PLAYABLE NOW · SUMMER 2026
BROWSER GAME · THREE.JS + WEB AUDIO
Deep house, a manta ray, and my first iPod
A lighthearted rhythm game built from three favorite things: first playable in 48 hours with Claude Code, then tuned for two weeks.
Context
A browser game with touch, keyboard, controller, and Vision Pro input paths.
My role
I set the concept, interaction model, visual direction, music system, integration, testing, and final decisions. Claude Code generated and revised code under my direction.
ROLE • CONCEPT, DESIGN, DIRECTION
BUILD • THREE.JS + WEB AUDIO
INPUT • TOUCH, KEYS, CONTROLLER, SPATIAL
Free in supported desktop and mobile browsers. Nothing to install.
Gameplay
Why this one matters to me
I made my first iOS game in 2016, and it took six months. With Claude Code, this one reached a first playable in 48 hours. That speed moved my time into two weeks of integration, testing, and tuning.
The idea is personal: a lighthearted rhythm game starring my favorite sea animal, set to deep house, with my first iPod as the menu. You ride the beat through rings of light, nothing can kill you, and each supported surface has its own input path: touch, keys, controller, or spatial interaction.
- ROLE
- Concept, interaction, visual direction, music system, integration, and testing
- TIMELINE
- 48 hours to first playable, then two weeks of tuning
- MUSIC
- Procedural deep house, no recordings
- BUILT WITH
- Claude Code, Three.js, and Web Audio. No game engine.
Finished, playable, and free in your browser
48 hrs
from empty file to first playable
2 wks
of tuning until it felt right
4
input models: touch, keys, controller, spatial
How to read this
Build milestones and supported input paths from the finished browser game.
One distinct landmark per mix
Mt. Reef
the volcano launches you out of the water
The Glasshouse
rings under the ice shelf
The Migration
a spiral through the migrating pod
The Encore
the gold ring and the checkered finish
Every level needs a landmark you can name afterward. The rule that kept it honest: structure before decoration, so geometry has to frame, carry, enclose, launch, or reveal something. If a shape only looked good, it came out.
HOW IT PLAYS
Rhythm controls speed
THE LOOP
Boost on the kick and the water shoves you forward.
Chain rings and you are the melody: each one plays the next note of the mix's own scale, climbing as the streak grows. Sixteen in a row and the manta ignites.
THE STAKES
Miss a ring and your combo drops, never your life.
Stay sloppy and the silence rises from the trench to stalk your wake. Find the beat again and it cannot touch you.
THE FINISH
Every mix ends at the old DJ's monument.
His checkered banner is strung across the final gate. Cross it and the stage lights, the speakers wake, and the ocean is yours to swim free.
The menu is my 2005 iPod, scratches and all
I found my old iPod and made it the menu.
My parents gave me this iPod in 2005; the engraving on the back is theirs. Two decades later it came out of a drawer, and the UI designer in me knew exactly what it should become. Drag a thumb around the click wheel and the list ticks past in detents, the way it did in 2005. The scratches are drawn on. The familiar click wheel gives the menu a clear interaction cue before instructions appear.
Browser controls shaped for four surfaces
- IPHONE
- Drag anywhere and a thumbstick appears under your thumb.
- IPAD
- The same touch controls with a lot more ocean on screen.
- DESKTOP
- WASD or arrows to swim, space to boost on the kick.
- APPLE VISION PRO
- A spatial-browser path renders the ocean as a hand-controlled diorama.
A Bluetooth controller provides another input path where the browser exposes gamepad support.
The song and the level are the same data
THE MUSIC
A procedural deep house engine on raw Web Audio: synthesized kick, offbeat hats, claps, sidechained sub bass, detuned stabs, pads, arps, and a breakdown riser, scheduled by a lookahead sequencer. Nothing is a recording.
THE WORLD
Three.js with cel shading and ink outlines. The world plays the band: kelp bends to the sub bass, coral blinks with the stabs, marine snow twinkles with the hats, and a pressure ring leaves the ray on every kick.
THE PROOF
Courses and music share a seeded section model, so the same mix generates the same course on each run. 198 unit tests cover beat timing, scoring, and assists.
REFLECTION
Build the thing only you would build.
Deep house, a manta ray, and a two-decade-old iPod should not naturally belong together. Their specificity gives the game its identity.
The write-up ends here. The game is one click away.
Supports touch, keyboard, controller, and spatial input in compatible browsers.