I found that stupidly simple with many, many libraries to do things. WS2812 LED strips using FastLED is very popular and rightly so, great fun. Really quick and easy to start flashing lights in patterns. Then copy some wifi code so you can control it with your phone (or tablet or laptop). Mesh more than one. If you're just playing $3 is still very cheap.
And if you've just started learning C being arduino compatible with many step-by-step tutorials a search away is gold.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33059632653.html
I found that stupidly simple with many, many libraries to do things. WS2812 LED strips using FastLED is very popular and rightly so, great fun. Really quick and easy to start flashing lights in patterns. Then copy some wifi code so you can control it with your phone (or tablet or laptop). Mesh more than one. If you're just playing $3 is still very cheap.
And if you've just started learning C being arduino compatible with many step-by-step tutorials a search away is gold.