// FRONT-END ARCHITECTURE

RETRO NEWSPAPER PORTFOLIO & INTERACTIVE ESCAPE ROOM GAME

Tech Stack: Astro, HTML5 Canvas/JavaScript, CSS Multi-Column Layout

SITUATION

Traditional developer portfolios often rely on cookie-cutter templates that fail to engage visitors or showcase interactive engineering skills.

TASK

Build a high-performance portfolio themed around a 1989 broadsheet newspaper (“The Digital Chronicle”) while seamlessly embedding an interactive escape room puzzle without sacrificing site speed or vintage aesthetics.

ACTION

Leveraged Astro’s component-driven static site generation to render multi-column newspaper layouts with low asset overhead. Integrated a custom JavaScript game engine directly into the layout DOM to handle spatial navigation, inventory item tracking, and state persistence.

RESULT

Delivered a lightweight web experience that achieves near-instant page loads while keeping users engaged through interactive gamification and period-accurate UI design.

Developer Commentary: Combining static multi-column CSS layout flows with full interactive game logic allowed me to experiment with state management inside zero-JS-by-default component frameworks.