Game Boy 8-bit portfolio: viral reach, two WD Awards

My interactive portfolio is a Game Boy / 8-bit-inspired playground in the browser: interactive.matteosantoro.dev. It was never meant as a conversion site (no classic funnel or aggressive homepage CTAs), but as a creative and technical experiment built with WebGL and JavaScript: a way to show how I think about webdev, interaction, and craft.

All of the art and sprites are my own, made incrementally as I built the project. The world is tile-based, like plenty of modern games and like Game Boy titles that already leaned on tilesets back in the day; sprite resolutions line up with Game Boy-appropriate pixel sizes so the homage holds up technically, not just visually.

Why a “game” instead of a landing page

Client work has real constraints; here I wanted to push curiosity and memorability: exploration, secrets, micro-interactions. It had to be fun to move through and recognisable among lookalike portfolios, even if it wasn’t the most “optimised” page for a single metric.

When it blew up online

There wasn’t a detailed “go viral” playbook. Growth was mostly word of mouth and reshares among people in developer and designer communities. It spread because people realised it wasn’t another template and passed it on. Virality was a side effect of something deliberately off the beaten path.

So far, with no indexing push or dedicated SEO campaign, the experience has logged roughly 30,000 visits, and people still keep showing up, which says a lot about shareability when the thing itself is memorable.

The mega update (“final version”)

After months I finally put serious time into a much larger version of the experience, not a cosmetic pass. Highlights include:

Stronger gamification: new mechanics, including unlocking doors with a key, a hidden mini-level, and a new CTA on the Game Over screen (whether you win or lose), still in a game-native tone, not a sales brochure.
Fully playable on smartphones; earlier it skewed desktop-first, now the flow works on mobile too.
New easter eggs, a new avatar, core site improvements, a better auto-translation setup, and several bug fixes.

That kind of iteration (not just visuals) is what turns an experiment from a one-off into something that lasts.

Two WD Awards wins

The project is listed on WD Awards and was recognised twice: for the initial launch and again after this major update. Official entry:

Game Boy 8-bit portfolio on wdawards.com

To me that’s not just hardware: it’s proof that vision plus execution matter even outside the usual “services landing page” box.

What’s next

I’m building a new interactive project that will push experimentation further toward maximum cohesion between gamification and the website itself, almost merging game and site into one continuous experience.

What carries into client work

From the lab I keep performance awareness in rich experiences, navigation clarity (wonder yes, frustration no), and courage to propose non-generic solutions when the brand can support them.

Try it live: interactive.matteosantoro.dev.