PIXEL STACKS · A PROJECT BY MICHAEL GALVIN
What it is
A little pixel library with a very large collection. Walk through ten themed wings, find a book, and settle into Book or Scroll mode. Save a shelf, keep notes, and collect reading stamps on a library card that stays on your device.
Free forever. No account, payment, ads or subscription. The catalog includes 77,842 Gutenberg editions; reviewed books arrive in batches. Pending editions are marked Coming soon.
Why I built it
PERSONAL STORY · DRAFT FOR MICHAEL
I’ve run a book drive for about five years. Pixel Stacks takes that idea somewhere new: a free library anyone can walk into, wherever they are.
How it was built
I directed AI coding agents run by run. I wrote the specifications, made the design and scope decisions, and did all hands-on QA. The code is AI-assisted; the direction and acceptance decisions are mine.
- The room: a code-built lounge, reader character, fixed isometric camera and 48-color pixel pipeline.
- The library: ten themed wings, subject placement, collision, routes, camera rotation and clear wayfinding.
- The books: Gutenberg’s offline catalog, section search, edition checks and browser reading.
- Make it yours: local shelves, lists, notes, positions, export/import and a stamped library card.
- The polish: Book mode, recorded ambience, room life, the librarian cat and performance work.
- The launch: a static cloud catalog, resumable streaming importer, mobile home and a strict hosting budget.
The hard calls mattered as much as the features: review the particular text and artwork, keep unclear files out of the reader, replace an accumulating mirror with verified streaming uploads, and make a large library work without a paid database. Large book and audio files travel directly from storage; the world pauses while you read.
By the numbers
Hosting: Vercel Hobby + Cloudflare R2. The initial batch is within R2’s free storage allowance. The full collection is estimated at $2.72/month before tax; the conservative allowance is $4.46, with a $5 project ceiling. These are measured-source estimates, not a live invoice.
What’s next
The optional shelf: Standard Ebooks, Open Library enrichment, academic books, Wikisource, eligible Internet Archive items, LibriVox and touch controls for the walk-through world. First, finish the Gutenberg import and let readers enjoy the room.
Sources and rights
Pixel Stacks is independently operated and is not affiliated with Project Gutenberg. The catalog comes from Gutenberg’s official offline metadata; book files come from a documented mirror. Published files retain the complete original notices and Project Gutenberg license. Text and included artwork are reviewed separately; unclear images use a noimages edition with our typographic cover, while unclear text stays unavailable. US public-domain status may differ in other countries.
Future sources must be public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA with the required attribution. Lending copies and unclear rights remain outside the reading collection.