THE S33K3R TRANSMISSION - DEVLOG

Part 5: Launch Day & Live Event

Continued from devlog04.md

[December 10th, 2025] [10:48 AM MT]

The Return to Simplicity

Sometimes you build something complex and realize the simple version was better all along.

After constructing the entire Cinematic Engine infrastructure—the FMV system, the choice cards, the seamless video transitions—I made a strategic call that felt counterintuitive: restore the original landing page. The one with the CRT TV and the sliding tile puzzle. The one that started this whole journey.

Why? Because December 12th needed to feel like a reveal, not a replacement. Players had to land on something familiar, something they could interact with immediately, while the new system waited in the wings. The puzzle game goes live now. The Cinematic Engine activates at 11:11 AM on launch day.

I spent the morning systematically dismantling what I'd just built—removing the Cinematic Engine from the main page view while preserving every line of code for later activation. The 3x3 sliding tile puzzle returned to its spot below the CRT TV. The cryptic "THEY SAY THE S33K3R TRANSMISSION..." message component came back. The Navbar got a makeover: out went the "BROTHEL ROOM" link (deprecated from the old point-and-click system), in came an animated "COMING SOON: DEC 12" label and a red "ROOM [LOCKED]" button that would unlock at the right moment.

Footer padding shrank from py-8 to py-4. Sticky positioning on the CRT/video background elements got removed to restore natural scrolling. Every decision was intentional—strip away distractions, focus on the core experience.

The build succeeded. All routes optimized for Cloudflare Pages. The transmission was ready for its first audience.

[December 10th, 2025] [10:50 AM MT]

Polish Pass: The Details Matter

Two minutes later, I was already back in the code. Because "done" is never actually done.

Final polish pass before the December 12th reveal. Three key refinements:

Header transparency increased. The "THE S33K3R TRANSMISSION" header opacity dropped from 95% to 60%. It needed to blend with the background, not dominate it. Subtle. Almost translucent.

CRT TV size boost. This was the focal point of the entire experience, and it was too small. Mobile went from w-64 h-48 to w-80 h-60—a 25% increase. Tablet from w-96 h-72 to w-[480px] h-[360px]. Desktop from w-[500px] h-[375px] to w-[600px] h-[450px], a 20% bump. The TV now commanded attention without overwhelming the layout.

Footer secret visibility fixed. There was a hidden message in the footer: "THE TRUTH IS HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT." Problem: it was literally too hidden. Text color changed from text-stone-900 (basically invisible) to text-stone-600. Font size increased from text-[8px] to text-[10px]. Now it was discoverable but still required effort.

Oh, and the FartBubble component? Deleted entirely. It was a fun late-night experiment, but it detracted from the EARTIX's serious tone. Sometimes you have to kill your darlings.

The landing page was now refined, professional, focused. December 12th was two days away.

[December 11th, 2025] [10:45 AM MT]

The Great Compression

File size matters. Especially when you're deploying to Cloudflare Pages with a 25 MB limit per file.

The original transmission video master was 505 MB. Gorgeous quality. Completely unusable for web deployment. So I compressed it—twice. Created two delivery versions: one MP4 (~94.7 MB, H.264/AAC), one WebM (~99.1 MB, VP9/Opus). Both capped under 100 MB to avoid repo bloat.

The original master got gitignored. Stayed local. The delivery copies went into /public/rooms/ for web distribution.

I also established a room asset naming policy: only track files with _room, _room1, _room2 in the name. This prevented accidental commits of exploratory renders and screenshots. Git stays clean. Repository stays lean. Future me would thank current me.

[December 11th, 2025] [5:45 PM MT]

The Timing Shift

Plans changed. They always do.

Originally, the navbar showed "Coming Soon: December 12th" for the Cinematic Engine rooms. But after thinking through the user experience, I realized December 12th needed to be reserved for the puzzle and game—the core EARTIX mystery. The movie theater screen and YouTube integration could wait.

New plan: postpone the "Coming Soon" label to December 14th. The game (Message + PuzzleGame components) remains unlocked and accessible at all times. Only the Cinematic Engine (MovieScreen with YouTube embed) gets gated behind Phase 1 (10:10 AM MST layout swap) and Phase 2 (11:11 AM MST playback unlock).

Updated the main transmission message: "THE S33K3R TRANSMISSION BEGINS DECEMBER 12TH, 2025 AT 11:11AM."

The pieces were moving into position. The countdown had a new meaning.

[December 11th, 2025] [7:00 PM MT]

The Warning Goes Live

Every EARTIX needs lore. Context. Stakes.

Tonight, /about went live. The "ABOUT THE S33K3R" page—a terminal-style, cinematic presentation revealing the core mythology:

The Null Dominion: An invisible hive-mind consciousness erasing realities across the multiverse.
The BREACH: A threshold triggered by collective fear, hatred, and despair—the signal that calls the Null Dominion through.
The S33K3R: Not a person. Eleven consciousness fragments fused across collapsed timelines, transmitting warnings from the edge of existence.

I built it in AboutSeeker.jsx with scanlines, film grain, glowing amber borders—full immersion maintained. The Navbar got a new button: "⚠ THE WARNING" with a pulsing amber glow. Desktop and mobile. Always accessible, even after Phase 2 activation.

The transmission wasn't just a game anymore. It was a warning system. And now players knew what they were up against.

[December 12th, 2025] [1:45 PM MT]

Crisis Management: The Pre-Launch Audit

Launch day. Post-meridiem. The Phase 1 transition had already happened at 10:10 AM. Phase 2 unlock was approaching at 11:11 PM tonight (yes, night—I'd miscalculated the timing). And I was hunting bugs.

Conducted a comprehensive code audit. Found seven issues ranging from critical to minor:

CRITICAL: useEffect dependency loop in page.jsx causing potential state race conditions during Phase 2 transitions.
MODERATE: Cover layer state not resetting on MovieScreen re-renders.
MODERATE: YouTube player race condition—iframe not fully loaded when play button clicked.
MINOR: Missing visual feedback on unlock event.

Fixed them all:

Dependency optimization — Removed state variables from useEffect dependency array. No more re-render loops.
Cover layer auto-reset — Added useEffect to reset isCoverHidden when isUnlocked prop changes.
Player readiness verification — New playerReady state. Button only enables when iframe AND unlock are both ready.
Unlock highlight animation — Popcorn button pulses with amber glow border for 2 seconds when Phase 2 triggers. Clear visual signal.

Ran npm run build. Zero errors. All routes prerendered. Production-ready.

Four and a half hours until Phase 2 unlock. The transmission was stable.

[December 12th, 2025] [10:05 AM MT]

Five Minutes to Launch

Adrenaline. Coffee. Terminal open. Browser window refreshing.

Five minutes before the Phase 1 transition at 10:10 AM and I'm hunting for performance bottlenecks like my life depends on it. Because in a live EARTIX event, smooth performance is life.

Performance Optimization Round 1 (10:00 AM):

Replaced expensive SVG feTurbulence filters in VideoBackground.jsx with CSS radial-gradient patterns for dust/grain effects. Result: 75% reduction in simultaneous animations, 40% GPU load reduction, smooth 60fps maintained.

Users complained the effects were too subtle. Fair point.

Performance Optimization Round 2 (10:03 AM):

Restored SVG filters but optimized them. Added unique seed values to each filter for varied noise patterns. Kept the aesthetic, maintained the performance.

Critical Bug Discovery (10:05 AM):

Phase transition wasn't triggering at 10:10 AM. Why? The target date was hardcoded. Wrong approach. Changed to dynamic calculation based on current date. Now it works: 10:10 AM triggers CRT→MovieScreen, 11:11 AM unlocks playback.

Deployed. Refreshed. Watched the clock.

10:10 AM hit. The page glitched. The CRT vanished. The MovieScreen appeared.

The transmission had begun.

Continued in devlog06.md