QUESTBOARD

overview

Job boards are some of the least inspiring places on the internet, even though the people using them make games and art for a living. Questboard flips that by treating every job like a quest.

Studios post quests and rank them from F (a quick errand) to SSS (a once-in-a-career legend). Difficulty shows up as a row of red seals, one for an F and nine for an SSS. The front page is a worn wooden-framed board that pins up a random handful of notices on every visit, with rarer high-rank quests appearing less often, so each refresh feels like checking the guild board for something new.

Quests react to their situation. When a deadline gets close, a notice gives off a dark, flickering aura that grows into a blaze with embers in its final hours. Studios who pay to feature a quest get a soft gold glow, and the top tier adds turning rays of light and a Spotlight band.

the idea

Creative job boards look the same: grey lists, filters, logos. The audience, though, is people who make games, animation and art. I wanted the experience to feel like the worlds they build, with the job hunt as part of the fun.

core features

• A living quest board. The home page pins a random set of notices on a felt board, weighted so high-rank quests are rarer. Reshuffle for a fresh set.
• F to SSS ranks. Clients rank every quest, and difficulty reads at a glance as rows of red wax seals.
• Two sides of the guild. Clients post quests and manage applicants in their Guild Hall. Adventurers keep a Quest Log and a shareable Guild Card with their class, rank and skills.
• Urgent quests. Deadlines drive a dark aura in stages: a faint wisp a week out, flames at three days, and a blaze with embers, scorched paper and a "Last Call" stamp in the final hours.
• Premium quests. Paid tiers get a breathing gold glow (Featured) or rays of light and a Spotlight band (Radiant), and show up on the board more often.
• Full archive. Filter every open quest by rank, discipline, location and reward, or sort by closing soonest.

design process

I explored four visual directions before settling on one: a bright JRPG style, an isekai "status window" look, a pastel storybook, and a darker hunter's board inspired by in-game quest boards. The last one won, then got a pass of wear and tear: torn edges, dog-eared corners, coffee rings, faded seals, old pin holes and scraps of quests already taken.

The style stays flat: no photo textures, gradients or blur. Even the "soft" glows are stacked layers of flat colour, like anime cel shading. Category icons were redrawn as thick red rubber stamps with flecks of missing ink, so every notice looks hand-stamped by the guild clerk.

Small touches carry the theme: notices drop onto the board when it loads, synthesized sound effects (paper rustle, bell, stamp, coin) play on key actions, and each notice keeps the same tilt and wear on every visit.

under the hood

• Next.js 16
• App Router
• Server Actions
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• Prisma
• SQLite

• Session-based sign-in with separate client and adventurer roles
• Server-rendered pages, with notice animations in plain CSS so the board shows before JavaScript loads
• Respects reduced-motion settings; works down to phone width

my role

Concept, art direction, visual design and product decisions, including the four style explorations, the worn board direction, the rank and seal system, and the urgent and premium aura designs.

what's next

Hosting and a production database, payments for premium tiers, messaging between studios and adventurers, and earned ranks: adventurers level up from completed quests instead of choosing their own rank.