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Modular, on-demand fixes for an AI email QA platform
Ryan Magalhaes · Boston, MA
Senior product designer with 10+ years across product, brand and web. I lead 0-to-1 work on complex, technical products.
Side projects, mostly to learn a new tool by building with it.
A small browser game starring Sage, my one-ear-up island dog, who will chase a tennis ball until the sun goes down.
A working drum machine in the browser, modeled on classic hardware like the 808. I grew up playing drums.
A tool for logging design decisions as they happen and sharing them with a link. Since retired, but worth the lessons.
I'm a senior product designer with more than 10 years of experience, most of it spent making complicated things clear. Today that means 0-to-1 product work on an AI platform at Validity. Before that, I designed developer onboarding at Akoya and led brand and web projects at agencies.
That range is how I work. I can run the research, set up the design system, prototype in code, and design the identity and website that carry a product to market. Alongside full-time work, I still take on brand, web and product projects.
A small browser game starring Sage, my one-ear-up island dog, who will chase a tennis ball until the sun goes down.
Play Fetch QuestIt started with an episode of Dive Club on YouTube. I came away from it wanting to make something, anything, just for the fun of it.
The subject was easy. This is Sage, a Cunucu (an Aruban island dog) with one ear up and one ear flopped over. She'll chase a tennis ball until the sun goes down, so I made a game about exactly that.
I needed a creative outlet. I keep seeing designers build really cool side projects with AI, and I wanted in. I'd never made a game or worked in 3D, which made it more fun. The only rule was feel beats size: one level, one loop.
I ran it like a design project: a short brief, small milestones, and a commit after each one. I also had the AI set up a script to screenshot and play the game itself, so it checked its own work before showing me. The images below are re-renders of old commits.
It took three directions to find the game: a side-scroller, then a third-person wander, then fetch.





Sage started as shapes built in code. To make her move like a real dog, I rebuilt her in Blender from a character turnaround: a clean remesh, a Rigify rig, and nine animation clips that blend in game so her feet don't slide.



Once it was playable, I had the AI review the level: 76 automated throws, screenshots from every chapter, and a scorecard. Toys landed in a ring around the launcher, and only 2 of 69 reached the far third of the yard. There were also no landmarks and no visible edge, and toys vanished into the grass at sunset.


The grass. Thousands of blades with backlit, glowing tips bend away from Sage, and she leaves a path that springs back over seven seconds. The first version was too busy. It got better by doing less: calm color in the distance, full detail only around her.

I want to add my brother's late dog, Bailey, as a second playable character.
