Ten years ago I built Thrungames as a school project in gymnasium, the Danish upper secondary school. I wanted somewhere to put the small games I was making, and somewhere other people who were learning to code could share theirs.
A school project that didn't end
The project was handed in and graded, and that should have been the end of it. It wasn't. I kept working on it in evenings and weekends: developer profiles, game uploads, plays and likes, and eventually Thrunium, a small game engine with its own documentation, so new developers had something to build with.
None of it was planned. Every feature was something I wanted to learn how to build.
The hobby that became a career
Thrungames is where I learned most of what got me started as a developer: databases, servers, user accounts, security, and the humbling experience of real people finding bugs I never would have thought of. What started as a hobby turned into my career, and I owe a lot of that to this little site.
A fresh start for the tenth birthday
For the anniversary, Thrungames has been rebuilt from the ground up:
- a new backend and a faster, modern frontend
- a new look, Arcade Pop, with a dark mode
- share cards, so a game looks good when you send someone the link
- and this blog, so there's a place to tell you what's happening
Your games and profiles came along to the new site.
What's next
For a long time Thrungames ran quietly in the background. I want to change that and give it more focus: new features, new games, and more reasons to come back. I'll post about it here as it happens.
Thank you
To everyone who played a game, uploaded one, reported a bug or just stopped by over the last ten years: thank you. Here's to the next ten.
— Jonathan