Remember the days of those old Nokia phones, the indestructible ones that could survive a fall (or two… or ten) and still let you play Snake for hours? Well, this post is a little trip down memory lane, inspired by that classic game and reimagined for the modern Atlassian world.
Recently, I built a Snake game for Jira, powered entirely by Atlassian Forge and yes, it runs right inside your Jira Cloud instance!
A few years ago, I was working onsite for a major banking client — the kind of high-security environment where smartphones were banned, internet access was heavily restricted, and anything remotely fun was off-limits.
No streaming, no social media… just work and the occasional Nokia 1100.
During long waits for deployments or after intense review sessions, our team found joy in the simplest of things — passing around that phone and trying to beat each other’s Snake high scores. It became a mini team ritual — a spark of fun in an otherwise tightly controlled space.
That nostalgia never really left me. And when I started thinking about how teams in secure or regulated industries still face similar restrictions, an idea struck:
Why not bring Snake into Jira itself?
With Atlassian Forge, it’s possible to build lightweight, self-contained apps that run securely within your organization’s cloud environment with no external dependencies, no security concerns.
So I built a simple Snake Game app that can be played directly from a Jira dashboard or issue view. Perfect for quick breaks or moments when you just need to clear your head, right where your work lives.
Not every app needs to drive KPIs or automate workflows. Sometimes, it’s okay to build something just for the fun of it, to spark creativity, nostalgia, or simply make someone smile during a long sprint.
This project is my small tribute to those simpler times and a reminder that a little play can go a long way in keeping morale high.
If you’re curious or want to tinker with the code, check out the GitHub repo here: https://github.com/kashsingh/forge-snake-game
Maybe it’ll inspire you to build something playful of your own — because innovation doesn’t always have to be serious. Sometimes, it can just be… fun.
Akash Singh
Atlassian Consultant
Nagarro Software
India
31 accepted answers
3 comments