alt Hacker NewsI really enjoyed the writing, cheers. And yes, you may have done it the hard way, but you probably learnt 10x more by doing that.
As for what to do next, I used to spend way too much of my late-2000s time on puzzle hunts (particularly the Melbourne Uni one [1]) and this tickled the same part of my brain. Unfortunately they're no longer a thing, but it definitely sounds like you'd enjoy something similar.
That particular one may be no longer a thing, but there are definitely still plenty of puzzle hunts going on. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle_hunt which has a list.