Create For Yourself

We’ve lost the desire to create for fun, to create for yourself, to create for the fulfillment and joy of just making something with your own hands.

Nowadays, everyone is so focused on reviews, likes, comments, smashing the subscribe button, money, and fame that we’ve lost the playfulness of creation. We’ve lost the ability to have an idea in your head, make it with your hands (or a computer or a pen), and then just show it to someone without worrying who’s going to see it or whether it’s good enough.

So many people today compare themselves to creators on Instagram, trying to make something perfect like what they saw online. But I remember when people used to create things simply for the sake of creation.

Creation = Play

We’ve forgotten that creation is play. It’s a way to express ourselves, and it doesn’t have to serve some big goal. It can just be something you make for yourself or for your friends.

People used to make zines, these really cool indie magazines drawn in bedrooms with pen or marker, photocopied at Kinkos or Xerox, and passed around to friends. People used to make notebook art. Whether you were sitting in class or at home, you’d grab a marker, sketch out your name, make it look cool, like a graffiti tag. Again, no goal attached.

You weren’t trying to become a master artist. You weren’t trying to put it out there. You weren’t trying to be someone. You just did it because it was fun.

I used to make mixtapes and mix CDs. I loved picking the right songs, decorating the cover, writing the tracklist in a creative way, and giving it to someone—or just making it for myself.

These were all small forms of self-expression that I could feel proud of.

People used to make their own websites. We weren’t trapped in social media grids or feeds or YouTube videos. Websites weren’t about money, popularity, or fame. They were just a place to share something—an extension of who you are and what you wanted to put out into the world.

And that’s really important.

When I first started creating things for myself again, my immediate thought was: I suck. I’m not a good artist. I’m not good at drawing.

But that’s kind of the point.

The point is that you suck, and it’s okay. You either get better, or you just have fun doing something unfamiliar, flexing parts of your brain or body you don’t normally use.

So if you’re sitting there thinking, “I suck, I can’t create something,” who cares? Why does it matter? Who’s judging you? You’re the only one judging yourself.

Letting Creativity Flow

I want to share a few projects I’ve been working on recently as I’ve been tapping back into creativity and play.

Two of them are with my kids. They recently got into Pokémon, and since they’re still young, I didn’t want them going down the path of buying cards and worrying about value. So we started drawing our own.

Honestly, they started out pretty rough. This was one of my first ones—a Squirtle. It’s kind of a malformed creature. Sometimes I color them, sometimes the kids do, sometimes we do it together.

I drew a Munchlax, a Raichu—some of them are really bad. One of my son’s favorites is a lightning Pokémon I drew with just a few lines, and he colored it in. No real art skills involved.

But then there are a few I’m proud of—like a Ghastly I shaded with pen, or a Jigglypuff with a bit of shading.

I’m not a great artist, but it’s been fun to see improvement and create something we actually use together every day. And because the quality bar is low, my kids feel like they can create too, which I love.

Another project we’ve been doing is making comic books. They love Dog Man, so we made our own. One of my sons actually took it to school. It has characters like Dog Man, Poopy Pants, and a snake.

We take turns—sometimes I draw, sometimes they color, sometimes they come up with the story. It’s just fun.

Even if you don’t have kids, though, you can make things that bring you fulfillment.

A couple years ago, I had a blog that was very goal-oriented. I wanted to become a full-time coach, so everything I wrote was optimized for that. It was minimalist, almost as a reaction to ad-driven websites.

This Website

Recently, I redesigned my website to be more of an extension of me. I added a funky shooting star cursor, tried to emulate Hong Kong neon signs in the titles, and wrote a post about one of my favorite games and how it moved me.

When I finished writing it, I felt conflicted. I was so used to writing for other people—thinking about how they’d judge it, whether it would get clicks or views.

But then I realized: I captured my story. I shared my experience. I showed it to my kids. It was freeing not trying to impress anyone.

I’ve also been building small projects.

Storm Sword

One is a little game called Storm Sword, a simple 3D RPG inspired by EverQuest or World of Warcraft. You can play as an archer, shoot arrows, cast spells. It’s nothing fancy (in fact, it kind of looks like a Minecraft ripoff) but it’s the type of game I always dreamed of making.

Another is a small RTS called Chasm, inspired by classics like Starcraft and Warcraft II. It has simple line art, fog of war, resource gathering, and base building. It works on mobile. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it, but I enjoy picking it up and adding things that would be out of scope or considered crazy if I were building it for someone else.

Super Retro Viewer I also made a sprite viewer tool (not public). I’ve always had this idea of characters from different games interacting, so I built a tool that pulls in sprites from games like Mario and Sonic.

I even built an annotator so I can select and label frames, then assemble animations. Through this, I learned a lot—not just about the tool, but about animation itself. Like how Sonic has this perfect sphere frame during certain movements that creates a smear effect.

I don’t know if anyone will ever use it, but I love it.

I’ve been working on Street Fighter animations too—dragging frames together, building little sequences. It’s not perfect, but it works, and that’s kind of amazing.

Pokedex I also built a small Pokédex app for my kids. Instead of using my phone or incomplete books, we created our own version with only the Pokémon we care about. It helps them learn typing and spelling, and it became the source of truth for the cards we draw.

Screensavers Finally, I made a set of screensaver-like visuals. I loved After Dark, Windows 95 Screen Savers, and Music Visualizers. I used to stare at them for hours and watch all of the procedural art. So I made my own.

One is an animated pixel starfield with a comet passing through. It’s simple and a bit janky, but I even made it the background of my website. Another has a bunch of emoji or glyphs flying towards the camera with subtle particle effects floating around like wisps.

The whole point of all of this is that I’m approaching these projects as art, not products.

I start them when I want. I stop them when I want. It doesn’t matter if I finish them. What matters is enjoying the process.

Sometimes I catch myself pushing too hard—staying up late to add one more feature or tweak an animation. And when it stops feeling fulfilling, I stop.

Conclusion

So if you’ve been stuck trying to get attention, build a following, or make something polished and impressive—I hope you can take a step back.

Make something for yourself.

Make something fun.

Remove the pressure to be amazing.

Just make something that makes you smile.

Who cares if you suck at it? No one else has to see it.

It’s just for you.

And I promise—it will feel so much better than sitting there scrolling and consuming every day.

If you created something you're proud of recently, send it my way. I'd love to see it.