I recently moved to Berlin and needed to stand out in the job applications. Instead of a traditional portfolio, I built an interactive pixel-art game where visitors walk through my career journey:
The main game world - walk around and discover my journey!
Analytics dashboard to track visitor interactions
Mobile experience with virtual joystick controls
The Challenge 🎯
As a senior backend developer (Java, Python, Go), this was my first time touching TypeScript, so be gentle! 😅
Tech Stack 🛠️
- Frontend: React + TypeScript ⚛️
- Backend: Go (Gin) 🐹
- Database: MongoDB 🍃
What I Built 🏗️
- Interactive 2D world with WASD movement 🕹️
- Career timeline (buildings = companies, statues = tech stack) 🏢
- Quest system and analytics dashboard 📊
- Mobile-friendly with touch controls 📱
Key Learning 💡
- React hooks felt like magic coming from backend ✨
- TypeScript caught tons of bugs (worth the initial frustration) 🐛
- CSS is harder than scaling distributed systems 😅
Assets 🎨
- Environments: Midjourney (for speed) 🤖
- Character sprites: Created by a friend 👨🎨
- Planning to do custom pixel art later ⏰
This 3-week sprint taught me more about frontend than any tutorial. Sometimes the best way to learn is to build something you're excited about! 🚀
Looking for backend opportunities in Berlin 🇩🇪 - this project definitely helped me stand out in applications.
🔗 Links
Please give me some clap! 🗿 What creative approaches have you used to showcase your skills? 💭
Tags: #react #typescript #golang #portfolio #career #webdevelopment #berlin #gamedev
Top comments (2)
really fantastic project u had there.
the pixel art also nice and love the minimap. You even well documented it and pay attention to responsiveness. Great job.
Love this approach! My first real frontend project also felt like a wild mix of fun and chaos, but it taught me way more than just tutorials ever did - did you find any tech stack part way tougher than you expected?