Personal Games
The Journey: building a pixel-art browser adventure
A personal browser game turning a Bangladesh-to-Australia story into six chapters, with adventure and story modes, saved checkpoints and touch controls.
My role
Personal project creator, responsible for the story, product scope and playable browser experience, with AI-assisted creation.
The product idea
The Journey presents a personal story from Bangladesh to Australia as a pixel-art browser adventure. The challenge was to make that story accessible to people who wanted to play and people who wanted to follow the narrative.
The six-chapter structure gives the experience a defined scope. It turns the story into a sequence of playable and readable moments rather than an open-ended game.
My responsibility
As the creator, I owned the personal story and the browser experience: how visitors enter, choose a mode, unlock access and continue through the chapters. The project brings product scope and hands-on implementation into the same piece of work.
AI assistance was part of creation. I owned the product scope and the designed adventure and story experience.
Product decisions visible in the game
Adventure and story modes provide two ways into the same personal narrative. The choice recognises that a visitor may be interested in the story without wanting the same level of gameplay interaction.
Both modes share an email unlock. That introduces a step before the experience begins, so it is part of the onboarding trade-off. The public entry needs to make the requirement clear before a visitor chooses to start.
Keyboard and touch controls support different browser contexts. Saved checkpoints provide a way to continue rather than requiring the entire six-chapter journey to be completed in one sitting.
What was delivered
The site hosts the six-chapter game on its canonical /the-journey route. The shipped experience includes the mode choice, shared email unlock, pixel-art worlds, keyboard and touch interaction, and saved checkpoints.
These behaviours provide useful acceptance criteria: the chosen mode should survive the unlock flow, inputs should work in their supported browser context, and returning players should be able to continue from saved progress.
Delivered capabilities
- Six chapters following a personal Bangladesh-to-Australia story.
- Adventure and story modes with a shared email unlock.
- Keyboard and touch controls for the browser experience.
- Saved checkpoints for returning players.
Explore the evidence
- Explore The Journey
See the mode choice and public entry. Email unlock is required to begin.
- Read the mobile browser game UX story
Supporting discussion of input, feedback and recovery in The Journey.
- Read about acceptance criteria for AI-assisted development
The connection between specifying behaviour and reviewing a build.
Project scope
A personal project covering six chapters, two modes, browser input and checkpoint recovery.
Both adventure and story mode begin with a newsletter email unlock.
Product foundation
Next.js · TypeScript · Canvas