Sleepless Nights and Side Projects: Building a Game from a Hospital Bed

There’s nothing quite like a hospital stay to make you appreciate the small things, like silence, privacy, or a decent night’s sleep. Five nights in, and it looks like I’m here for a few more. The highlight of my stay so far? A spinal tap is on the cards. Joy.

Last night was particularly rough. I couldn’t quite put my finger on whether it was the symphony of snores and other, less pleasant noises from my ward-mates, or just my brain refusing to shut down. Either way, sleep was not on the agenda.

So, what’s a guy to do at 3 AM in a hospital ward? Well, if you’re me, you pull out your laptop and tinker with a side project. In this case, a lightweight web game designed for a sight-impaired friend.

The game itself is a simple two-player reflex game. The goal was to make something accessible, private, and functional across both mobile and desktop browsers. No frills, no fuss, just a clean, responsive bit of fun.

A screenshot of a mobile web interface displaying a reaction time result. Large, bold text in the centre reads "Your Time: 0.709s". The header displays "Rd 1" and "Me 1" on the left, with eye and speaker icons on the right. A link at the bottom reads "Back to douglasireland.com".
Screenshot from the game.

If you’re feeling curious (or just bored), you can give it a shot here: https://reflex.douglasireland.com/. I’d love to hear what you think.

And if you’re up for a game against a very bored hospital patient, feel free to drop me a line via https://douglasireland.com/chat/. It’s not every day you get to play-test a game from a hospital bed, after all.

If nothing else, this little project has been a good reminder that even in less-than-ideal circumstances, there’s always something productive (or at least distracting) to be done.

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