since i was 9, i’ve always loved making things on the internet.
it’s been a fundamental source of my joy and drive towards a greater purpose—to leverage my digital creations to make life a little easier for everybody.
from early experiments with code and digital art to twitch streaming and launching websites that aim to make a dent, creating digitally isn’t just something i do; it’s a core part of who i am.
here’s a timeline of my ongoing journey as a digital creator from 2013 until now. i’m currently focused on turning this journey into a sustainable career.
tldr (for busy recruiters):
- primary expertise: full-stack development with an emphasis on product design
- i wear many hats:
- cross-platform mobile dev (react native / flutter)
- ai → software integration
- video production
- digital art & ui/ux
- copywriting
- talk to me or send me your requirements for a free mini-mvp
timeline
2013 - scratch & sploder
- began coding on scratch and made games on sploder.
- my mom signed me up for a class at my local park district. this was my first exposure to coding, making random games & projects on scratch.
- flash games (rip) were the craze back then—i’d play and make games on sploder, the easiest way to build and launch flash games. think roblox but for flash.
2014 - school ipad art
- first exposure to digital art. used piccollage on my school ipad, downloaded random images from google that i found cool, and grouped them into little “albums”.
- made silly short-films and trailers using imovie templates and animations on flipaclip.
2016 - paint.net & roblox
- ventured into paint.net, an open-source photoshop alternative, making more sophisticated designs.
- started getting into roblox. played sandbox games like sandbox (1) and miner’s haven, building setups and creations for others to see and try out.
2017 - google sites
- learnt basic html and made my own google site called “audric’s stuff” with bypassed flash games and shared it with friends. had 50-100 daily active users throughout the year. made a 3-part series of sites as each one got shut down by my middle school’s internet blocker lol.
- made viral undertale fan projects on scratch, moved on from the platform after december.
2018 - roblox economy
- immersed myself in the roblox creator economy.
- began coding in lua and sold roblox hacks on an exploiter forum called v3rmillion.
- learnt blender and sold wallpapers of people’s roblox characters i made on paint.net.
2020 - content creation
- expanded into content creation.
- launched a gaming youtube channel and taught myself vegas pro 19 (learning premiere rn)
- began twitch streaming. gathered an audience of 20 viewers playing minecraft and hosted a brawlhalla tournament. covid made getting an online audience much easier.
2021 - arduino & cad
- tinkered with (online) arduino circuits and cad design.
- designed hardware products for arduino circuits + cad design using tinkercad + autodesk 360.
- made them irl in my high school’s hardware lab for a cool class.
2022 - internship & early ai w/python
- taught myself python and landed an internship at a local software company. learnt natural language processing and made a project that could storytell with ai. (imagine those choose your own adventure games but you could type anything on it)
- attended my first hackathon, got 2nd place. learnt full-stack web dev using python + javascript + firebase.
2023 - college research, projects, & hackathons
- made fun python projects: a guitar-hero style game that converted mp3 to tracks real-time, a discord bot that was basically pokemon with gambling, and more.
- made a twitter clone as part of a uiuc research lab to study the contagion effect within online social networks. learnt the legendary stack: nextjs + react + supabase.
- shipped a basic prototype of illineats.com through my first hackathon at buildillinois.
2024 - building & shipping @ iventure + buildspace
- made this viral resume template on overleaf for software engineers looking to get past screens (#1 on google for ‘swe resume template’).
- did another hackathon (hackillinois) and shipped stratus.boo, top 5 for best dev tool. on standby for now.
- built datapull.io, an ai software tool for sales teams and small companies selling b2b to local businesses. joined as a founding engineer → cto through iventure accelerator.
- shipped illineats.com to iprove the uiuc dining hall experience throughbuildspace n&w s5. hit 1k+ users within first week then got shut down by the university :(
fall 2024 (now) - digital garden, agency, and campus initiatives
- created this garden as my space to cultivate ideas, share my journey, and continue growing—both personally and as a creator.
- founded forma labs, a software + design agency aimed to create quality user experiences on the web for businesses looking for authentic brands.
- began the better media initiative, a life-long journey to pushing more positive, informative, inspirational, and valuable information onto mainstream media.
- started the weekend project at uiuc, where students
- building in sf → soon
being a digital creator is about learning and making ideas real. each project fuels my passion and leads to more exploration.
explore these chapters of my journey. maybe something here will inspire your own projects.