PowerUp is Live. My Son is the CEO.

From a ChatGPT experiment in 2023 to a real app my son uses. First in a series.

Back in 2023 I wrote about the promise and pitfalls of no-code AI. The experiment was a custom GPT called "Kid Create: Hero vs Villain". My son Riyaan made heroes, DALL-E drew them, and we had a blast.

It didn't feel like coding. It felt like... just a prompt.

Then it got hard. Small changes were impossible. The same answers gave a different hero every time. He couldn't share his creations with his friends. A whole app sitting on one prompt, never giving the same answer twice, was frustrating.

Fun toy. Not an app. Not something you could ship.

It was a proof of concept, and honestly that part was a super valuable lesson. I could try ideas fast. But a custom GPT was never going to be an app.

So I set out to build the real thing.. how hard could it be? 🤷

Six starts

Pretty hard, it turns out.

AI coding back then was a joke. I remember thinking... this thing is going to make some crap code. It was powerful, but it wasn't there yet. And life and work got in the way.

I started PowerUp six times. Monorepos, engines, a whole "platform" for building kid apps. Every single one stalled at the plumbing.. before a kid ever touched it.

My mind kept running ahead. An infinitely flexible system. Image creation. An engine that could build other things like PowerUp.

( One of those ideas was an image service. That one got a little out of hand. More on that soon. )

Then two things changed. AI coding got good, way beyond where it was. And the image service, my big big diversion, was live and could power the app.

All the pieces were there. All it needed was my time ( hard to come by ).

So a few weeks ago I picked PowerUp back up with one rule:

A kid uses it before anything else gets built.

The CEO

Riyaan is the CEO, the tester, and the only customer. He was seven in that 2023 post. He's older now, and he has opinions.

He also has 33 cards in his vault. So far.

Some actual feedback from the boardroom ( the couch ):

He typed the same idea three times, because three different questions asked for it. Now he just taps "Yep, I said that" and moves on.
He picked a style called Venom for a ninja and got a scaly green superhero. That style is gone.
Tell an AI the kid is "10" and everything skews young. Not "cool kid" enough, according to him.
He wanted to write, not tap. He had his own ideas.

Then he made a villain. I'll just leave this here. Feedback received 😅

He sucks the life out of kids forcing them to do work that is for their betterment.

The blank box

Most apps for kids are slot machines. Tap, new picture. Tap, new picture. The kid picks.. but the kid never really makes anything.

Riyaan didn't want a menu. He wanted a blank box. So that's what he got.

Your idea, in your own words." The whole product is this box.

Here's what he typed for his first hero, spelling and all:

"a very mysterios hero who preffers to be like a shadow"

The card waits face down until the art is ready, then flips. Confetti. That part never gets old.. even for me.

The AI didn't come up with that hero. He did. The AI just finished the sentence 🤔

Punch it up

That "finishing" part has a name in the app. Punch up.

The kid writes it. Then the AI offers a punchier version of each answer. Take it, remix it, or keep your own words.. your call.

Remember the irate papa?

Then the card flipped.

Mwahaha, the homework never ends and neither does their success!

The irate papa is now the Homework Overlord. Card No. 033. With a catchphrase.

But look at the weak spot:

"His love for his kid cracks his harsh shell, breaking the homework hold."

I'll take it ❤️

Not every kid is the CEO

See those cards under the box? "A ninja who..." Those are sparks. They start a sentence, never finish it. He skipped right past them. Didn't need them.

But I think it helps a kid with writer's block get those creative ideas going.

And the tapping? There's a version for younger kids that is mostly tap tap, big pictures, pure fun. He enjoyed that one too.. mostly imagining how his younger cousin would use it.

Mad Hoofer. A grow ray, a cheeky smile, and a weakness for mud puddles.

The Homework Overlord came out of the big kid version. Mad Hoofer came out of the little kid one.

Same app. Very different villain.

And even the little ones get one question in their own words. See "Your idea" on that card? "on top of a floating iceberg". Somebody typed that.

So tapping isn't the enemy. Tapping as the only thing is.

Yes, that's a villain called Stinky Sockster.

Still hard

V1 was a success. But the hard thing was getting his own words into an image.

He has created something in his mind that's hard to put into words. And whatever does make it into words still has to survive an image model.

I think this is going to be a continual process.

And the image service?

Every picture in PowerUp comes from Pixloom. It started as "PowerUp needs images" and turned into its own thing... a URL that returns an image.

So PowerUp is Pixloom's first customer. Also its most demanding one.

How a kids' hero app accidentally became an image platform is the next post. It's a bit of a ride 🙃

Want to try it?

It's live, and still very much a work in progress. I'm looking for a few parents with kids between 5 and 12 to test it. Free. You sign up as the parent, your kid gets the fun part, and I get honest feedback ( kids are very honest ).

Riyaan would like you to know he approves all hiring decisions 🎤 and revenge is sweet ;)