Algae Ecosystem Vol. 1 is a zine, the first artist zine released on the Network Archives Label. It focuses on how creative work actually gets made... not the polished final product, but the routines, tools, decisions, and personal logic that shape it.

This first issue profiles two creators who vibe-coded unique projects and their creative process.

Sound of Fractures is a musician who turned his single "I Wanna Get Back" release into an interactive world. He built a pixel-art runner game from scratch using Vibe Coding tools, AI-generated characters, and sound pulled directly from his own original music, while it self-runs in the background. The game collected player emails, rewarded top scorers with physical sticker packs, and built a community around the release.

The second creator is Jon Waltz, the founder of Algae, who documents his journey building Colorcast, a Chrome extension that extracts color palettes from images. He walks through his iterative process of brainstorming with ChatGPT, debugging step by step, and shipping at 80% rather than chasing perfection. This is all guided by a simple principle: if a project is too complex to finish, it isn't ready yet.

Their stories showcase that independent creators don't need big budgets or teams to build meaningful, interactive work. You really need curiosity, knowing about the right tools to use, and the commitment to ship, even if it isn't perfect.

This is Vol. 1, more to come.