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Beavs Arcade

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What? #

Beavs Arcade was the first project I ever worked on as part of the OSU App Development Club. My teammate and I set out to create a retro online gaming website featuring small, classic arcade-style games built from scratch using JavaScript.

This project was a major milestone for me — not only was it my first time using JavaScript, but it was also my very first GitHub repository. Everything from basic syntax to version control was new territory, and it marked the beginning of my journey into software development.

Why? #

At the time, I had almost no experience in web development. I wanted to challenge myself by building something tangible and interactive rather than following a course or watching tutorials. Working on this project gave me a hands-on introduction to front-end development, game logic, and the collaborative side of programming through Git.

We decided on simple, nostalgic games to keep things approachable while still pushing ourselves to learn. What started as a small club project quickly became a foundational learning experience that shaped how I approach development today.

How? #

We developed three games during the project, each one representing a new layer of learning and complexity:

  1. Tic-Tac-Toe:
    Our first game and the one where I learned the basics of JavaScript. I built the entire logic from scratch without relying on tutorials. It was a great introduction to DOM manipulation and fundamental game structure.

  2. Pong:
    To better understand game loops and object-oriented programming, I followed a tutorial in another language (Processing) and translated the logic into JavaScript. This process helped me see how similar concepts can be expressed differently across languages.

  3. Snake:
    Our most challenging game. I didn’t use a single full tutorial for this one; instead, I studied how Snake worked conceptually and wrote the logic myself. Although we didn’t finish it during the hackathon, I kept working on it during spring break and eventually completed it.

Even though our project placed third in the beginner category, it felt like a huge win. I came away from it with confidence, curiosity, and the satisfaction of having built something from the ground up.

Feel free to check out the project on Github