Holiday.exe

Holiday.exe (Christmas Gift)

Holiday.exe is not a product, a startup idea, or a portfolio experiment.

It is a personal holiday application built as a Christmas gift, a piece of software whose primary goal was emotional impact, not scalability, growth, or technical impressiveness. Even though it accidentally became technically impressive anyway.

This project exists at the intersection of engineering, design, play, and care.

What It Is

Holiday.exe is an interactive, game-like web application that unfolds as a narrative experience.

On the surface, it looks like a stylized terminal and retro-futuristic game. Underneath, it is a carefully choreographed journey: authentication, exploration, puzzles, memories, and ultimately a message that could not be delivered any other way.

It combines:

• A custom game loop and interactive mechanics
• Audio, animation, and visual storytelling
• Personal photos, inside jokes, and shared history
• A final reveal that reframes everything that came before it

There is exactly one intended user. The app was designed, tuned, and shipped for her.

Why It Exists

Most software is built to satisfy requirements written by committees. This one was not.

I wanted to build something that:

• Could not be bought
• Could not be replicated by a template
• Could not be reduced to a list of features

This project was a reminder of why I started programming in the first place: to create experiences, not just interfaces.

The deadline was Christmas morning.
The KPI was a genuine emotional reaction.
The only acceptable outcome was that it felt thoughtful, intentional, and deeply personal.

That constraint shaped every decision.

How It Works

At a technical level, Holiday.exe is a modern web application with far more engineering than the problem strictly required, by design.

It is built on a Next.js App Router foundation with strict TypeScript, carefully scoped state, and a strong separation between rendering, interaction, and animation timing.

Key architectural ideas:

• A deterministic game loop with delta-time physics for consistent animation across devices
• Preloaded assets and guarded transitions so the experience never stutters
• Audio systems designed around mobile autoplay restrictions and PWA constraints
• Offline-first behavior so the app works even without a network connection
• Native iOS deployment via Capacitor for a real app feel

Every transition, animation curve, and interaction was hand-tuned. Nothing is accidental. Nothing is generic.

Design Philosophy

Holiday.exe follows a very different philosophy than my other projects:

• Emotion over optimization
  Performance matters, but only insofar as it protects immersion.

• Overengineering is allowed, sometimes
  When the user matters deeply, shortcuts feel wrong.

• Play is a feature
  Games, puzzles, and moments of surprise are valid UX tools.

• Finish the thought
  Every idea introduced is resolved. Every mechanic pays off.

• Software can be a gift
  Code is not just a tool. It can be a medium for meaning.

For Recruiters and Developers

This repository is intentionally not representative of how I build production software under business constraints.

There are no unit tests for the love letter.
There is no roadmap.
There is no abstraction for future users.

What it does show is:

• Comfort moving between systems-level thinking and creative work
• Willingness to obsess over details when the outcome matters
• Strong control over animation, timing, and interaction
• The ability to ship something polished, complete, and emotionally coherent under a hard deadline

If you are evaluating my engineering rigor, look at my other projects.

If you want to understand how I think about craft, intention, and care in software, this one tells you more than any checklist ever could.

Closing Note

Holiday.exe is finished.

Not because there is nothing more that could be added, but because it already says exactly what it was meant to say.

Some software solves problems.
Some software ships features.
And once in a while, software is just a love letter that happens to compile.

This was one of those times.

Github: Holiday.exe Repo