Enjoying coding again

I Have a Job — I Just Need to Do It A few months ago, I left my last job as a remote Unity developer. Before leaving, I had already started working on a freelance project to build a multi-tenant security and workforce management system. It became a fairly large system involving web applications, mobile apps, real-time tracking, scheduling, reporting, GPS, notifications, and more. The project is now mostly completed, but the client wants to continue adding maintenance, business logic changes, UI modifications, and new development under the same maintenance fee. That doesn't work for me. Maintenance and development are two different things, and when the amount of new development keeps growing while the price stays the same, eventually it stops being sustainable. So I started thinking about what I would do next. The Fear of Not Having a Job For the last few days, I was genuinely worried. I have more than 250,000 BDT in savings, so I'm not in an immediate financial crisis. But money slowly disappears when there is no income. And freelancing isn't exactly comforting right now either. I've been using Upwork, but the experience has become increasingly frustrating. You apply for jobs and often hear nothing. Some clients post a job and never hire anyone. Some jobs get dozens of proposals and disappear quickly. Some invites arrive, but someone else gets hired almost immediately. And every application costs money. After a while, it starts feeling like you're continuously putting money into a machine that promises a job somewhere in the future. You keep applying. You keep waiting. You keep hoping. And eventually, I realized something. What I Was Actually Missing I wasn't missing money. I was missing a job. And there is an important difference. I already have the skills. I already know how to build software. I already have ideas. I already have projects I want to work on. I was simply thinking that a "job" had to come from someone else. Then I thought: I can create my own job. I don't need to spend the next year desperately trying to convince someone to hire me. I have enough savings to survive for a significant amount of time if I keep my expenses under control. So instead of spending the next 12 months worrying about where my next job will come from, I decided to spend the next 12 months building things. No pressure to make money from everything. No obsession with whether every project will become a business. No forcing myself to chase every possible freelance opportunity. Just learning, experimenting, coding, and creating. And strangely enough, after making that decision, I started enjoying coding again. My Next 12 Months For the next year, my goal is simple: Build things I find interesting. Some projects may become products. Some may become open-source projects. Some may become games. Some may become useful tools for other developers. Some may go nowhere. That's okay. The point is to keep building. Here are some of the things I'm currently working on. 1. DevJS Repository: github.com/mmar58/devjs DevJS is a Node.js project that compiles into a single JavaScript file and helps me manage multiple development processes from one place. When I'm working on a typical system, I might have: Backend Frontend Flutter application Other services Redis Additional development tools Normally, I have to open several terminal windows and run each process separately. DevJS is an attempt to solve that problem. With a single command, I can start multiple directories and commands, view their logs, switch between processes, and control them using terminal shortcuts. It also provides a simple web UI alongside the terminal interface. The idea is to make the development environment itself smarter. I want to eventually add more tools for inspecting processes, monitoring logs, debugging, and even using Ollama for AI-assisted log analysis. It's a small developer tool, but it's something I personally need. And that's exactly why I enjoy building it. 2. Smart Database Manager Repository: github.com/mmar58/Smart_Database_Manager This project started from a simple idea: What if I built my own database management tool instead of always opening another tool to manage my databases? Inspired by tools like Adminer, I started building a database manager using Node.js. It allows me to: Browse databases Inspect tables View and modify data Create and delete tables Create and delete databases Manage database data through a web interface One of the things I find particularly interesting is the AI integration. It has Ollama support, so instead of manually writing every query, I can describe what I want in natural language and let the AI help generate and perform the database operations. For example, instead of manually constructing a complicated query, the goal is to eventually be able to say: "Find all users who haven't logged in for the last 30 days." And let the system handle the query generation and execution. I'm building this primarily for myself, but it could eventually become a useful standalone developer tool. 3. Connect Lines Puzzle I've also been building a puzzle game called Connect Lines. The concept is simple: connect lines to solve puzzles. But behind the simple gameplay, I'm experimenting with a complete content-delivery system. The game is built with Svelte and compiled for Android using Capacitor. There is an admin system where I can create levels and push them to the cloud. The game supports fully offline gameplay. When the player comes online, the application can synchronize and retrieve new levels. The plan is to release new levels regularly, potentially every week. This project is currently in the final polishing stage. It has also been a nice opportunity to combine my interests in software engineering and game development. 4. Walk Me Walk Me is a walking tracker application. The basic idea is simple: Start walking, start the tracker, and let the application record your journey. It can track things such as: GPS route Distance Speed Walking history Targets Progress Competition with other users I'm also building it around an offline-first architecture. You should be able to walk without an internet connection and still have the application work normally. When you come back online, your data can synchronize with the server. Users can also create an account and keep their data synchronized so they can continue from another device. This project is another experiment in building a complete system rather than just a simple application. 5. AnZ Developers Repository: github.com/mmar58/anzDevelopers Website: anzdevelopers.com I'm also rebuilding the AnZ Developers website. This isn't just a static portfolio website. I'm building it as a small content-driven platform with: Frontend Backend Database Admin panel Dynamic content management The idea is that the data determines what appears on the website. Instead of hardcoding every section, the system can decide what content should be displayed. I'm keeping the project open source because I think it could be useful beyond my own portfolio. Someone else could potentially take the project, customize it, and use it for their own portfolio. And others can contribute to the project if they find it useful. In a way, I'm not just building a portfolio. I'm building a small portfolio engine. 6. Kingdom War And finally, there is the project that brings me back to where much of my development journey started: Unity. I'm working on a game called Kingdom War. The concept is a clan-based strategy game where players build their towns, research technologies, fight other clans, and form alliances. The game will include real-time interactions between players while still being designed around an offline-capable experience. Players will be able to: Build and develop their town Research technologies Build their military Fight other clans Form alliances Compete with other players It's still in development, so there is a lot to figure out. But that's part of the fun. I'm Not Trying to Build Everything at Once Looking at this list, it might seem like I'm working on too many things. Maybe I am. But I'm not treating all of them as businesses. That's an important distinction. I'm building them because I want to learn. I want to experiment with architectures. I want to try new technologies. I want to build tools that solve problems I personally experience. I want to make games. I want to make open-source software. And I want to see what happens when I give myself enough time to actually create. Maybe one of these projects will become a business. Maybe one will get a lot of users. Maybe one will become popular on GitHub. Maybe none of them will. I'm okay with that. Because even if none of them make money, I'll still have spent the year becoming a better developer and building a body of work that didn't exist before. For the Next 12 Months, I'm Choosing to Build I've spent a lot of time thinking about jobs, clients, proposals, Upwork, rates, contracts, and money. Those things are important. I still need income eventually. But I don't want money to be the only thing determining what I work on. I have some savings. I can minimize my expenses. That gives me something valuable: time. So I'm going to use it. For the next 12 months, I want to focus on learning, coding, experimenting, and creating. I don't know where I'll be at the end of those 12 months. Maybe I'll have a successful product. Maybe I'll have a successful open-source project. Maybe I'll have a new job. Maybe I'll have a business. Maybe I'll simply have a lot of interesting software. But one thing I know: I don't want to spend the year sitting around waiting for someone to give me a job. Because I realized something very important: