I was struggling with first year CS and made the decision to check out for a bit and build something - I decided to build a MUD and used this[0] book for ideas. MUDs expose you to a huge cross section of the CS curriculum (or what we were learning at the time) - simple data structures, sockets, network protocols, threading, parsers and data serialization to name a few. Most of my CS classes were on easy mode from that point.

I might be screaming into the void here, but if you're new, and contemplating a project to add to your resume, please don't build another React todos app. You're better than that.

0: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/927128.MUD_Game_Programm...