Coding Against the Grain

Celebrating the art of writing creative code in strange and unexpected languages.

Against the Grain

Sometimes the most interesting solutions come from using tools in ways they were never intended. This collection highlights unconventional projects that prioritize creativity, ingenuity, and experimentation over convention.

ASCII Art Generator

React + figlet.js

A retro terminal-styled generator that turns text into ASCII art with multiple font styles.

Tetris in Excel

Excel Macros

A fully playable Tetris implementation built in Excel using VBA macros and cell formatting.

CSS-only Tic Tac Toe

CSS

A complete Tic Tac Toe game using only CSS selectors and state, with no JavaScript.

Fantasy RPG in QBasic

QBasic

A text-based role-playing game with retro-style ASCII visuals and menu-driven exploration.

Web Server in COBOL

COBOL

A functioning HTTP server implemented in COBOL on mainframe-oriented environments.

Terminal Platformer

Bash

A side-scroller style platform game rendered and controlled entirely in terminal Bash scripts.

PowerPoint Adventure Game

PowerPoint

An interactive adventure made solely from linked slides, transitions, and animation logic.

Regex Chess

Regular Expressions

A chess rules engine concept expressed with regex-heavy parsing and move validation logic.

SQL Raytracer

SQL

A raytracing renderer prototype implemented via SQL queries and relational table operations.

Submit Your Project

Have something weird and excellent? Tell us about it. Submissions land in a review queue — we'll add accepted projects to the gallery above. No account required.

What we're looking for

Something that uses a language, platform, or tool in an unintended or surprising way.
If it's containerized, include a working Dockerfile and a repo link.
Non-Docker projects are fine too — esoteric languages, creative constraints, weird tools.
Briefly explain what makes it unconventional and why that's interesting.

Why Go Weird?

Exploring unconventional approaches expands practical understanding of constraints, abstractions, and language design boundaries. These projects are often impractical in production, but excellent for sharpening core engineering instincts.