Some of you may have noticed that Jeff’s Place looks a little different lately.
Okay… a lot different. 😄
After years of periodically breaking, rebuilding, neglecting (LOTS of this, just look at the dates!), resurrecting several times and neglecting yet again, and otherwise tinkering with this site, I decided it was time for another rebuild. This one was done with a whole lot of help from AI, which seems appropriate considering how much of my professional and personal life lately involves figuring out what these tools can actually help us build.
And apparently the answer is: a new website, a family game, and an unreasonable number of turtle graphics.
Hence: Jeff’s Place v3.0.
And yes — now with considerably more Cranky.
Why Cranky?
Cranky’s Game started as a fun project, but the more I’ve worked on it, the more I’ve realized that some of the ideas behind it have been rattling around in my head for quite a while.
One of the most meaningful chapters of my career was serving as an SES in Washington, DC (take a drink, IYKYK), and all of the great partnerships that exist at the federal level. My work in DC gave me a much deeper appreciation for how complicated the world can look from a child’s perspective — particularly when adults, systems, technology, safety, family relationships, and enormous life changes all intersect at once.
I have been at the city level for many years, and at the state level for many more, and this completed all levels. It gave me a great amount of experience, and when I came back to my home Texas, I was ready for new beginnings!
That experience didn’t somehow magically turn into Cranky’s Game.
But I do think it made me spend more time thinking about something pretty basic:
Kids need places where they can be kids, and the adults responsible for them need ways to remain meaningfully connected without hovering over every interaction.
That idea has become one of the foundations of what I’m trying to build with Cranky.
Building it with AI
The other fun part is that I’m building a huge amount of this with AI. I quickly reached the limits of my coding skills back when this game was a local single 3.9MB html file, and when it was time to make it interactive, I knew I needed help. I also can’t make graphics worth a dang, so THAT was AI from the outset.
I quickly learned that using AI was not “press a button and AI makes a game.”
It is in my opinion more like having several extremely fast, occasionally brilliant, occasionally ridiculous development partners helping me think through code, design, privacy, gameplay, graphics, testing, infrastructure, and a seemingly endless supply of “okay, but what happens if a seven-year-old does this?” questions.
It has become as much an experiment in how people (me in this case o solo mio) can build with AI as it is an experiment in building a family-friendly game.
And I’m having a blast doing it. Honestly, it’s a great way to just relax and go forth and prosper.
Where I’d like Cranky to go
The social side is only part of what I have in mind.
Over time, I’d love to introduce adventures around animals, habitats, conservation, environmental stewardship, and cleaning up the world around us. Not in a preachy homework-disguised-as-a-game way, but through stories and things kids can actually do inside Cranky’s world.
Help clean up a stream…
Restore an animal habitat…
Figure out why something in the sanctuary has changed…
Learn that what helps turtles, birds, pollinators, forests, rivers, and oceans generally helps us humans too!
There are a ridiculous number of directions this could go.
Which, if you know me, is probably exactly why I started building it. 😄
For now, Cranky’s Game is still very much in active development, and I’ll keep writing about both the successes and the “well, THAT certainly didn’t work” moments here.
Welcome to Jeff’s Place v3.0.
Technology. Emergency management. AI. Things I build.
And apparently now… a lot more Cranky. 🐢