Steven Rose
Designer I guess
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For #ConfigMakeaton, I created FigConsole 65 ✨
🔗 Links
FigConsole 65 (https://figconsole65.figma.site)
FigConsole 65 - Community File (https://www.figma.com/community/file/1648359023409479788)
🚀 Overview
FigConsole65 is an explorable layer that sits on top of Figma, reimagining project files as a living pixel-art town inspired by the early web.
Instead of endless grids and forgotten notifications, cursors become characters, files become destinations, and comments become invitations to explore. Packed with mini-games, easter eggs, lore, and hidden interactions, it's an experiment in bringing curiosity back to the tools we use every day.
At its core, FigConsole65 asks a simple question: what if productivity software felt less like a chore and more like an adventure?
🧪 Process
I didn't start with FigConsole65.
I started by trying to make Super Smash Bros. with Figma cursors. It was fun, but it felt hollow—just another gimmick.
I tried adding features like importing your designs into a plugin, smashing them to pieces, even planting the wreckage in a little garden. But no matter how much I added, it still felt shallow.
I kept coming back to experiences like Cursor Camp, Club Penguin, and Animator vs. Animation; the strange personality of the early web, where clicking around felt like an act of exploration.
That led me to an idea: what if there was a hidden world between the Figma canvas?
I experimented with Figma Weave, burned through credits almost immediately, scavenged through asset packs, and eventually turned to Figma Agent, not to generate finished work, but to explore possibilities. I built collages from images I loved and asked the Agent to reinterpret them, slowly shaping a visual language for this world.
After more than a hundred generations, a style finally emerged.
Those experiments became the foundation of the pixel art. I used Figma Weave to animate scenes and bring individual assets to life, and from there I stopped building a game and started building a place.
The result was FigConsole65: a small world hidden between the files, built on the idea that even the most ordinary tools can still surprise us.
Because the problem I was trying to solve was never a lack of discipline. I wanted to build a world that I was excited to come back to.
📣 Acknowledgements
Music
- All sourced through pixabay (I've lost their names, if you recognise their work please let me know and I'll tag them)
Visuals
- Ansimuz - Blue Space Background
(https://ansimuz.itch.io/space-background)Inspiration
- Neal Agarwal's Cursor Camp
- Animation vs. Animator
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