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Start Screen
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Game Design 2
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Game Design 1
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Game Over Screen
Inspiration
Pulse Run was inspired by games like 140. As a music teacher and musician, I kept wondering why there weren't more games out there combining the fun of gaming with rhythm and music, so I decided to build one myself.
What it does
Pulse Run generates a unique song every day from a daily seed. The beat evolves every 8 bars, adding more speed and more instruments as you run - the music is the level. Every player worldwide runs to the same track each day, competing on the same leaderboard.
How I built it
I built the game with Claude Code, iterating function by function and layering in the music generation engine over 10+ builds. My process was a simple loop:
Play the game → ask what's missing → think like the player (someone who wants a quick runner on Reddit during their commute) → describe it → build it → test it → repeat.
Challenges I ran into
Getting the seeded music generation right took a lot of time and many very specific descriptions of what I actually wanted to hear. The first attempts produced mashed, atonal sound snippets, just weird generated noise. Aligning the starts and breaks to the bars also took several rounds of trial and re-describing before the whole track locked into time.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I turned my idea of combining arcade gameplay with music into fully working software. Having started programming a few years ago with just Python and HTML, I never expected that, with the tools now available to the public, I'd actually be able to bring one of my ideas to life.
What I learned
Testing is a vital part of prototyping. The single most important shift is moving your point of view from developer to user. That's how you catch bugs and UX problems early, while they're still easy to fix without breaking the whole game process.
What's next for Pulse Run
I'd love for Pulse Run to become a hidden gem: a daily competitive game for commuters and anyone who wants to unwind but doesn't have much time. Beyond that I would love to include real music. I want Pulse Run to become a platform that promotes new artists and gives them a way to reach listeners without paying for expensive ads or signing away their rights to major labels.
Built With
- claude-code
- json
- typescript
- web-audio-api
