Back on Stream: Building TinkerAtlas Live
By MakerViking
Published
Updated
5 min read
Category: Announcements
After years away from streaming, I'm back on Twitch - this time building TinkerAtlas live. Custom overlays, real-time community features, and the honest reality of solo development.
<p class="mb 2" Yesterday I hit the "Go Live" button for the first time in years. Three sessions and twelve plus hours later, I was really tired, but genuinely happy to be back.</p <p class="mb 2" Streaming used to be a regular thing for me, but life happens. Other priorities took over, and the cameras gathered dust. What brought me back? TinkerAtlas.</p <p class="mb 2" There's something different about building in public when it's your own project. Every feature, every bug fix, every late night refactor it all matters in a way that's hard to explain. And sharing that process with the community I'm building here? That's the good stuff.</p <h3 class="font bold" Building the Tools to Show the Work</h3 <p class="mb 2" I couldn't just go live with a basic setup. That's not how makers operate. So before the stream, I built a complete overlay system for TinkerAtlas:</p <img src="https://api.tinkeratlas.com/storage/v1/object/public/project images/articles/70aec187 0e8f 4711 b925 a50e749f3deb/1769725902863 amondp.png" alt="" height="auto" <p class="mb 2" <strong Member Ticker</strong A smooth scrolling display of TinkerAtlas members, running at buttery 60fps. Took a few iterations to get the animation speed and sizing right, but it now flows across the stream without any jank.</p <img src="https://api.tinkeratlas.com/storage/v1/object/public/project images/articles/70aec187 0e8f 4711 b925 a50e749f3deb/1769725960641 v6rluz.png" alt="" height="auto" <p class="mb 2" <strong Live Notifications</strong When someone shares a new post, creates an account, or subscribes to TinkerAtlas+, the stream shows it in real time. The community stays visible even when I'm deep in code.</p <img src="https://api.tinkeratlas.com/storage/v1/object/public/project images/articles/70aec187 0e8f 4711 b925 a50e749f3deb/1769725864916 4zht8y.png" alt="" height="auto" <p class="mb 2" <strong Funding Progress Overlay</strong A live tracker showing where TinkerAtlas stands financially. More on that in a bit.</p <p class="mb 2" <strong Bot Announcements</strong Automated Twitch chat messages for community activity, with customizable templates so the tone stays right.</p <p class="mb 2" All of this connects through Twitch and YouTube OAuth integration which, if you've ever worked with OAuth redirects, you know was its own adventure in debugging.</p <h3 class="font bold" Making Code Visual with Desklings</h3 <p class="mb 2" Here's the thing about coding on stream: watching someone type in a terminal isn't exactly riveting content. Claude Code is powerful, but a scrolling command line doesn't show the <em work</em happening.</p <p class="mb 2" So I built Desklings.</p <img src="https://api.tinkeratlas.com/storage/v1/object/public/project images/articles/70aec187 0e8f 4711 b925 a50e749f3deb/1769725745768 clt8ax.png" alt="" height="auto" <p class="mb 2" It's a Game Dev Tycoon style visualization that turns Claude Code sessions into an isometric office simulation. AI agents sit at desks, type when working, show thought bubbles about what they're processing, and wander around during idle time. Tokens earned spawn as floating orbs that harvest into a score display.</p <p class="mb 2" Desklings runs alongside my streams, giving viewers something to watch even during short breaks. When I'm on camera building features, the virtual office shows the AI work happening in parallel. It transforms dry terminal output into something actually watchable.</p <p class="mb 2" Is it necessary? No. Is it the kind of thing makers build because we can't help ourselves? Absolutely.</p <h3 class="font bold" The Reality Check</h3 <p class="mb 2" I want to be straight with you about where things stand.</p <p class="mb 2" TinkerAtlas has been live for about six months. We've grown to over 350 members. I've put in countless hours building features, running contests, doing Maker Spotlight interviews, and trying to create the community space I wished existed when I started 3D printing back in 2018.</p <p class="mb 2" Here's what that actually looks like: I work on TinkerAtlas between 12 and 18 hours a day. Every day. I haven't taken a single day off since I started building it not weekends, not holidays. Every bit of support that's come in has gone right back into the platform. I haven't taken any personal income from it.</p <p class="mb 2" Right now, server costs are covered for this cycle. But the development tools that make building possible? That funding isn't there yet. If it doesn't come in, development stops until I can afford them again. That's not a worst case scenario that's the math.</p <p class="mb 2" The TinkerAtlas+ subscription exists. It works I've tested it thoroughly. But as of right now, we have zero monthly subscribers. The funding progress overlay I built for the stream? It's showing reality, not aspiration.</p <p class="mb 2" To everyone who has supported TinkerAtlas so far through contest participation, spreading the word, giving feedback, or contributing in any way thank you. Genuinely. This community exists because of you.</p <p class="mb 2" If TinkerAtlas has added value to your maker journey if the project documentation tools, the community features, or just having a dedicated space for makers means something to you there are ways to help keep this going:</p <ul <li <p class="mb 2" <strong TinkerAtlas+ Monthly</strong keeps the lights on with recurring support</p </li <li <p class="mb 2" <strong TinkerAtlas+ Lifetime</strong ($199) is a one time option if you prefer that</p <ul <li <p class="mb 2" <a target=" blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text blue 600 hover:text blue 800 dark:text blue 400 dark:hover:text blue 200 underline cursor pointer transition colors" href="https://tinkeratlas.com/pricing" Click here to find out more about TinkerAtlas+ and the perks you get</a </p </li </ul </li <li <p class="mb 2" <strong Direct donations</strong via <a target=" blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text blue 600 hover:text blue 800 dark:text blue 400 dark:hover:text blue 200 underline cursor pointer transition colors underline offset 2 decoration 1 decoration current/40 hover:decoration current focus:decoration current" href="https://paypal.me/makerviking" PayPal</a if you just want to contribute</p </li </ul <p class="mb 2" And if you're not in a position to support financially, that's genuinely okay. Keep making, keep sharing, keep being part of this community. That matters too.</p <h3 class="font bold" What's Next</h3 <p class="mb 2" The stream is back, and it's staying. I'll be building TinkerAtlas live on Twitch regularly now follow at <a target=" blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text blue 600 hover:text blue 800 dark:text blue 400 dark:hover:text blue 200 underline cursor pointer transition colors underline offset 2 decoration 1 decoration current/40 hover:decoration current focus:decoration current" href="https://www.twitch.tv/makerviking" twitch.tv/makerviking</a to catch the sessions.</p <p class="mb 2" One of the best parts about building live? You can actually influence what happens. Tell me about features you want to see, vote on what I work on next, or report a bug in chat and watch me fix it on the spot. If you find issues outside of streams, the purple bug icon in the bottom right corner of the site is always there.</p <p class="mb 2" There's more in the pipeline. More overlay options, better integrations, and plenty of community features I haven't even announced yet. Whether this remains a passion project or becomes something sustainable depends a lot on what happens next.</p <p class="mb 2" Either way, I'm glad to be back on stream. See you in chat.</p
