Building a small game on the side

Most of my day is backend—APIs, services, data. But I like to build small games when I have the time. Nothing huge: a little 2D thing, a puzzle, or a prototype that never ships. It’s a different kind of problem-solving.

Coming from backend, the jump to “game loop, input, render” was weird at first. No REST, no database—just state, frames, and user input. I had to get comfortable with a different mental model. Once I did, it made me think more clearly about state and feedback in the stuff I build at work too.

If you’re a backend dev and you’ve never tried a tiny game or interactive side project, give it a shot. You don’t need a game engine; you can start with something minimal in the browser or a simple desktop framework. The goal isn’t to ship a hit—it’s to stretch how you think about systems and interaction.