Bear'ly Surviving

I was inspired by games like Cuphead, where the hand-drawn, frame-by-frame soul of the art dictates the code. I challenged myself to use "vibe-coding" to build a bridge between manual illustration and AI-assisted development, ensuring the project felt inherently human despite the tech behind it.

The game is hosted on a custom-built site designed to mimic the obscure, ad-filled gaming portals of the early internet. I even created my own "shady" ads to ensure the aesthetic felt authentic to those childhood memories.

The Protagonist: I chose a bear in a suit on a skateboard because the job search often feels inherently "off," like an animal trying to navigate a corporate world that wasn't built for it.

The Narrative: You are constantly chasing a car with a paper contract dangling in front of you like a carrot. No matter how fast you skate, the goal feels just out of reach while you dodge the demons of the job hunt.

The Symbols: Obstacles include "Best Boss" mugs, broken laptops, and "Jobs for Dummies" books. To counter the Motivation Meter, which drains as the search gets exhausting, I added flying hot dogs as bonus points, a personal nod to the year I spent living in Copenhagen.

This project was an experiment in using AI as a force multiplier. I didn't go in blind; I used my background in coding to act as the architect while letting AI handle the heavy lifting of the initial proof of concept.

Inherently Human Art: Every single frame was hand-drawn digitally in Procreate. I avoided automated shortcuts to ensure the animation felt human and textured, focusing on movement that felt specific and intentional.

Vibe-Coding with Claude: I treated Claude like a highly capable AI intern. I started with a proof of concept based on the classic Chrome dinosaur game and gradually layered in complexity. If the AI logic faltered, I could step in and refine the code manually to ensure the interaction felt exactly right.

The Technical Mix: I used the Phaser engine to manage sprites and animations, allowing me to play with frame rates to achieve a retro feel without resorting to a standard pixel-art aesthetic.

The greatest challenge of this project was not technical, but managerial. Because AI acted as an intern willing to implement every idea I came up with, I found it difficult to act as my own project manager. Without a human developer to say a feature was "out of scope," I often sidetracked myself with new ideas, which made the project take longer than anticipated.

The result is a living, playable portfolio that proves a creative needs both high-tech tools and high-touch craft to tell a modern story.