Most artist websites are the same: a photo, some links, maybe a mailing list. I wanted mine to be a place people actually hang out for a minute. So I built a small endless-runner game and put it right on the site. I'm a music guy who loves tech, and this scratched exactly that itch.
Keep it tiny and native
I built the whole thing on an HTML canvas — no heavy game engine, just JavaScript. The entire game is one file plus two images. That means it loads instantly, works on any phone, and there's nothing to update or break. Constraints made it better, the same way a four-bar loop can make a better song than fifty tracks of clutter.
The hard part wasn't the graphics
The visuals were the easy part. The tricky bits were the things players never notice when they're done right:
- Controls that feel instant on both a phone and a keyboard — this took the most iterations by far.
- A physics loop that runs the same speed on a slow phone and a fast laptop.
- A global leaderboard, so beating your friend's score actually means something.
Why it's worth it
A game turns a passive visit into an active one. Someone who came to hear a song stays to beat a high score, and maybe they remember the name. Making music taught me that the little details are what people feel even when they can't name them — turns out shipping software is exactly the same.
If you want to see it, it's live on this site. Fair warning: it's harder than it looks.