I’m Cary, a software designer and entrepreneur based in Milwaukee. I’m the founder and CTO of SparkForge, where you can ignite your ideas to forge the future. I also maintain SAVAGED.US, a character management platform serving 30,000+ Savage Worlds RPG players.
What happens when you inherit a Savage Worlds character management platform serving 30,000 users and everything that could go wrong does go wrong. A tale of SQL timeouts, escape character corruption, and why defensive programming isn't just a suggestion when users' weekly gaming sessions depend on you.
Exploring the renaissance of terminal user interfaces in game development, featuring lessons learned from building Warlords—a complex RPG entirely in the terminal using Rust.
The story behind creating a custom Neovim colorscheme inspired by the black wolf from The NeverEnding Story, complete with comprehensive syntax highlighting and modern plugin support.
After years in enterprise FinTech, I've witnessed the hidden costs of over-relying on third-party solutions. Here's why building custom internal tooling isn't just about control—it's about competitive advantage, compliance, and long-term sustainability.
