Building in public—wins, lessons, and experiments
Phase 2 complete! Major UX polish achieving smooth story flow—1 SPACE per line with auto-advance after typewriter. Fixed double-SPACE issues, optimized handler order, improved pacing. Enhanced combat UI with better targeting. Save system improvements. Polished demo ready with all core systems working perfectly.
Completed comprehensive design refinement for enterprise invoice processing platform—137,000+ words of production-ready documentation. Added complete database schema (5 tables), full API spec (15+ endpoints), file storage architecture, monitoring setup, and security guides. Quality improved from 62.5% to 100% development-ready. Week 1 development starts Monday.
Major upgrade to the automation hub. Migrated from SQLite to PostgreSQL 16 with tuned performance settings. Added Ollama for local AI workflows. Created backup/restore scripts with automated scheduling. Hardened security with network isolation, resource limits, and comprehensive documentation.
Added settings system with typewriter speed control and 7 comprehensive tech stack manuals. Consolidated docs from 10 folders to 5 (design, dev, lore, planning, story). Now at 47 files across 20,000+ lines of documentation.
Added tutorial retry system—no more game over on tutorial combat. Created CLI game research docs analyzing menu patterns and RPG mechanics. Retry > game over for tutorials.
Major UX improvements: color-coded dialogue by speaker type, emotion indicators as emoji, scene progress indicator, damage/heal number highlighting, and ASCII art title screen. Small UX fixes compound into better feel.
Transformed the main page from content dump to hub. Simplified Lab section with preview cards, reduced Updates to 3 items, redesigned About section with prominent quote and card grid. Better visual hierarchy and consistent styling throughout.
Phase 2 complete! Built file-based save system with 3 manual slots + auto-save. Saves persist to ~/.beggars-sect/saves/ with story state sync. Auto-save triggers at choices, combat, and chapter transitions. Released v0.2.0 with full save/load UI.
Built complete story system with StoryEngine, 7-scene Prologue (~20-25 min playtime), and full UI. Content types include narration, internal monologue, dialogue, choices, and exploration. Story ↔ Combat integration working—combat triggered from story returns to story on completion.
Built full ATB combat system with DEX-based turn order, 15+ techniques with combo roles (starter/followup/finisher), pattern-based AI with boss phases. Combat UI includes action menu, technique selector with chi costs, stance switching, turn queue preview, and combat log. The game is now playable!
Transitioned from design to implementation. Built complete TypeScript type system, singleton GameStore with save/load, CharacterFactory with 11 enemy templates and 3 bosses, and Ink-based CLI shell with title screen and menus. Published v0.1.0 with standalone executables.
Launched beggars-sect.genkaw.com—a dedicated showcase for the game. Full landing page with Story, Paths, Chi System, Combat, and Journey sections. Responsive design, 3-mode theme toggle (light/dark/system), and smooth scroll navigation. The game now has its own home.
Transformed The Beggars Sect from linear chapters into a fully non-linear narrative. Created 3 paths (Blade, Stream, Shadow), 3 endings (Destroyer, Reformer, Wanderer), and 15,000+ lines of documentation. Each playthrough is different based on your choices.
Major platform upgrade: dark mode toggle (cycle through light/dark/system), RSS feed for updates, smooth view transitions between pages, OG images for social sharing, and self-hosted fonts for better performance. Also cleaned up duplicate navigation and removed unused Connect section.
Massive lore session for The Beggars Sect. Created an original chi cultivation system with 8 aspects, 12 martial arts sects, complete history timeline, and deep character profiles. The core innovation: Inverse Chi—power from what others call emptiness.
Created a comprehensive design system documenting our Japanese minimalist aesthetic. Applied it to the Beggars Sect page—now matching the home page's elegant spacing, gradient dividers, and breathing room.
Added a Projects dropdown to the navigation and built a full showcase page for The Beggars Sect. Progress tracker, roadmap, dev log—building in public with proper visibility.
Enhanced site with Open Graph meta tags for social sharing, new minimalist favicon, and a custom 404 page with Japanese aesthetic. Small refinements that make the platform feel more complete.
After creating 2,000+ lines of design docs, we scoped down to an achievable 12-week MVP. Created comprehensive planning docs, feedback system design, and a dedicated dev log page. Building in public starts now.
Launched first game development project—a CLI RPG with AI-powered procedural content. Design-first approach: complete documentation before coding. First game in the Martial Arts Haven universe.
Set up my first remote-accessible homelab with Cloudflare Tunnel, ttyd web terminal, and 2FA authentication. Now I can work from anywhere—even controlling this Claude session from bathala itself.
Defined the ultimate goal: financial independence through automation. This isn't just learning—it's building toward something bigger. Claude + n8n as the core power duo.
Completely restructured the site with a data-driven, modular architecture. This is no longer just a portfolio—it's a platform that will evolve with every experiment and discovery.
23 updates since Dec 2025
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