February 2026 – Unit Tests, a Game Jam, and What's Next
Hello,
Welcome to the first issue of the harlepengren.com newsletter. Since you're one of the first people here, thanks for signing up. I'll keep these short and worth your time.
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🆕 NEW THIS MONTH
Why I Started Writing Unit Tests for Personal Projects (And Why You Should Too)
I resisted unit testing personal projects for a long time — they're just for fun, right? But after spending several hours hunting down a bug in my chess engine that a single test would have caught in 30 seconds, I changed my mind. This post covers the practical case for testing your hobby projects, when it's worth doing (and when it isn't), and how to get started quickly in Python.
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💡 SOMETHING I LEARNED
This month my son and I entered a Game Jam together. This was our first time working as a team for a Game Jam. We built Jesvilemys (you can play it here: https://harlepengren.itch.io/jesvilemys) and finished it in time, which honestly felt like an accomplishment on its own.
I used Godot for the first time and dove into how it handles multiplayer. I learned a lot through this experience (future post coming on Godot multiplayer). But the bigger thing I took away: a reminder of how fun (and at times challenging) building a game with my son can be.
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🗓️ WHAT'S COMING NEXT
I'm working on a new series focused on building Blender addons. If you've ever wanted to extend Blender with your own tools but weren't sure where to start, this one's for you. More details soon.
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That's it for February. Hit reply if you have questions, feedback, or are working on something similar.
Norm