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Lotus Apps presents

Bobara

A capybara for every boba.

Momo is a capybara who lives in a small hot spring. When you buy a boba tea in real life, you tap it in, and a new friend might wander into the water.

Launches
November 9, 202641 days away
Price
$4.99
For
iPhone, iPad & Apple Watch
Visit bobara.app How I made it
Bobara on iPad at dusk: Momo the capybara soaks in a round stone hot spring under a pink cherry tree and red paper lanterns, with a white rabbit on the rim.
Bobara on iPhone, asking ‘What did you get?’ above a grid of boba teas: Classic Milk Tea, Thai Tea, Taro, Matcha and more.
Bobara on Apple Watch: Momo against a sunset sky, above a Boba button.

What it is

Buy a boba, tap it in, and something arrives.

Momo lives in a small hot spring on your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Check in the boba you actually bought, with one tap, and a new friend comes for the water, a prize turns up for the tea house shelf, or someone who’s visited before stays a little longer.

The check-in sheet on iPhone, asking ‘What did you get?’ above a grid of boba teas.

Tap in a real boba.

Order the same drink twice and you don’t get a duplicate: you get to know whoever turned up a little better instead.

Momo soaking in the hot spring under snow, beneath a snowy cherry tree.

Your weather, in the onsen.

If you allow it, Momo gets the same sky you do: clear, cloudy, rain, storm or snow, at whatever hour it is where you are.

Bobara on Apple Watch in grey rain, with Momo above a Boba button.

Nothing decays. Nothing expires.

No streaks, no hunger meter and no reminders. Leave it for a month and the water will still be warm and everyone will still be there.

The story

Purposefully pointless, and made to delight.

I wanted to create something that merged my obsession with boba tea, and the passion I have for it, with my love of all things capybara, and I wanted it to be purposefully pointless, a delightful little application that isn’t trying to be useful and is only there to make you smile whenever you open it.

Inside the tea house: Momo the capybara, Pomelo the rabbit and Tapio the red panda stand in a row beneath a window full of cherry blossoms.
Momo’s world: cherry trees, a red torii gate and bridge, and a tea house with a teal tiled roof, set in green hills.
The whole valley, from Bobara’s art

Where it lives

One hot spring, drawn for every screen it’s on.

A single renderer draws the onsen everywhere, from the size it’s given and nothing else, so the iPhone, the iPad, the Home Screen widget and the watch all show the same place.

Bobara on iPhone at dusk: the hot spring with Momo in the water and a rabbit on the rim.
iPhoneThe whole hot spring in your pocket, and the one-tap check-in.
Bobara on iPad in daylight: Momo in the hot spring with Pomelo the rabbit, a red panda and a raccoon visiting.
iPadThe same hot spring, with more of the valley around it.
Bobara on Apple Watch: Pomelo the rabbit, ‘Soaking with him’, above an Everyone button.
Apple WatchOn your wrist, and on your watch face as a complication.

The detail I sweated

Night is repainted, not dimmed.

The onsen is painted in one of four palettes depending on the time of day, and night gets its own, rather than a dark wash over the afternoon. Look at the lanterns: everything else cools to blue, and they keep their red and start to glow.

Palettes
4 a day
Sky
Your weather
Drawn by
One renderer
Close-up of the hot spring at dusk: pink cherry blossom, green trees and a string of red paper lanterns against a violet sky.
Dusk the lanterns are just lanterns
The same close-up at night: the trees and rabbit turn deep blue, and the red lanterns glow.
Night the same lanterns, lit

The weather

The same sky you have, drawn for Momo.

I built the sky on Apple’s WeatherKit, so if you allow it the hot spring shows the real weather where you are, and then I drew everything that weather needed to feel right: the sun travelling across the sky through the day, the streaks of sunshine, dawn and dusk, and different intensities of thunderstorms, rain and wind, so that a light shower and a proper storm never look like the same thing.

The hot spring at dawn: the sun just up beside the pine on the left, under a violet sky, with long rays of light slanting across the garden, Momo in the water, and a rabbit on the bamboo spout, a red panda on the rim and a raccoon on the grass.
Dawn the low sun’s rays
The hot spring on a clear morning: the sun a little higher on the left, behind the top of the pine, Momo in the water, and a rabbit on the bamboo spout, a red panda on the rim and a raccoon on the grass.
Morning the sun climbing
A clear midday at the hot spring: bright green hills, a blue sky with the sun high above, Momo in the water, and a rabbit on the bamboo spout, a red panda on the rim and a raccoon on the grass.
Midday the sun overhead
The hot spring at dusk, under a violet sky, with the sun setting on the right and its rays falling across the garden, and Momo in the water.
Dusk the sun going down
The hot spring at night: everything cools to deep blue, and the red lanterns glow.
Night
The hot spring in the rain: a low grey sky, rain falling across the garden, and steam rising off the water around Momo.
Rain
The hot spring in the snow: the ground white, snow falling and lying on the branches, and Momo keeping warm in the water.
Snow
The hot spring in a thunderstorm: heavy rain driving down over Momo in the water, and the clouds lit pale for a moment by lightning.
Thunderstorm the sky lighting up
The hot spring on a windy, sunny day: the trees leaning, the lanterns swinging on their string, and cherry petals blowing across the garden.
Wind trees, lanterns and petals blown

The sound

Sound that settles you, and follows you inside.

The sound is layered differently at different times of day, and it changes as you walk into the teahouse, so that stepping inside, out of the valley, feels calmer still. There’s music, the onsen itself, the room you’re in, the weather, the wind, rain and thunder, and crickets after dark, each with its own lantern to turn it down.

Inside the teahouse, the window in the back wall is a live render of the onsen outside, live weather included, so if it’s raining where you are, you’ll see it raining through the teahouse window too.

The teahouse on iPhone: shelves of the friends and treasures that have visited, beneath a window that looks out on the hot spring.
Bobara’s ‘What you are hearing’ sheet on iPhone, with a lantern to turn down each sound: Music, The onsen, This room, Weather, Wind, Rain and thunder, and Crickets, after dark.

The price

$4.99

  • No accounts
  • One-time purchase
  • Delightfully whimsical
  • Launches November 9, 2026
  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • Apple Watch
Visit bobara.app

The case study

How I made it.

The discovery I ran before writing a line of code, the prototypes, building it around a day job, how the light, the weather and the sound were made, and the craft underneath: privacy, accessibility and fair purchases.

  • Swift
  • SwiftUI
  • SwiftData
  • WidgetKit
  • WeatherKit
  • CloudKit
Read the case study