Nick Ortiz
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Build Logs

Progress reports for individual projects: what changed, why, what worked, what didn’t, and what comes next.

Build Log July 15, 2025 3 MIN READ
Spindle

Building Spindle, an Open Source Web-Based Layout Builder

In early June I stumbled across Layouts.dev, a visual layout builder that offered a fast way to scaffold UIs with drag-and-drop ease. The concept was great—but I wanted something more open, developer-first, and extensible. Something that could be used like a real tool, not just a toy.

That moment kicked off a journey to create Spindle—a blazing-fast, open-source layout builder designed for engineers to prototype components and templates with minimal friction. This blog post walks through the inspiration, research, naming conventions, and technical planning that shaped Spindle into a real, usable tool.

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Build Log January 7, 2025 4 MIN READ
Isometric Babylon.js Game Scaffold

Building an Isometric Babylon.js Game: An early Project Scaffold

In this post, we’ll walk through a simple project scaffold for creating an isometric game using Babylon.js. This scaffold sets up the core elements required to get started with your game development—from initializing the rendering engine to basic player movement. Include Babylon.js and its dependencies Setting Up the Canvas The project begins with an HTML […]

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