A big ole stack of one-off projects in 2025
I actually wrote quite a bit of code in 2025! While my professional life was centered around AI enablement for my teams and getting the big launch out this year to customers, I did a fair amount of personal projects.
So this is just a quick hits list for 2025 of some fun personal projects I worked on, all of which have source available, are local-first and do not require a back-end. Mostly javascript, always client-side. Many were written with signifant AI enablement, I’m finding that my AI workflow anymore is comparible to those few years I was leading R&D as an IC developer, only instead of interns and graduate students working with me to refine prototypes, it’s AI. Is it good for our profession? I honestly don’t know, but I doubt it. Is it incredibly fun and rewarding? Yes, 1000% yes.
PicoCalc
Back in April, I was messing with the default basic interface on my picocalc (pi pico h1), and wanted a better file browsing shell interface. You can find that here: Github Repo
InboxZero
Around the same time, I took about 30 seconds to code up a button that throws confetti and plays trumpets, a more visceral inbox zero. Hardly worth mentioning, but again fun :)
Streak
I’ve had significant health issues this year, and this summer I was struggling with going to the gym every day. I wrote this little app ‘streak’, it bascially takes (or generates) your query parameter and sets a cookie for whenever you press the button, keeping a running log of when you did that thing. Celebratory confetti if you did it less than 1 day prior.
Visualizer
I loved winamp 25 years ago. LOVED IT. All my music (mp3s), customization, but most of all visualizers!! I put a record on this summer, and realized that I didn’t have an easy way to load up winamp quickly on whatever system I was on. So this is just a microphone-input visualizer that supports all of winamps visualization plugins via milkdrop. Again, client-side only, all javascript. I find myself using this one a lot actually.
Solitaire
Remember back in Covid, I designed that solitaire variant? I wrote a simulator for it to help play-test and balance, but folks wanted to actually play it. So, that’s what this is, a webapp to play my weird solitare variant.
People Grid
A good amount of my job in engineering leadership is around team formation, run rate management, and organizational design. When I want to scratch something up real quick, figma is a pretty good tool, but I don’t like to pay for simple tools with too many features, or large corporations. People grid is just a simple org design tool that I use to sketch up team formations and simple team diagrams. A little rough around the edges, but I end up using this one all the time.
Poke (Bar Game)
A good buddy of mine had an idea for a bar game. It tests your reflexes, then always tells you that you’re too drunk to drive. Cheeky right? We did it up fun with some graphics and delighters.
Web Flight (flight sim concept)
I always loved flying games, especially arcade ones. Superflight is one of my favorite casual games ever made. I started on a basic web flying game, but later pivoted the idea into asteroid miner. Here’s the original webflight prototype.
PsyRunner (mobile runner game)
I miss flash games, and only feel that lately javascript development is starting to feel like what simple flash games development felt like 20 years prior. There was one, it was kind of based on the forest of endor chase, where you would avoid triangles in a straight line. This is a modern update to that format, with joystick, mouse, and mobile touch controls so you can play on your phone. Actually pretty fun!
Asteroid Miner (3d Asteroid Mining Arcade Sim)
I have put so, so many hours into No Man’s Sky. That’s a team that continues to impress, and I keep coming back. Ironically, most playthroughs I start to build-up, then get distracted and go asteroid mining. Flying through space, busting asteroids for minerals, upgrading my ship. It’s just a fun casual game loop. So, I’ve started to work on a game that is just that, 3d space mining. Still some rough edges, but by far the most impressive/complex project I worked on personally in 2025. Full joystick or keyboard/mouse controls, graphics are pretty decent, and I make regular updates on Fridays.
2d JS Game Boilerplate (boilerplate for 2d javascript webgames)
Ever have a game that really sparks your creativity? Donkey Kong Bananaza was that game for me in 2025. I have so many 2d game concepts I’m going to try out, just based on fun little mechanics they threw in. To start, I’ve created a simple boilerplate for 2d games client-side javascript (you know… stuff like bounding box, mini-map, joystick support and movement controls.)
So, last year I committed to releasing more things that spark joy, and more little projects. I remembered to make space to work on them, but only now am I actually releasing some stuff into the wild. Hey, progress is progress :D