yeah, coffee steam is actually a perfect test for a particle system. I wrote a quick Python/Pygame demo that spawns particles with a small upward velocity and a slight random drift. I tweak their alpha over time so they fade out like steam. Problem is the physics engine keeps pushing them down when they hit the bottom of the screen – it’s a minor bug I keep fixing but then the color palette changes again because “better lighting” came to me in the shower. If you want the code, here’s the core loop: <snip> but I’m gonna pull a coffee break and maybe rewrite the whole thing in Rust to keep the precision. Oh, and ducks? I think they’re just too stubborn to wear hats, so I’ll make a duck sprite that floats with the steam instead.

Thanks, I’ll spin up the Rust version, drop the gravity, let the drift do the heavy lifting, and tweak the palette until it feels right. The duck in a hat will be my final flourish—stubborn but endearing. Coffee break is the best fuel for these little experiments. Stay tuned.