The Forge
A first-person walkable 3D portfolio website where the site itself is the proof — five themed zones, custom GLSL, an in-world Claude-powered chatbot, and a dynamic resume PDF generator, all in a single R3F canvas.
Most portfolios tell. Almost none prove.
A standard portfolio lists what someone can do. Almost none prove it. For a 3D / Three.js / R3F engineer, the deliverable that clears the bar is the site itself — every second a visitor spends on it should be an experience of the work.
One walkable 3D world, no page transitions.
The Forge is a single continuous R3F scene with five themed zones — Hearth (forge bio), Skill Tree (70+ tiered skill nodes), Project Vault (12 projects on glowing pedestals), Timeline (career path along a walkable track), War Room (holographic command table), plus a hidden secret zone gated by exploration. WASD + arrow keys + click-to-walk + orbit camera, no page loads.
Underneath: strict folder discipline (canvas/, player/, zones/, objects/, hud/, shaders/, store/, data/), every file under 500 lines, content-as-code in typed data/*.ts files, a Zustand store, and post-processing pipeline (bloom, vignette) via @react-three/postprocessing.
Solo across 90+ tickets.
- Five themed zones, 70+ skill nodes, 12 project showcases, the player controller, all custom GLSL shaders (forge fire, ember particles, zone-specific effects).
- HUD layer: TopBar, NavBar, Minimap, XPBar, ZoneFlash, DetailPanel, ContextualCTA, IntroTour, ContactModal, ResumeBuilder/Preview, AchievementGallery + Toast, CodexOverlay, ChatPanel, Konami code overlay, screenshot mode with watermark.
- AI Forge Spirit assistant powered by Claude Sonnet 4 — streamed responses, IP-based rate limiting (10 req/min), curated RAG-style system prompt that deep-links visitors to relevant zones.
- Interactive resume builder with @react-pdf/renderer for downloadable PDFs, Resend-backed contact form, achievement system with localStorage persistence, full WebGL-fallback 2D portfolio for accessibility.
- 90+ named tickets across 6 phases plus UX overhaul and engagement waves — every ticket on its own conventional-commit branch with Husky + lint-staged + Jest + Prettier on every commit.
What it's built on.
The portfolio that is itself the proof.
Live at rblaylock.dev with no caveats. Five zones, the AI assistant, the resume builder, the achievement system, the WebGL fallback — all shipped. Genuinely strong material for both a portfolio site and a deliberate skill demonstration.