I Built My Portfolio as a Pixel Game
The Problem With Normal Portfolios
A few months ago, I started thinking about my portfolio. I looked at many developer portfolios for inspiration, and most of them were honestly really well made. They had smooth animations, beautiful layouts, and clean project sections.
But after opening so many of them, I started noticing something. They looked different, but they all followed almost the same idea. A hero section, some project cards, a few buttons, and a contact section at the end.
There is nothing wrong with that style. It works, and it looks professional. But after seeing so many similar websites, I felt like I didn’t want to make another portfolio that people would visit once and forget.
I wanted to create something that felt more personal. Something that showed not only what I build, but also how I like to build things.
Turning a Portfolio Into a World
Around that time, I realized I spend a lot more time exploring old 2D pixel games than browsing modern websites.
I enjoy walking around small worlds, checking random houses, talking to NPCs, and finding little details hidden around the map.
Then I had a simple thought.
Why not make my portfolio feel like one of those worlds?
That was the beginning of Goblin Town.
Instead of scrolling through a normal portfolio page, visitors can walk around a small pixel-art town inside their browser. Each place in the town has a purpose.
The Workshop is where my projects live. The Library contains my blog and notes. The Gallery Wall is where visitors can leave their doodles. The Church Gate is where people can come and say hello.
The town itself became my portfolio.
Building the Town
While creating Goblin Town, I wanted to keep things simple and understand every part of what was happening. I decided not to use a big game engine.
The whole game runs on a custom Canvas engine built with TypeScript. The movement, physics, collisions, dialogue, scenes, animations, and interactions are all handled by my own code.
The idea sounded simple at first. A character walking around a town. Some buildings. Some animations.
But once I started building, I realized how many small things are needed to make a world feel alive.
The character needed proper movement. Objects needed collisions. Doors needed to work. Every small detail had to connect together.
Fighting Bugs Like a Boss Battle
The funniest part was probably the collision system.
For almost a week, my character could walk through the main town hall like a ghost.
I spent hours checking positions, hitboxes, and physics calculations. Then one day, I opened the game, tested it again, and somehow the wall was finally working.
I honestly don’t even remember which line fixed it.
That happens a lot when building personal projects. You can spend days fighting one small problem, then suddenly everything works and you just move on to the next thing.
Sometimes those annoying bugs are also the moments where you learn the most.
Making It More Than Just a Portfolio
As the town grew, I wanted it to become more than just a place where I show my work.
I wanted visitors to leave something behind too.
That’s why I added the Gallery Wall, where people can draw their own doodles and hang them in the town, and the Town Square, where visitors can leave messages and talk with others.
Those small features changed the feeling of the project.
It stopped being just my portfolio and started becoming a small shared space on the internet.
The Small Details
There are many small things around the town that people might not notice immediately.
The moving night sky. The NPC conversations. The different scenes inside buildings. The sounds. The little interactions hidden around the map.
None of these things are necessary for a portfolio, but they are the reason Goblin Town feels like a place instead of just another website.
Why I Built It
I think that is what I enjoy most about personal projects.
They don’t always need to solve a huge problem or become the next big product. Sometimes it is enough to build something because you are curious, because you want to learn, or simply because you think it would be fun.
Goblin Town is my little corner of the internet where my projects, ideas, experiments, and random thoughts can live together.
It is still growing, and there will probably always be bugs hiding somewhere.
If you visit and fall through the floor or get stuck behind a tree, just consider it a hidden feature.
Welcome to Goblin Town.
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