea of having to complete certain tasks and achieve goals to take care of their pets increased motivation for beneficial habits in one’s life. However, two participants in New York University’s (NYU) event, “Stupid Hackathon,” have taken this idea a step further. 

Rebecca Xun and Lucia Camacho created the Vape-a-Gotchi, a vape-embedded Tamagotchi-style pet that dies if the user stops puffing. 

According to an interview with Futurism, Xun and Camacho revealed that their project began as an idea circulating online and has developed into a cursed reality. 

Xun started vaping last year as a way to begin the process of quitting cigarettes. She knew that her efforts to quit still had consequences, so she thought of “gamifying” her nicotine use to help her stop. In the first iteration of the project, Xun had created a vape that would actually kill the pet if the vape was used. The idea was that it would guilt-trip the user into not inhaling. 

However, in the interview, Xun commented that Camacho had “found this Stupid Hackathon. And we were like, it’d be kind of funnier to be evil.” The event, Stupid Hackathon, is an event that encourages “stupid”, “bad”, or “useless” inventions to push boundaries and foster unconventional thinking. 

Thus began the development of the “evil” Vape-a-Gotchi, a vape that rewards its users for inhaling. 

With Xun’s software skill set and Camacho’s engineering background, the two partners built the device from a little computer inside the vape that tracks the usage and a code that tracks the pet’s health. It is also important to note that the digital pet element is not an actual Tamagotchi but instead a Tamagotchi-inspired critter.

The two partners plan on pushing the device forward as they are already planning on fixing and developing the vape. Additionally, they are still looking to build in the “good” mode that prevents users from vaping. 

In the meantime, Xun and Camacho are both recovering from the Hackathon. “Because we tested it so much, we were both so diseased from vaping.”