Notes from the workshop.
Long-form posts on game design, the math of idle systems, and what it takes to ship a privacy-first RPG as a one-person studio. New entries when I have something worth saying.
Progression systems that respect your brain
Idle games don't have to be mindless. How Tideward brings real RPG character builds and meaningful skill choices to the idle genre on Apple devices.
- May 20, 2026 Community
How alpha testers are shaping Tideward
Lessons from running a Discord-based alpha for an indie idle RPG: how community feedback changed core mechanics, and why open development works.
- May 6, 2026 SwiftUI
Building an idle RPG with SwiftUI and CloudKit
Why ship an indie game in SwiftUI instead of Unity, how CloudKit replaces a custom backend, and the tradeoffs of going native-Apple for an idle RPG.
- May 3, 2026 Privacy
Removing Google Analytics from a game site: what changed
Why I deleted GA4 from the Tideward site on May 1 — what I lost, what I gained, and the cookieless tools that cover the decisions I actually make.
- May 2, 2026 Brand
Why I renamed Manu Idle to Tideward (plus 16 of 23 skills)
Trademark research, App Store positioning, and the soft conflicts that turned a fine dev codename into the wrong product name. The May 2026 rebrand, in full.
- Apr 22, 2026 Technical
The math behind idle games: 24 hours in milliseconds
How idle games calculate offline progress: a deep dive into simulating a full day of gameplay instantly — the math, algorithms, and tradeoffs.
- Apr 8, 2026 Game Design
Designing offline progression that actually feels good
Designing fair offline progression for an idle game. Tideward gives 24 hours of real offline rewards — no ads-to-double, no pay-to-unlock gates.
- Apr 5, 2026 Technical
Privacy-first game design: zero tracking on iOS with CloudKit
How Tideward ships with zero analytics, zero ads, zero third-party SDKs — and what it took to build a privacy-first idle RPG on Apple CloudKit alone.
- Apr 1, 2026 Development
Why I'm building Tideward — an indie idle RPG for Apple
The origin story behind Tideward, a solo-built idle RPG native to every Apple device. No ads, no tracking — just a game that respects your time.