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.
Tideward is in beta, and no keeper gets wiped
Tideward is feature-complete and in beta ahead of its February 11, 2027 launch. Nothing you have built is reset, not at beta and not at 1.0. Here is exactly what changes, and the one thing that does.
- Sep 11, 2026 Idle Games
Melvor Idle vs RuneScape: what the idle version keeps, and what it drops
Melvor Idle and RuneScape side by side: skills, the shared XP table, combat, economy, cost, offline play, and a day in each. Plus where Tideward fits.
- Sep 11, 2026 Launch
Tideward is on the App Store for pre-order, releasing February 11, 2027
The pre-order is live on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. What pre-ordering does, what 1.0 has, and what it costs.
- Jun 3, 2026 Game Design
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 26, 2026 Alpha
Tideward 0.86: external TestFlight alpha is live
Tideward's external TestFlight alpha is live across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS. Free to join, with 24-hour offline progression, no ads, and no tracking.
- 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 15 of 24 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 with CloudKit
How Tideward ships with no analytics SDKs, no ads, and 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.