DEV Community: Tayyaba Shaikh

Get Punished For Pressing Space at the Wrong Time

Tayyaba Shaikh — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 17:41:08 +0000

A few days ago I played Google's Red Light, Green Light game and immediately had the dangerous thought every developer eventually has:

How hard can it be to build something like this?

As it turns out, harder than I expected T-T

I wasn't trying to recreate Google's version or build a perfect Squid Game clone. I just thought it'd be fun to make my own take on the idea and see how much tension I could create from a single button.

The entire game revolves around one action.

Press Space.
Yeah, That's it.

When the light is green, pressing the spacebar moves your contestants closer to the finish line.

When the light is red... someone gets eliminated.

Simple rules. Terrible consequences ;-;

What surprised me while building it was how quickly a basic mechanic became genuinely so stressful. When you're watching the game, it feels easy. When you're playing, you're suddenly staring at the screen waiting for the doll to turn around and wondering if you should risk one more move.

That feeling was what I wanted to capture.

The project started as a small experiment but slowly grew into a proper mini game. I ended up adding animated contestants, a turning doll, randomized red and green phases, sound effects, progress tracking, win and lose screens, mobile support, and a bunch of small visual details that made the whole thing feel more alive.

One of my favorite parts was working on the game flow itself.

The countdown.
The moment the arena lights up.
The switch from green to red.
The instant regret after pressing Space at exactly the wrong time.

Those little interactions ended up being more interesting to build than the movement system itself.

And no, it's definitely not a perfect recreation of Squid Game or Google's version.

It's simply my own interpretation of the classic Red Light, Green Light challenge built with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Tailwind CSS.

The funny thing is that while testing it, I probably eliminated more contestants than any real player ever will.

So if you decide to try it, I'd love to know:

How many contestants survive under your command? :o

Live Link: https://notthatslayer.github.io/red-green-light/

A Tiny Operating System in the Browser! :D

Tayyaba Shaikh — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:13:45 +0000

I Built a Tiny Operating System in the Browser (For Absolutely No Practical Reason T-T)

One of my favorite things about learning web development is building things that make me stop and think: "Hold on, can I actually make this?"
This time, the answer was:"kinda?"

So I built a mini operating system in the browser using JavaScript.
Not a real operating system, obviously.
Nobody is installing this on their laptop anytime soon.
But it does have:
• A desktop with icons
• Draggable windows
• A taskbar
• A start menu
• A calculator
• A notepad with saved notes
• A paint app
• A terminal with commands
• A clock and calendar
• A fake browser
• Window controls like minimize, maximize, and close

I wanted to see if I could recreate the feeling of using a desktop environment using only front-end development concepts I already knew.

At first it sounded easy.
Then I started adding windows.
Then those windows needed to move.
Then they needed to stay on top of each other correctly.
Then they needed to minimize.
Then they needed to show up in the taskbar.
And suddenly a "small project" became a lot less small -_-"

One thing I enjoyed building was the window management system.
Every time a window opens, it gets moved to the front. Minimized apps stay in the taskbar. Clicking a taskbar app restores it.
Nothing revolutionary, but seeing it actually behave like a desktop felt surprisingly satisfying, not gonna lie!

The notepad was another fun addition.
It saves notes using localStorage, which means whatever you type is still there when you come back later.

The terminal is probably my favorite part though.
Typing commands like:help, date, time, or even opening apps through commands made the project feel much more like a tiny operating system instead of a collection of random windows.

A lot of it is still simple.
The browser isn't really a browser.
The file explorer doesn't manage files.
The settings page doesn't do much yet(Anything to be precise ;-;)
But that was never the point.

The goal was to experiment, learn, and see how many desktop-like features I could recreate with JavaScript.
And honestly, I learned more than I expected while building it.

If you were building something like this, what feature would you add next??

I'd genuinely love some feedback! :))

Project link:
https://notthatslayer.github.io/Mini-OS/
(Please use a PC or laptop to use all the features nicely)

A Platform Where Messages Self-Destruct After a Minute, Yeah I Made That :)

Tayyaba Shaikh — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:58:42 +0000

Have you ever had a thought you just needed to get out of your head, but also didn't want it sitting around forever?

That idea stuck with me for a while, and a lot of platforms inspired me to create this.

So I built a small website where you can write a message, send it, and it disappears after a minute.

No accounts. No history. No "your message has been saved forever somewhere on the internet"

Just a short moment where it exists, and then it's gone.

Why I made it: The idea wasn't anything complicated.

I just liked the thought of a space where you can say something and not worry about it sticking around.

Most platforms are the opposite of that. Everything is permanent. Everything is stored. Even random thoughts from years ago are still sitting somewhere in a database.

So I wanted to try something different. Something a bit lighter.

How it works: You type a message into a box, hit send, and it appears on the screen as a little bubble.

Then a timer starts.

After 60 seconds, the message disappears automatically.

That's it.

It's built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Nothing fancy.

The main thing I had to figure out was handling the timer properly and making sure messages actually get removed from the page without breaking anything.

At one point during testing, I messed it up and messages were disappearing almost instantly. Which technically worked, just not in a very useful way.

What I learned: This was a small project, but I still learned a few things from it.

Even simple ideas get a bit tricky once you start building them.

Something like "just remove a message after 60 seconds" sounds easy, until you actually have to handle multiple messages, timing, and cleanup properly.

I also realized that tiny interactions change how something feels.

A message that stays forever feels different from one that disappears quickly, even if the actual feature is simple.

Try it out!! ^_^

If you want to test it, here it is:

https://notthatslayer.github.io/Venting-Platform/

Lastly, It's a small project, and it's not trying to be anything big.
Just something I built while experimenting and learning JavaScript a bit more.
I'll probably look at it later and think of things I could improve, but okay.

For now, it exists for a minute at a time :)