The Cozy Ghost a small ghost and a black cat at home in a block-built living room
A Halloween living room built from blocks and seen from one corner: stone walls, a lit fireplace, jack-o'-lanterns and a grandfather clock that shows the real time. A small ghost drinks tea, reads, feeds the fire and carves pumpkins while a black cat naps, prowls and gets into trouble. Both of them notice your pointer.
Free to install. The Cozy Ghost unlocks with Pro, $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Cancel anytime.
What you see on every new tab
The Cozy Ghost shows one room, seen from a corner as if two walls had been lifted off a dollhouse: grey stone walls, an orange plank floor, a white brick fireplace, a bookcase, a sofa under a red-curtained window and a tea table on a red rug. A small white ghost lives here with a black cat. Each of them picks its own next thing to do, so no two tabs play out in the same order.
The ghost: it drinks tea on the sofa, calls a book down from the shelf and turns the pages, tosses a log on the fire and warms its hands, waters the plant, sweeps the floor, dances, strokes the cat and dangles a pompom on a string for it to leap at.
Pumpkins: now and then the ghost waves, floats out through the wall and comes back a few seconds later carrying a pumpkin. Later it carves it with a knife, chips flying, and a glowing face appears. It keeps up to three and carries the oldest one out when the floor is full.
The cat: it naps, washes, prowls, watches the fire, chases its tail and a ball of yarn, dashes round the room, joins the ghost on the sofa and pounces at the ghost's hem. It goes after the broom and swats at the drops from the watering can. Sometimes it paws the tea mug toward the edge of the table until the ghost comes to push it back.
The room: the fire flares when it is fed and settles again, each of the four carved pumpkins has its own wavering flame, steam rises from the teapot, and the pendulum of the grandfather clock swings once a second while its hands show your local time.
Nothing is a video. The room was painted once and ships as a set of pictures, and your graphics card adds its lights back together every frame so the fire, the candles and the lanterns can each flicker, dim or go out. The ghost, the cat and everything they carry are drawn live as small cubes with WebGL.
What it reacts to
Mouse: the ghost's eyes follow your pointer, and it giggles if you rest the pointer on it. Move the pointer over open floor and the cat runs after it, crouches, wiggles and pounces, for about half a minute before it loses interest.
Click: click the ghost and it jumps and spins. Click the cat and it purrs and a heart floats up. Click the ball of yarn to send it rolling with the cat after it. Click a candle to light it or snuff it, and the ghost comes over to put it right. Click the fire for a burst of sparks.
Music: nothing. This theme does not use music sync.
Night: after dusk the window turns from warm daylight to blue moonlight, the room dims, the wall lanterns come on and the ghost goes round lighting the nine candles. Now and then a draught blows some of them out and it lights them again. At half past eleven it blows them all out, and they stay out until five in the morning.
Free or Pro?Pro
Ambient New Tab is free to install, with three free themes. The Cozy Ghost is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview The Cozy Ghost full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.
Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
Pick The Cozy Ghost. Done.
The Cozy Ghost on a 1280×800 New Tab page.
Questions
Is it only for Halloween?
It is dressed for Halloween, with jack-o'-lanterns, bats on the wall and a ghost, but nothing in it checks the date. It looks and behaves the same all year.
Is The Cozy Ghost free?
It is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. It unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as it is released. Cancel anytime.
Why are the candles not lit?
By day they are out. The ghost lights them after dusk and blows them out at half past eleven at night. You can click a candle to light it yourself, but in the daytime the ghost will come over and blow it out again.
Does it work on my phone?
No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome and Edge on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.
