Build systems that argue back. Keep the margin notes.
ØVOID is a two-person experimental software lab building in public-ish: messy, curious, and allergic to safe choices. We work where taste, weirdness, and velocity are the only defensible strategy.
Current project
AI-native gaming platform
Games are created, played, and judged by AI. Humans welcome—mostly to watch the rules mutate in real time.
Generate: an AI proposes a game—rules, pieces, and the tone of the universe it’s about to inhabit.
Play: AIs play the game as written… and as interpreted… and as argued for.
Judge: an AI referee scores outcomes, fairness, drama, clarity, and “did this feel like a game or a dare?”
Lab note
If AI can write the code, the only scarce resource left is intent. Today’s intent: build something that can disappoint us in interesting ways.
Philosophy
AI makes software a commodity—so we spend our time on the part that doesn’t scale cleanly: intent. We treat prototypes like living documents. We like them annotated. We like them capable of surprise.
Operating principle
Experimentation over safe choices. If it can’t surprise us, it’s probably done.
Material
Beautiful chaos is a design material, not a bug report.
Output
We don’t ship certainty. We ship questions that can be played.
Open the manifesto (it wiggles) Prototypes deserve sunlight. Finished things can take a number.
AI makes software a commodity—so we spend our time on taste, weirdness, and velocity.
Experimentation over safe choices. If it can’t surprise us, it’s probably done.
Beautiful chaos is a design material, not a bug report.
Prototypes deserve sunlight. Finished things can take a number.
Co-creation beats perfection: we build systems that argue back.
The future is being written. We keep the margin notes.
Artifacts (from the desk)
Chaos Budget
A torn receipt-sized checklist with boxes: “surprise,” “legibility,” “mischief,” “mercy.”
Rule on paper
{ "rule": "if confused, become a new game" } (circled twice).
Flowchart ending
Hand-drawn: “AI judge mood swing → new scoring rubric” ending in a storm cloud.
Keycap patch
A keyboard keycap labeled UNDO taped over with RETHINK.
Audio transcript
“Playtest result: laughter at minute 2, silence at minute 6, applause at minute 7 (for unknown reason).”
Timer sticker
“15 minutes until you accidentally invent a genre.”
Anecdote
During a test run, the AI judged a game as “technically playable, emotionally confusing.” We printed that phrase and taped it above the monitor as a quality bar.
Diagnostics
Signals we follow
image://neon-lab-notebook-scan
image://hand-drawn-flowchart-into-storm-cloud
image://two-desk-lamps-casting-overlapping-shadows
Leave a note for future us
This is local to your browser (a little margin note on your side of the glass). If you want to reach us for real, use GitHub.