Fun Builds

SPARK

A kids' venture-sim game built for our own family: children direct an AI orchestra to build pretend businesses, inside the strictest safety architecture in this portfolio.

Status: AlphaShipped: May 2026, alpha
days from empty repo to playable alpha
lines of code
commits in the build window
evolution tiers, balance-enforced

01 The story

Some builds are just for the family. SPARK is a cozy, non-combat venture simulator where kids play founder: they direct an AI called The Orchestra, watch the market react, and grow a companion coach named Lumi through five forms, but only by developing balanced skills. The safety architecture is stricter than anything else here because it has to be: parental consent and time caps, ephemeral voice, no training on child data, mandatory breaks that gate play sessions, and a coach that is deliberately a tool, never a friend, and routes any emotional disclosure to a real adult.

02 What went into it

  • Non-combat venture sim: founder moves in, market reactions out
  • Lumi coach with five balance-enforced evolution tiers
  • COPPA-by-design: consent, time caps, ephemeral voice, no child-data training
  • Anti-dependency mechanics: hard daily caps and mandatory breaks
  • Zero-server on-device taste mode for pre-consent play
  • Accessibility as a launch requirement: read-aloud, captions, dyslexia-friendly type

03 Claude in production

Venture simulation (The Orchestra)Discovery Q&A

Every AI call runs server-side under the Lumen governance layer: no client keys, cost telemetry on every call, and a human confirming every consequential write.