Rank Runner

Rank Runner is a 2D platformer where you collect SEO ranking factors while dodging penalties. It started as a joke about how technical SEO actually feels in practice, every session is one obstacle after another, and the points only count if you stay alive.

It is also a working portfolio piece. The game is custom-built, runs in the browser, and demonstrates a kind of website experience that templated builds cannot deliver.

Most brand websites in 2026 look interchangeable. The same hero photo, the same three-column features section, the same testimonial carousel. Variation costs money, and the agencies that built this market trained clients to expect templated output.

Creative web design, the kind that ships interactive elements, custom motion, original art direction, is rare for a reason. It takes longer. It costs more. The teams that can do it well are smaller than the marketplaces that sell theme licenses.

When a brand is willing to invest in it, the output is recognized immediately. Visitors remember the site. Press covers it. The site itself becomes a marketing asset rather than a cost center.

Performance is non-negotiable, even for games

A browser game that drops below 50fps on a mid-range phone is unplayable. The same performance discipline that keeps marketing sites under 1.5s LCP applies here, doubled.

Accessibility cannot be an afterthought

Custom interaction patterns need keyboard alternatives, screen-reader-aware controls, and reduced-motion fallbacks. None of that is automatic, every piece is hand-built.

Mobile input is its own discipline

Touch input on a mobile screen is not the same as a virtual D-pad which is not the same as a keyboard. Each input mode is its own UX problem with its own latency budget.

Audio matters more than designers admit

Strip the chiptune soundtrack out of the game and it loses 80 percent of its character. Audio design is the most-overlooked dimension of brand-driven web design in 2026.

If Rank Runner convinced you that web design does not have to be boring, that is the point. Most websites in 2026 look the same because they are built from the same handful of templates.

Custom web development takes longer and costs more. The output is a site that does what your brand actually needs, including, occasionally, a playable game in the navigation menu.

If you are weighing custom vs templated, our take on bespoke work lives atBespoke Web Development. Or if you just want WordPress that is properly looked after, seeWordPress Support and Maintenance.

Tech notes: this game is built withvanilla JavaScript with the Web Audio API for sound, exactly the kind of hand-coded stack we offer through bespoke web development. Same stack patterns we use on client projects.