The Vault

Techdocwrite was a full online academy where learning technical writing played like a role-playing campaign. Students rolled into Plundaria as knights, healers, and mages, cleared dungeons named for real deliverables — the API Documentation Kingdom, the Tutorial Maze, the Code Commenting Crypt, the Technical Proposal Palace — and faced a boss fight at the end of every arc, starting with the FAQ Phoenix. A Quest Board fed by real job postings turned practice into employable work. The deeper design: every boss was really the student's own doubt. The course was shelved as AI reshaped the field, but the method was field-tested on one apprentice — who became a working technical writer.

• An entire curriculum as a dungeon crawl — eleven dungeons, four levels each, every Level 4 a boss fight
• A Quest Board fed by real recruiter postings, so every quest was a job skill
• Field-tested on one apprentice, who became a working technical writer
• Every boss was really the student's own doubt — motivation was the secret curriculum

Role: Course Designer, Instructional Writer, Worldbuilder, Everything Else|Tools: Instructional Design, WordPress + MemberPress, AI Concept Art, Curriculum Architecture

→ Shelved when AI reshaped the field — but the method worked, and the world of Plundaria earned its place in the Vault.

The first logo was a portrait: James photographed Coco — the actual rabbit — mid-bite on a piece of spinach, then traced her by hand. Over the sketch went the fanciest stretched script font he could find, because 'Bigglesworth' was always the joke of a name that SOUNDS rich but isn't — the name someone pretending to be rich would invent, Farnsworth Bentley energy. Founded as an LLC at Full Sail in 2012 under the original tagline 'The next level of gamification,' the traced pet became the polygon mark, the polygon mark became Biggles, and thirteen years later the fake-rich rabbit owns an entire studio lot. You're standing inside the joke, and it came true.

• The first mark is a hand-traced portrait of Coco, the real rabbit, eating spinach
• The name is the joke: fake-rich on purpose — Farnsworth Bentley energy
• Defined the studio's enduring low-poly rabbit motif
• Survived as embroidery, merch, and now an interactive guide
• “Be Bigglesworth” — the 2013 sign-off — now closes the site's credits

Role: Founder, Brand|Tools: Low-poly Illustration, Logo Design, Embroidery Digitizing

→ A brand that refused to die — and grew a personality.

Every studio has a drawer like this. 'Fresh Static Resolume' (2018) came out of volunteering with the Latin dance community at DCBX, where James picked up Resolume — the VJ software — and made his own audio-reactive set with it. 'Match 3 Presidential Candidates Game' (July 4th, 2016) is a Unity match-3 starring that year's candidates, built from a Lynda.com tutorial on a grad-school subscription, back before LinkedIn bought Lynda. One-offs, but the pattern is the point: see a tool, learn the tool, ship a thing.

• Learned Resolume volunteering at DCBX — the Latin dance thread runs all the way back
• The set still runs — it surfaces on the DJ Booth's visualizer wall, in the world
• A holiday, a tutorial, a game engine: shipped a playable by midnight

Role: Builder, VJ, Student Forever|Tools: Resolume, Unity, Lynda.com (RIP)

→ The drawer stays open — one-offs welcome.

YardLine AI is a working prototype: call handling plus inventory matching for automotive parts counters, so the person at the counter quotes faster and never loses an inbound lead. It runs — but it hasn't shipped to a paying counter yet, and the Vault is where honest prototypes live until they do. The pattern it proves is the same one as the rest of the drawer: see a real-world friction, build the tool, keep it ready.

• A real vertical: parts counters lose quotes to hold music every day
• Call handling + inventory matching in one intake flow
• Kept in the Vault until it earns the /websites shelf by shipping

Role: Builder, Product Design|Tools: AI Intake Flows, Next.js, Inventory Matching

→ A working prototype in the drawer — the door to the shelf is open.