A normal, calm month this time. No deviations from our routine, just completely standard. Not bad at all, I’m not complaining. Alan played his football matches again. Alex was busy with beach volleyball and tennis. I went running a few times a week and worked on my little game.
The kids were lucky because they had a few days off this month and enjoyed carnival. Sometimes these calm months are exactly what you need to recharge.
After my recent technology upgrade, I started getting more and more interested in the Apple ecosystem. I looked into their Airtags, but there were rumors about a new version coming up, so I patiently waited. They are here now and I think it was a smart move to wait for the new version. Better battery, better precision, better sound to help find it. All that for the same price.
I was never really interested in getting an Airtag because I just did not see the use for them, but now that they have supposedly improved accuracy it did get my attention. I sometimes play escape-room like games with my family. Solve riddles, search for things, break locks, hidden messages, etc. Adding an airtag looks like a very fun addition.
I will give it a try, and afterwards I can always use the Airtag to track my luggage for when I travel, or maybe track my backpack, or my car. I’ll see that usage is worth it for me.
It does work. I had rushed the initial version of Mushroom Mayhem into the store, with quite a few bugs still in it and really only the bare minimum features needed to make it playable. I strongly suspected that doing this would prevent the project from stalling again and me not looking at it for years. And it worked. Even though there are only around 20 people that installed the game, I’m motivated, and many evenings I find myself improving and fine-tuning the app.
Another pretty big update. This time I used an ‘agent’ to add large chunks of functionality all at once. An agent recieves a job, breaks it up in logical parts and assigns all the parts to a collection of AI tools that work together to carry out each task. After a while when all the tasks are complete the agent combines them all to a final result and marks the entire task as completed. After completion I could review everything and approve it if it was all correct. Super easy, as long as you describe the initial task clearly.
AI updates:
I also did some things myself and updated all the apps graphics, so everything looks a little bit cleaner, the app has a brand new icon and there are a number of bigger changes:
A simple costume can create a surprising amount of magic, especially when it’s worn by an incredibly charismatic and photogenic little character. Add a few finishing touches, and you’ve got pure spectacle.
Alan Presley is more than ready to take the school’s Carnival celebration to the next level. One thing’s for sure, with him around, everyone will be dancing in no time.
I ran into my upstairs neighbor in the elevator. The usual small talk unfolded: he asked how I was doing, and I asked how he was doing. Normally you get the standard replies, ‘everything’s fine’ or ‘same old, same old’, the autopilot of everyday politeness.
But this time he said, ‘En la lucha’.
In the fight.
Huh. I looked at him, a bit puzzled. In the fight? I know he does something in the army, but still it sounded strange, and I asked him to explain. He smiled and told me he meant the daily struggle: the endless stream of tasks, obligations, all the things that need to be done. No drama, no great tragedy, just the ongoing battle of everyday life.
Next time someone asks me how I’m doing, I already know what my answer will be.
‘Right in the middle of the fight’. :)
I started the year off being very productive. Together with the AI, I built a new app at lightning speed. I actually enjoyed developing again. The biggest advantage of the AI was that problems were solved quickly and easily. No more spending hours figuring things out, running countless tests to discover where the error is and how the solution should be built, instead, I just point out where the issue is and wait a moment while the AI analyzes and fixes everything. Solving one error no longer leads to the next; the AI simply resolves the whole chain of issues until everything works again.
My app ‘Mushroom Mayhem‘ consists of several components. First, the idea, that was my own bit of creativity. The images (AI, Bing), the music (AI, Suno), the coding (partly AI, Copilot), the small details (AI, guided by me). Lots of AI, and the result is a polished app that really matches the vision I had beforehand, and this time the outcome isn’t limited by my lack of skill.
Grandma Nel also came for a lovely visit. She had escaped the Dutch cold for a few weeks and arrived with a suitcase full of gifts, sausage, cheese, eel, and alcohol. She came to enjoy some time with the grandchildren and the Spanish sun. First, a week with friends in the south, where sunshine is guaranteed, and then a week with us, with pleasant temperatures but also the occasional shower.
I got to use an AI for free for a month. I have to admit, even after a month of usage I’m still amazed at how much work the AI can do, and how precisely it understands what I mean with just a few short instructions. I started with very small tasks and gradually began giving it bigger assignments. My free month is almost over, but I’m pretty sure I’ll continue with the paid subscription.
The productivity boost that AI provides is enormous. I stopped developing years ago because family life took up too much time, and I lost the long stretches of uninterrupted time I used to have. I always needed a few hours in a row to really focus on what I was building. But now, suddenly, even one hour is enough to make real progress. Fixing bugs, which was always tedious work, is no longer necessary, the AI handles that. All I have to do is test and fine-tune. It’s truly amazing what’s possible now, and it feels like having a team member who can take a lot of work off your hands.
I’ve shifted the work I do on MM to the evenings. Before going to sleep. Rather than enjoying part of a movie or an episode of a series I now spend the last hour of my day talking and experimenting with my programming assistant. Over the past few days, I’ve made some improvements, so you can now get the new version.
Thanks for your feedback! The new version has a daily challenge and new edible mushrooms which you can use to get a little help when you’re stuck.
Once collected, the mushroom is stored for future use. Consuming an edible mushroom increases your awareness of nature and gives you a brief burst of intuition. It allows you to focus your thoughts and pick up on insights you might otherwise have missed. Simply click the edible mushroom icon in the top right, then select the area you wish to explore to get a sneak peek, whether it’s something worth uncovering or something best avoided.
I was a bit underwhelmed when I first started experimenting with my new iPhone 17. Coming from an old SE, I had expected the jump to the 17 to be a major change for the better. What I noticed instead were lots of relatively small improvements and a few big ones. Everything worked just a little bit better, a little smoother, and it made me realise my old phone wasn’t even that old. A noticeable upgrade was the larger, better screen, and the biggest change was the battery. I can now use my phone all day without worries.
There was one more big improvement that I didn’t notice at first: MagSafe. After getting a MagSafe charger for my nightstand, it didn’t take long to adjust to the new level of comfort it offered. There was a small issue with the bright LED built into the charger, but a small sticker quickly solved that. Step two was a MagSafe charger for my car, and that was all I needed to stop using cables altogether. It’s a very satisfying reality where I simply drop my phone onto the magnet or pull it off again. Sure, it might take a bit longer to charge, but since my phone is now my alarm/clock and it charges while I sleep, I don’t care.
My old phone used to turn itself off at least a couple of times a year from overheating. That’s what you get for living on a tropical island, I guess. The new phone has a cool feature to avoid overheating: a vapor chamber that should distribute heat more evenly so the phone can cool down faster. The really warm and sunny days are still a few months away, so this feature is something I’ll put to the test in the future.
For now, my conclusion is simple. My new phone wasn’t the jump into the future that I expected, but it has enough improvements to make me happy. The new magsafe (new for me, it been available for a few years already) did make me experience a jump into the future, and makes me happy.
Ofcourse I have heard about ‘indie developers’. I like these kinds of games a lot, but suddenly I realised something…
No publisher, no external boss, no committee telling me what the game should look like. I decide the mechanics, the art style, the branding, the emotional tone and that creative autonomy is the core of being indie. My projects come from nostalgia, curiosity, and joy, not market pressure. That’s classic indie energy: making something because it matters.
Well, that also applies to mushroom mayhem… it just hit me: I am an indie game developer. Good times!