I Built a Shadcn Slot Machine for Hacktoberfest—and I’m Just Getting Started

Hacktoberfest 2024 is still in full swing, but I’ve already hit my four pull requests. All of them went into shadcn-extensions, a project I started to organize the random UI components I’ve been building over the past few months. It’s a lightweight repo where I’m collecting user-submitted components for shadcn UI—nothing too wild, just something practical that I could actually use and share with others.

The idea came from realizing I had all these one-off UIs generated using v0.dev, and they were just sitting in different projects, scattered. So I figured, why not pull them all into a single repo and make something of it? It’s been fun to see the project come together, and Hacktoberfest gave me the perfect excuse to kick it off.

The One-File Social Media UI

One of the highlights for me was building an entire social media interface—all in one file. I wanted to see how far I could push shadcn components and Tailwind within a single component file. The process wasn’t super difficult, just a little tricky to keep things organized with so many interactions happening in the same place. It came together without too many headaches, though, and I ended up with a pretty clean, functional UI.

Slot Machine Fun

Halfway through the UI, I decided to take a break and do something a little more playful. That’s when I threw in a slot machine UI. It was one of those spur-of-the-moment ideas that ended up being a lot of fun to build. The animations are slick, the reels spin perfectly, and it adds a bit of unexpected flair to the repo. Sometimes, it's those random ideas that make a project memorable, and this was definitely one of them.

What’s Next?

Hacktoberfest isn’t over yet, and I’m still looking at where I can contribute next. I’ve been wanting to give something back to Oh My Zsh, a tool I’ve relied on for ages. I’m also eyeing the Next SEO package (this one), since it’s been a huge help on several projects and deserves some community love.

This has been a great way to get my wheels turning, and even though my four PRs are in, I’m definitely not slowing down. There's a lot more to explore, and I’m ready to keep contributing.