Nov 1, 2026
Making Players Think, Not Guess —
I always knew nailing down the difficulty of the puzzles would be the trickiest part of building Fill-In Crosswords. Turns out I was right.
Oct 18, 2026
Redrawing the Home Screen —
I spent the weekend redesigning the home screen of my word game, Fill-In Crosswords, while a couple of test builds are out with some friends that volunteered to validate the game's difficulty.
Oct 11, 2026
Scoring a Game With No Score —
The Cruzadex magazines I grew up with never kept score. Fill the grid, feel good about it, turn the page. An app needs a bit more than that. Players need a reason to come back tomorrow, something to get better at, and a sense of progress. All without turning a relaxing puzzle into something stressful.
Oct 3, 2026
Cruzadex, 14 Years Later —
I have a group chat with former work colleagues. All from a mobile background, all excited about AI, all building their own products and apps on the side. Some being very successful with it, others not as much (enters me 😅).
Feb 14, 2026
Prompt-Driven Product - When Code Isn't The Hard Part —
Turns out there was more to talk about in this journey. Not that surprising I guess 😅 Today I'll go through one aspect that isn’t talked about as much, and where these tools clearly still struggle a bit. At least based on this specific experience.