Building BeatKerri: From Burnout to Browser Beats
A few months ago, I found myself in that strange place. I had just wrapped up a stretch of nonprofit work, gotten back to the US after 8 months of travels and was sending out job applications, hoping to pivot toward something more creative. Something that actually felt like me.
At the same time, I was helping friends and small businesses with websites and content. I was teaching myself web design, poking around UX and UI, and making drum beats in Logic for my own songs. I’ve always been obsessed with how things are built—drum beats, interfaces, systems that feel good to use. But code? Code always felt intimidating. Too many rules.
Still, the urge to build something wouldn’t leave me alone.
One day, while messing around with a step sequencer in a track I was working on, a thought slipped in:
What if this was a game?
I’ve always loved daily puzzles—Wordle, little rituals you return to once a day. And suddenly the idea of a beat puzzle lit something up in my brain.
The Birth of BeatKerri
The first version of BeatKerri was simple: a drum machine with a Challenge Mode. It would generate a random beat, and the goal was simply to recreate it. But randomness turned out to be more frustrating than fun. So I started shaping it. Limiting instruments. Tweaking BPM. Controlling how many sounds could stack at once.
Eventually, I built an algorithm that guided the challenge levels instead of throwing chaos at the player. It began gently—just kick, snare, hi-hats—and slowly added complexity. I layered in visual cues, feedback, and a sense of progression. Once that felt right, Jam Mode emerged naturally—a space with no rules, just play.
Then came my favorite feature: Daily Beatdle. One beat a day. One shared puzzle. Something you can solve, post, and move on from—or spiral into creatively.
What started as a side experiment quietly turned into something more personal. BeatKerri became a reflection of how I learn, how I make things, how I stumble forward until something clicks.
Why BeatKerri Matters to Me
BeatKerri lives at the intersection of a lot of things I care deeply about:
- My love of rhythm and sound
- My growing interest with web design and development
- My fascination with puzzles and play
- My desire to build things that don’t demand perfection to be meaningful
I use Jam Mode myself to sketch beat ideas for songs I release under the name Junkerri. And because you can download the MIDI or WAV files, BeatKerri isn’t just a game—it’s a tool. Something musicians and producers can actually use.
What I Hope for BeatKerri
I built BeatKerri to bridge the gap between fun and functional.
It’s for:
- Musicians looking for a playful way to spark new ideas
- Non-musicians who love puzzles but haven’t made beats (yet)
- Friends who want to solve the same beat, then remix it into something entirely their own
My hope is that someone solves the Daily Beatdle, downloads the MIDI or WAV, drops it into their DAW, and runs with it. Remix it. Sample it. Break it apart.
Because in a world that constantly tells us things have to be finished to be worth sharing, BeatKerri reminds me that unfinished can still be joyful. And that even something small—a click, a snare, a browser-based beat—can be the beginning of a banger.
Want to try it out?
Head to https://beatkerri.com
Start with the Daily Beatdle. Share it. Remix it. Break it.
Most importantly—have fun.