🔥 From Firefighter to Game Dev: Why I’m Building a Bias-Exploring PWA (and Managing It Solo)

Joel Asplund — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:00:58 +0000

After 8 years as a firefighter, I saw firsthand how bias, culture, and silence shape experience inside the fire service.

Now, I’m learning full-stack development to build a game that tells those stories and challenges players to see them differently.

🎮 The Game I'm Building

The game is a progressive web app (PWA) built around a simple but powerful mechanic:

🧍 One fire station. Two perspectives. Same events.

In one scene, you’re a white male recruit experiencing normal onboarding.
Swipe the camera and suddenly you’re a woman or minority recruit facing skepticism, exclusion, or silent pressure.

It’s a narrative-driven experience designed to raise awareness of how bias works in subtle, institutional ways, especially in places that pride themselves on "team culture" and "tradition."

🧠 Why I Chose a PWA

A PWA (Progressive Web App) is a web-based app that:

✅ Works offline

✅ Can be installed on any device (no app store approval)

✅ Runs fast on desktop, tablet, or mobile

✅ Is lightweight and frictionless for users

Perfect for:

🧯 Fire departments and DEI trainers
🧪 Classroom use or mental health seminars
🔗 Quick, no-barrier sharing across organizations

It keeps the focus on story, interaction, and reflection—not big file sizes or complicated installs.

🧱 How I'm Managing It Solo

Building this game solo means I had to treat it like a real project, not just an idea.

Here’s how I’ve structured it:

✔️ Defined a Lean MVP

Just 6–8 key scenes, two characters, and a core mechanic: swipe perspectives.

✔️ Created a Work Breakdown Structure

I broke the game into:

Planning
Design
Core development
PWA features
Testing
Launch

✔️ Made a Gantt Chart

To stay on track and avoid burnout, I plotted my timeline over six months with part-time hours.

🛣️ Next Steps

🔁 Finalizing story flow and key dialogue choices
🧪 Testing swipe-based transitions
🎨 Designing minimalist visuals that feel heavy when needed
📋 Building a survey system to track reflection and bias awareness

💬 Why This Matters

I’m building this not just to learn code, but because I believe games can reveal invisible systems, build empathy, and challenge culture in a way nothing else can.

If you're a solo dev, a narrative designer, or someone using tech to tell uncomfortable truths—let’s connect. I’d love to hear your approach.

🙌 Bonus

If you'd like to see how I’m managing the project (charter, Gantt, WBS), let me know. I'd be happy to share templates or lessons learned with you.

Tags:

#gamedev #pwa #webdev #narrativedesign #projectmanagement #solodev #diversityintech

From Firefighter to Game Dev: Why I’m Building a Perspective-Shifting PWA

Joel Asplund — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 22:31:20 +0000

I spent 8 years working as a firefighter, where I witnessed not just physical emergencies, but social ones, bias, exclusion, and cultural gaps that played out in ways many people didn’t even notice. I later pursued a degree in Human Services to gain a deeper understanding of systems and human behavior. Now, I’m learning to code because I want to tell those stories in a venue that is relevant and meaningful.

I’m building a Progressive Web App (PWA) game that allows players to experience significant events in the life of a firehouse from two perspectives: that of a white male recruit and a female or minority recruit. The events are the same, but the experience couldn’t be more different. It’s an experiment in empathy, bias awareness, and interactive storytelling—and also my way of learning JavaScript, service workers, and frontend frameworks. I’m starting with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on Codecademy. I’ll eventually incorporate React or possibly Phaser for interaction, and I plan to document my progress here.

I don’t have a CS degree, but I do have unique experiences, perspective, curiosity, and a strong drive to make technology more human. If you’ve walked a similar path—or are curious about narrative games, public safety culture, or DEI in design I’d love to connect.

Thanks,
Joel Asplund

DEV Community: Joel Asplund