What I Learned From Finishing My First Project (INTDEC) | devlog#002

#programming #webdev #buildinpublic #sideprojects

What This Post Is

This post is meant to bring closure to my INTDEC project. What I learned, how things went and what's next.

Why I Built INTDEC

INTDEC was honestly built as a way for me to start building and finishing my own project ideas. I wanted to create a portfolio made of things that were my own, not just following tutorials on how to build todos.

What Went Well

The visual aesthetic turned out just how I wanted it to - like a retro, forgotten terminal. The visual feedback on errors and warnings also came out well in my opinion.

What Didn’t Work Out

My plan was to learn and refactor based on feedback, but since my post went mostly under the radar and most other communities have rules that made the kind of feedback I wanted harder to get, that didn’t really happen.

Why I’m Moving On

Since it’s complete enough for now, I’m choosing to leave it as-is. It works, and that’s enough for this chapter. I’m ready to move on to building the next osakasync project.

What’s Next

I’ll probably return to INTDEC one day and add the things I originally planned, like a mobile UI and physical-to-virtual keyboard sync. My next project will be a short dungeon crawler raycasted from a 2D grid.

What I Actually Learned

Not every project gets seen, but the act of finishing still taught me more than tutorials ever could:

Limited response doesn’t mean the project was bad. It mostly means not many people saw it.
Finishing a project still matters, even when there's no audience. You prove to yourself that you can finish things
Motivation dips hard without feedback, and that's something to prepare for. Feedback shouldn't be the sole motivator behind creating
Starting is hard, but honestly taking a project to its closure is even harder

Project Breakdown Video

Final Thoughts

It stayed small in reach, but that doesn’t change what I learned from building it. It taught me to manage my expectations, both for the project itself and for how visible it might be.

Thanks for reading.

Live Demo: click here!
GitHub: view the source!
Video breakdown: watch on YouTube