Featured Community Plugin - RetroWall
This post is part of a series, featuring the incredible work of plugin authors who grow the TRMNL plugin ecosystem with every contribution. The TRMNL team has individually selected these plugins and authors to be featured.
RetroWall
Community member JetSharkLambo (Discord: jetsharklambo) created the RetroWall plugin; here are their words on how it was created.
Why did you want this plugin to exist?
My wife likes to get me surprises every now and then, but was always tipping it off by asking me what I was playing. I made Retrowall to share with folks what I'm playing without them having to ask! Now you can just take a look at my TRMNL and see a collage my most recently played games.
Why were you the person to make it?
I'm a huge retro gamer and retroachievements has motivated me to play and replay a lot of classics just for these incentives. Likewise, this plugin has me playing a lot of my faves just so the collage looks perfect around gift-giving season!
Were you inspired by any other recipes or plugin creators?
Big fan of jvdmeij's Paperboy, it really shows you that art is the relevant info that people want sometimes so you need to put it front and center.
How did you balance look vs functionality?
The look was certainly more important for this plugin. We have so many options to alter the look for this reason. For functionality, we just had to make sure the number 1 game rendered somewhere near the center of the grid so that each look you designed was functional.
What was your process for creating the plugin?
It's actually a very simple plugin. Claude code made the first draft in minutes and then we added a ton of customization features on top of that so that each user could have a unique view even if they played the same games. Did some testing to remove some options that were more likely to break your view than enhance it and it was done!
Did you learn anything that you want to apply to future or past recipes?
Design wise: don't waste words on stories that can be told entirely with images. Not every story can be told with images only, but if it can, that's the most efficient way to tell the story.
Is there a tip you would give to a new plugin developer?
Use the visual editor! It shows you all views at the same time so you can diagnose issues that are persisting across multiple views, its great!
What is your favorite plugin that someone else created and why?
Advanced RSS is the first plugin that brought the promise of TRMNL to life. It has dramatically reduced the amount of times I pull out my phone and scroll. I simply walk past my TRMNL when I'm in the kitchen, glance at the latest pull from the RSS's I follow, and rest easy knowing that nothing new has happened since I last checked!
