// ORIGIN
"You know that feeling — buying a pre-owned game with no cover, going online, finding art you love, editing it, printing it, sliding it in. That's not just a game anymore. That's yours."
That feeling — of taking ownership of something you paid for — is exactly what Steam Grunge tries to recreate digitally. Not just a game in your library. A cover you chose. An icon that fits your aesthetic. A library that looks like it belongs to you.
Six months ago, I looked at my Steam library — 470+ games accumulated over 8 years — and thought: this should feel like my collection, not just a list of files on a server.
// THE QUESTION THAT STARTED IT
Why can't I change my game covers?
Why doesn't Steam track how much I've saved?
Why does my wishlist feel like a shopping cart?
Why does nobody else seem to care about this?
So I decided to build the answer myself.
// TIMELINE
6 MONTHS AGO
The Idea
Frustrated by Steam's limited personalization, I asked a simple question: why can't my game library feel like mine? Like finding a pre-owned game without a cover and printing your own — that feeling of ownership.
MONTH 1–2
Steam Grunge is Born
Started building a desktop editor for custom Steam artwork. The goal: covers, heroes, logos — with a VHS grunge aesthetic that matched my own taste. Not clean or corporate. Distressed and personal.
MONTH 3
Steam Curator Joins
As a compulsive collector with 470+ games, I needed smarter wishlist management. Price tracking, savings history, buy recommendations based on historical data — Steam Curator became the second app.
MONTH 4–5
The Hard Parts
Authentication, server management, databases, third-party APIs, cross-device sync. My first time dealing with all of this simultaneously. The moment artwork loaded automatically for the first time — I knew this was real.
NOW
PimpMySteam
Two apps. One account. One ecosystem. Open source, free forever, built with genuine love for the gaming community. This is just the beginning.
// WHAT I LEARNED
Backend
FastAPI, Railway, Supabase, JWT auth, CORS — first time building a real API.
Frontend
Next.js, TypeScript, Vercel — from zero to deployed web platform.
Cloud Sync
Google Drive API, OAuth flows, token management across desktop and web.
Desktop Apps
CustomTkinter + PySide6 — two different GUI frameworks, two apps.
Auth Systems
Registration, email verification, 2FA, password reset — all from scratch.
Product Thinking
Designing for real users, not just for myself. UX that makes sense.