GameBox: Real-Life Play
Helping kids rediscover phone-free games.
Background
GameBox is an app that encourages kids to discover fun, phone-free games to play with friends and family. After selecting how many players you have and the style of game you're after (sitting, acting, moving), it provides the user with various face-to-face game instructions. Think laughter yoga, improv games, or creative challenges.
This was a personal passion project of mine; I wanted to put my newly learnt SwiftUI coding skills to the test. However, I quickly realised I still had a lot to learn, even for a seemingly simple app. As a result, this project also morphed into an experiment to gauge how effectively ChatGPT-4 could assist in coding a full iOS app!
ChatGPT assisted in coding some more complex (for me) interactions.
I built a custom ChatGPT to assist me with developing GameBox in Apple's coding language Swift.
(I had fun with the screen transitions).
Improv with a Twist
The content for the app was inspired by my interest and involvement in improv acting. I've been fascinated by how improv games can quickly turn a room of shy strangers into a room full of laughter and connection. So, improv games became my inspiration when thinking about ways to help people connect without devices.
As for the visuals and illustrations, I started by doodling the blob characters. Then, I used MidJourney to create some more character variations. My goal was to use MidJourney to create illustrations for each game based on my original style. However, it wasn't quite up to the task – turns out, AI still can't quite capture the essence of blob chic!
The Future of Creativity with AI
My journey creating Gamebox has given me a glimpse into a future where our job titles might blur slightly at the edges. Maybe we'll all simply be called 'Creators'. It's the idea that our creativity and determination could outweigh the intricacies of execution. Up until now, I've believed that ideas are cheap, the true value lies in execution. (We've all had a 'killer' idea for a startup or movie, right?!) We may be on the verge of seeing this dynamic turn on its head.
I see the future of AI-powered creativity as definitely thrilling, often terrifying, but ultimately freeing.
Will our creative worth be measured more by the value of our ideas rather than the length of time we spent mastering a technical technique or a piece of software? That's a topic for another discussion!
Next time you're with friends, why not give Gamebox a try and put down your phone? I promise, it's a lot of fun!
Visit the GameBox website
MidJourney was able to generate variations of my illustrations - with mixed success.
GameBox is an app that encourages kids to discover fun, phone-free games to play with friends and family.