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SPNKr

Replacing a $30/month game server rental with a spare PC, then redesigning the dashboard out of default AI output.

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RoleSolo, Design & Build

DisciplineProduct Design · Art Direction · Frontend

StackNode · Socket.IO · SQLite · Vanilla JS

StatusRunning in production, at home

Context

Paying $30 a month to rent a game server, with a spare PC sitting idle.

My role

Solo: product design, art direction, and the build on Node, Socket.IO, SQLite and vanilla JS.

Outcome

Eight games self-hosted and controllable from Discord, open-sourced, with an art direction that a script enforces on every run.

Role & boundaries

I owned

The product: install, update, back up, and restart every server
The art direction spec, and the script that enforces it
The frontend, the server, and the Discord controls
Setup instructions written for humans and AI agents

Constraints

One spare home PC, home internet, port forwarding
The first dashboard was generated; the redesign had to undo its defaults
[Who plays on it, and what they asked for]

Overview

Eight games on a spare PC.

Replaced a $30/month game server rental with a spare PC running eight games, controllable from Discord. Then redesigned the dashboard out of default AI output: warm gunmetal instead of consumer blue-black, borders doing the work instead of shadows, with the art direction spec enforced by a script that checks sixteen rules against the code on every run.

$30

Monthly server rental retired

Games running on one spare PC

Art direction rules checked by script on every run

Before / After

The original SPNKr dashboard before the redesign — **Before.** The original design.

The redesigned compact SPNKr dashboard — **After.** The redesigned dashboard, compact view.

Key decisions

Self-host instead of renting

Options: Keep the $30/month rental; or run every server on a spare PC at home.
Why: [Beyond the money: control, more games, learning.] One machine now runs eight games.
Trade-off: [Draft: I became the ops team: uptime, updates, backups, and port forwarding, which is why the dashboard walks through them.]

Control it from Discord

Options: A dashboard only; or Discord controls alongside it.
Why: [Why Discord: it’s where the group already is.]
Trade-off: [What Discord can’t do that the dashboard can.]

Redesign out of default AI output

Options: Ship the first generated dashboard; or give it a real art direction.
Why: Warm gunmetal instead of consumer blue-black, borders doing the work instead of shadows. [What the default looked like and why it didn’t fit.]
Trade-off: [Time spent redesigning a tool only you and friends use; why it was worth it.]

Enforce the spec with a script

Options: A written art direction spec that people and agents are trusted to follow; or a script that checks sixteen rules against the code on every run.
Why: [Why: e.g. AI-generated changes drift back to defaults unless something checks them.]
Trade-off: [Rules only catch what they can see in code; what slipped through anyway.]

Looking back