Building a gameboy speaker from scratch. Kind of like a record player or mini disc player, but using gameboy and gameboy color games. Trying my best to document the process https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MQ16pvz3xeQ
Lots of fun and novel problems to solve across hardware, software, firmware, enclosure, legality, manufacturability! It also got me collecting random carts just to hear the incredible music locked away (some samples at the end of this video https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7naKAga8hAE )
Learning how to make custom PCBs and 3d printing. I really like Radio Taiso (daily calisthenics synced with music), so I made a dedicated speaker (https://www.taisospkr.com). It was fun to add new tools to my tool belt (ESP32, remote firmware updates, embedded website, streamlined wifi setup). Already have a new project based on a very similar architecture that I'm super excited about! Making PCBs and hardware has never been easier as a solo developer.
That's cool to see. I made a mobile game, Downwordly, that has the same mechanic in its puzzle mode. It came out almost five years ago and still has a decent set of versus players.
I'm more proud of a later word game that you can play free at https://wellwordgame.com/en If you give it a try, let me know what you think!
While I was in college, I made a half dozen games and apps for the danger hiptop (branded by T-Mobile as the Sidekick). We had a Microsoft recruiter on campus at Michigan State and it was right after Microsoft acquired danger and lost a bunch of customer data. I think the recruiter liked that I was asking about this issue and not begging for a job. They brought me back the next day to interview and then flew me out to Redmond for an on-site. Not only was the hiptop dev scene a formative experience for me skill-wise, it indirectly led me to Seattle and gave me the chance to work on Xbox, HoloLens, and more.
Lots of fun and novel problems to solve across hardware, software, firmware, enclosure, legality, manufacturability! It also got me collecting random carts just to hear the incredible music locked away (some samples at the end of this video https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7naKAga8hAE )