ReleaseTime

Every release countdown tool has the same flaw: it speaks in the broadcaster's timezone, not yours. You do the mental arithmetic, you get it wrong, you miss the drop. ReleaseTime started as a personal fix for that specific irritation and ended up as something worth shipping publicly.

My core idea was an almanac, not a dashboard. I borrowed the visual language of a printed schedule: clean date lanes, color-coded type badges to distinguish movies from TV series from anime, and countdown figures that are the largest thing on the page. Nothing competes with the number you actually came to see. TMDB and AniList supply the metadata and release schedules; the browser locale supplies the rest. Timezone calibration happens entirely client-side, so the countdown reflects wherever the user actually is.

Angular 19 SSR via Express gives the calendar fast initial loads without sacrificing the dynamic behavior that makes timezone math possible on the client. Standalone components keep each section of the app independent. The watchlist lets you pin upcoming titles and stop hunting for them across a dozen streaming apps.

The design discipline was restraint under pressure. Release tracking apps accumulate features fast: trailers, reviews, social feeds, episode breakdowns. I kept the scope narrow on purpose. A pearl canvas background, high-contrast ink type, color-coded status chips, and a fixed icon dock on desktop that collapses to a bottom bar on mobile. The information density is high, but each element earns its place. I wanted something that feels closer to a well-typeset reference page than an app begging for attention.