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Wheel Reinvention Jam

August 15 - 21, 2O22

A one-week jam to change the status quo.
See the results Join the Discord

The Wheel Reinvention Jam is a one-week-long jam where we turn a fresh eye to "solved problems".

The tools we use every day are broken. Software is slow, unreliable, and bloated with thoughtless features. It disrespects the user and forces settings that no one wants. And yet, people defend the status quo, claiming that what we have is fine, and that trying to change software is "reinventing the wheel".

Screw that. Progress is only made by inventing new things. It's not "reinventing" to break new ground. Nor is it "reinventing" to take a broken thing and design something better.

This is your chance to reinvent something.

Submitted projects

SDF Atlas

Editor that allows for authoring and exploring compositions of simple SDF's
BYP
Skytrias | Michael Kutowski

Printf on steroids

That's it. The ultimate printf has come to life.
bumbread
skejeton

Dreamcast Image Burner for macOS

There is currently no way to burn a Dreamcast CDI image on macOS. Let's change that with this project!
Dan

Image Desk

Image Desk is a dynamic image organizer built to facilitate sorting and browsing a large number of images using a tag system.
Samuel Deboni Fraga
Igor Fagundes [ifaresi]
Henrique Hiram
biowater

Grab-a-Chair

Booking app with more control over the night out
orrex

pestctl

pestctl: a low barrier to entry, visual debugger for Linux
parada

Cross platform GUI library

Cross platform GUI library in C
saikyun

abbrv

A text expansion solution in C/C++ for Windows.
Jake

Bifold Text

What if we give plain text source code a tiny amount of structure to improve the experience of debug by print
Kartik Agaram

MetaDocs

Syntax-agnostic documentation & AST extraction for C/C++
Andrew Reece

Cork

A decompiler project where you arrange on a magic corkboard
Yasser Arguelles

Gollash

A new way for processes to communicate using a node editor UI
Adham Zahran

Game Inventory System in SDL

Game Inventory management UI
solomonkane

Simply Slide

A new kind of presentation program that has a friendly interface and compiles to html. More description coming soon
Evan Butterfield

filmsaw

A barebones movie editor inspired by Windows Movie Maker built on top of ffmpeg and sokol gfx.
zanders3

MultiEditor

An Application capable of providing/creating editors for multiple file formats via plugins
VoxelRifts

netsim

Play with computer networks and learn how they work.
Ben Visness
Colin

Orca

A WebAssembly runtime environment for portable graphical apps.
Martin Fouilleul

Rain Man

Capturing the full execution path of a program so you can understand how your program state came to be
Duikelaar

boringrep

A multi-threaded file searching tool
protostr

Project Ambrosia

Reinventing the Cookbook---In Reverse!
Ginger Bill

static

A minimalistic static site generator.
Marcio

bewehr

A simple CAD tool for generating reinforcement plans from 3d models.
progfix

Project Overlay

An overlay GUI used for personal or streaming purposes. Featuring transparent windows, streamable games, productivity tools, and more
s0lly

eh

The goal of this project is to program computers using pluggable units of software.
paultarvydas

Lil UEFI

Simple, headers-only C library with definitions of UEFI types and protocols, intended for UEFI application (operating system) programming.
Allen Webster
Ryan Fleury
See all updates

How to participate

The jam takes place from Monday, August 15 through Sunday, August 21. Here's how you can participate:

Pick a project and form a team.

Find a project idea that excites you! Join the conversation over on our Wishlist, brainstorm ideas in #jam on Discord, or just invite some friends to jam with you.

Jam.

Create a Handmade Network project to track your work. Then, build your program! Share your work in progress in #project-showcase on Discord, or directly from your project page.

Submit your work!

Your Handmade Network project is your submission. Fill out the project description, making sure to explain the goals of the project and how it improves on what came before. Also consider posting an update with video of your program in action!

Submissions are now closed.

Rules

  • Any tech is allowed, but we encourage you to use only use what you really need. If you want some lightweight templates to get you started, check out our app templates.
  • You may work solo or in a team. (But we encourage you to work with a team!)
  • Submit your work by the end of the day on August 21.

There are no explicit winners, but we will be selecting a few of our favorite projects to highlight in a recap stream following the jam.

Submission rules

Your Handmade Network project is your submission. We will be looking at the project's description and any extra updates you share toward the end of the jam.

  • Explain the project's goals and how it improves on what came before. Also share some closing thoughts - did it turn out how you hoped? What did you learn? If you continue the project, what will you do differently?
  • Your description must contain multiple screenshots of your software in action. You should ideally also share a project update with a demo video. We recommend Mārtiņš Možeiko's wcap for recording desktop video on Windows. On Mac, just press ⌘-Option-5 and record a video, or use QuickTime.
  • If at all possible, please provide a way for people to either build or download your program.

Make it by hand.

The Handmade ethos and Handmade community are software development superpowers. Don't be afraid to question your foundations and rebuild what needs rebuilding. The community is here to help you take on those challenges and do what others might consider impossible.

Of course, this is a jam, so focus on what matters to your project. There are many excellent libraries in the community that can save you time and help you focus on your core ideas. Don't be afraid to use them. But don't be afraid to do your own thing if they're holding you back.

Don't just rebuild. Reinvent.

This is a chance to build something truly new. Learn from previous work, but don't settle for “the same, but better”. It would be a huge shame to spend a week building nothing more than a clone of the same broken software we use today.

This is where working with a team can really help. Bounce ideas off each other, do some research, and brainstorm before the jam starts. The software you end up building might be pretty different from your original ideas.

In the end, this is a jam. Get weird and try something different.