The Story Behind the App

In 2024, I travelled to a destination I had long wished for — Japan.

While in Osaka, I had the opportunity to visit a small temple called Hozen-ji Temple, nestled amidst the hustle and bustle of the cosmopolitan city.

Every temple and shrine I've been to on the trip evoked a sense of tranquillity. But this one felt different.

As I sat on a bench near the temple, surrounded by chōchin lanterns, feeling a cool breeze on my face and listening to the sound of drizzling rain and the faint noise of the nearby alley, I felt a sense of calm I hadn't felt in recent times.

I wasn't trying to make the most of the moment or intentionally trying to be present, I just was, without any effort.

The ambience, the mood and the tranquillity I felt there are difficult to explain in words, but here is a photo and a video I took before leaving the place that evening:

After my trip ended, and till now, I've regularly looked at the photos and videos from that temple in a cosy corner of Osaka whenever I needed to feel a bit at peace.

Although it's not quite the same as being there in person, there's a calming quality about those photos and videos.

I wanted to recreate the same aura for more places and have a collection of cosy sanctuaries I could teleport myself to when needed — while writing articles, before jumping onto the 8th meeting of the day, reading, etc.

For example:

What if I could recreate the calm expansiveness of working from a Nordic glass igloo?

That was how the idea of creating the Shakkei macOS app stemmed in my mind.

My wife has been an artist for over a decade, and I've been making apps for nearly that long, so we figured we would make a good team to bring this idea to life.

Shakkei scenes are different from setting a snowy peaks wallpaper.

Each scene in the app is made up of three elements that work together to recreate a multi-dimensional ambience:

• The desktop wallpaper sets an artistic first-person point of view of a realistic, cosy environment, such as a view from a glass igloo or inside a camper van parked beside a river.
• Subtle animated elements make the scene lively without being too distracting, such as snow falling outside the igloo or the gentle movement of warm sunlight from a mountain cabin window. You can turn off the animation if it's calling too much for your attention.
• Mindfully designed high-quality sound effects and background music that make you feel like you're there while still serving as a soothing element that elevates focus. You can choose to play sound effects with or without music or turn everything off when needed.

Every scene has been hand-crafted with care and attention to detail to give you that rich immersiveness:

The trial version of the app comes with one scene unlocked for you to use as long as you like.

Try it out and see if it invokes a sense of calmness in you as it does for me.

I hope it does. Enjoy the app.