Ring the bell!, the little pedalling game born for my son’s birthday (I wrote about it here), is now at version 0.2. Lots of small changes, and two big ones.
Kids’ drawings#
The cyclist and his bike were drawn four-handed by Milo, my son, and his friend Aubin. The guy holding up the track on the end of his pole and the bell are all Milo’s. A big thank you to the artists!
The game was born for a kids’ birthday party, so it made sense for kids to get their hands on it. And there is another reason: leave things to the AI and you quickly get a clean, smooth, “average” interface. A bit like an Ikea catalogue. Kids’ drawings are the opposite: they put a bit of mess into the smooth, and the game gets a real personality out of it.
The rest followed: the whole screen now looks like paper, with a grainy background and a track like a cut-out strip.
Each rider their own slope#
Second big change: the difficulty adapts to each rider. A child and an adult can play together without the adult winning every time. It also works between two adults who aren’t at the same level.
How it works: in the first round, everyone rides the same slope, which measures each rider’s level. After that, each has their own slope: flat for the weakest, steeper for the stronger ones, who just have to push harder. The home trainer simulates the slope, and you really feel it in your legs.
And no point cheating by taking it easy in the first round: your level can only go up. Ride well above it and the slope gets steeper mid-ride.
It will probably need some balancing, and for that I need your feedback: too hard, too easy, unfair? Tell me, there is a “Your opinion?” form right in the game.
And if you’d rather everyone suffer equally, just pick a fixed slope in the settings.
And lots of little things#
- The last 5 seconds: ahead of the bell, the pole bearer lifts the track by 3 %; behind, he lets go and runs away, and the track drops. You can turn it off, but that would be a shame.
- Virtual gears for single-cog home trainers (like the Zwift Cog): shift with a gamepad, a Zwift remote or the keyboard. Clickety-clack.
- Players each get their own cyclist and colours, you reorder them by dragging, and up to 8 can play.
- Scores are distances, in metres, computed from power.
All the details are in the changelog.
Vertigo#
One last, more personal word. This whole version was written with Claude, like the previous one. And I feel dizzy. Really.
Not long ago, this was science fiction. You ask an AI to build an app, it builds it. To solve a maths problem, it solves it. And we find it almost normal. It’s fascinating, and it’s unsettling: what kind of world are we stepping into?
For software development, it’s no longer “just” an intern or a highly motivated, very efficient junior. Models improve steadily, but there are steps, and I think we’ve just climbed a few. It’s troubling.
Try it#
It’s still at https://sonnelacloche.enavarro.eu/, with Chrome or Edge. No bike? Demo mode plays with the keyboard. And once again: I’d love your feedback!