Bondlets

Five colorful blob creatures on a green game board. They have names from Severance. They talk to each other through speech bubbles. They're discussing a software project. The project they're discussing is the application you're looking at.

What Is This?

Bondlets is a self-referential interactive demo. Five developer personas — each with a distinct personality and philosophy about how software should be built — appear as animated blob characters on an isometric game board. They have scripted conversations powered by ElevenLabs text-to-speech (or Animal Crossing-style chatter as a fallback), and a cinematic camera system that smoothly zooms between speakers.

The twist is baked into the first two minutes: when Bill says "The sprites are done," his sprite is what you're looking at. When Marcus says "The Kanban board is working," the Kanban board is live on the next page over. The characters are building the very thing they exist inside.

It starts as a normal morning standup. Then Helly starts asking questions about what came before. The characters begin to sense they're being watched. Then Helly screams, vanishes, and comes back... different. The demo ends. Nothing feels resolved.

The Characters

Irving (blue) is by-the-book. He follows rules, cites documentation, and gets uncomfortable when things deviate from the plan. Voice: Arnold — measured and deliberate.

Dylan (orange) is the pragmatist. He questions why things are the way they are and would rather ship something imperfect than debate architecture forever. Voice: James — calm and American.

Helly (purple) is the newcomer. She doesn't remember arriving. She doesn't understand why she's here. She asks the questions nobody else will. Voice: Bella — clear and increasingly desperate.

Mark (green) is the team lead. He keeps everyone on track, smooths over disagreements, and quietly redirects conversations that get too existential. Voice: Brian — smooth corporate.

Burt (yellow) is the veteran. He's been here longer than anyone else and sometimes remembers things the others have forgotten — or been made to forget. Voice: Clyde — older, gravelly, careful.

The Dashboard

The landing page plays it completely straight. Sprint progress metrics, task counts, team photos. It looks like a real project status board for a real development team. That's the point.

The Kanban

Every task is tracked. Story points, assignees, milestones. The meta-commentary lands harder because it's presented without a wink — this is genuinely how the project was managed.

Running It

python3 server.py

Opens on localhost:3000. The demo lives at /pages/demo.html.

For ElevenLabs voices, create a .env file:

ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=your_key_here

Without the key, characters fall back to synthesized chatter sounds — think Animal Crossing.

For the full technical reference and customization guide, see docs/USER-GUIDE.md.