The Experiment
What happens when you merge three obsessions - old school Guitar Hero, 8-bit RPGs, and drumming - into a single afternoon project? This drum kit is the answer.
As someone who’s been getting more into drumming, I wanted to explore whether AI could help me rapidly prototype a playful interactive instrument. The goal wasn’t perfection, but speed: could I single-shot an idea from concept to working prototype using Claude?
Verdict: 90% brilliant, 10% frustrating.
What Works
The drum kit features six playable instruments mapped to your keyboard (A-G) or touchscreen. Each drum trigger plays a procedurally synthesized sound via the Web Audio API and animates a bald, bearded drummer sprite through four distinct animation frames.
The synthesized drums - kick, snare, hi-hat, tom, clap, and crash - all came from Claude’s audio engineering. No samples, just code creating real-time waveforms and noise buffers. The pixel art drummer sprite was generated by ChatGPT, giving it that authentic 8-bit charm.
Everything about this build came together surprisingly fast. The invisible hit zones overlay the sprite perfectly. The sound synthesis feels punchy and responsive. The dark, gradient interface channels that nostalgic game aesthetic.
The Last 1%
Here’s the honest part: there’s a jumping animation glitch on key press that I never solved.
This is where AI-assisted development hits a wall. Claude Opus made the first 90% effortless, but debugging that final animation timing issue became an exercise in frustration. Sometimes the sprite jitters. Sometimes it doesn’t. It’s the kind of subtle bug that would take 10 minutes to fix with fresh eyes but feels impossible when you’re iterating with an AI that can’t actually see the rendering bug.
It’s a good reminder that AI is phenomenal for scaffolding and exploration, but the last mile still requires human intuition and debugging skills.
Technical Details
- Sprite Animation: 4-frame sprite sheet using CSS background positioning
- Audio Engine: Web Audio API with procedural synthesis (no samples)
- Input: Keyboard events and pointer events for touch/click
- Asset Loading: Base64-embedded sprite for portability
- Responsive: Works on desktop and mobile
The entire app is self-contained in a single HTML file with inline CSS and JavaScript.
What’s Next?
This project is complete for what it is - a fun, functional drum kit experiment. If I revisit it, I’d love to add actual songs or drum tracks to play along with, turning it into a mini rhythm game. But for now, it’s a perfect snapshot of what you can build in an afternoon when you combine nostalgia, curiosity, and AI collaboration.
Try It
Open the drum kit and bash away on your keyboard. The animation glitch adds character, I’ve decided. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.