Side quests, contests, and the stuff I build to get learnt on something new.
Client work pays the bills. This is the other half of the practice — the contests, custom addons, internal tools, and weekend experiments where I push craft beyond what the brief asks for. Every chapter below is something I wasn't qualified for when I started, and was a little less unqualified for when I finished.
WoW addons for Project Ascension
Project Ascension is a Wrath-era (3.3.5a) private World of Warcraft server with non-standard combat-log internals. Off-the-shelf retail addons don't work. I learnt Lua and the WoW addon API to build my own — three live, free, community-distributed addons under The PenFifteen Club™.
Things I built because the deadline said so.
Contests, R&D for upcoming services, and prototypes I write up so future-me remembers what I learnt. Each entry is a chapter — click in for the full case study with playable demos.
Champions Whitelabel Backend
Turning Kyle's booking + staff portal into a multi-tenant platform other adaptive studios can run.
Next service offering
When I add a new service to DustinTN, I write the journey here first — what I built, what broke, what I'd charge for it.
The same energy goes into your project.
If you're a recruiter or founder reading this — the contests are how I stay sharp. The client work below is where it ships.