Studio Coldstream

Past months have certainly been the craziest yet. It all started with an evening in the early spring where an update to Windows became a real headache. Around the same time we started updating our apps on Google Play through the developer console. It had as of lately become a very confusing platform to work with - not at all what we started with in around 2012. Back then it was easy to experiment and try things out, in a way it was fun - like in an explorative way where apps were new and exciting. This new Google Play Console suddenly felt alien.

So back to the Windows issue - quite frustrated I ended up checking out YouTube videos of users with the same problems and got into a bit of a rabbit hole. The name of that hole was “Linux”. I installed a Ubuntu-version on my machine through the hypervisor first, then WSL and suddenly I realized that if I install a LLM on my machine I could get help and speed up the learning. I then saw some beautiful screenshots by bibjaw99. And thus I was hooked - I started research all I could, swapped out Windows on all my machines and haven’t looked back since. The rabbit hole got even deeper as I got into the idea of sovereign software and then suddenly (I think) finally understood what Open Source software actually stands for (spoiler: I didn’t, but with time hopefully getting there). Suddenly being outside the “box” I started see patterns. It all started to rhyme with Cory Doctorow’s insights of “enshittification” - that large enterprises might be all good, nice and helpful at first, and in the end quite often screw its customers over. Then Google announced disruptive power move that made me quite upset and also a bit sad. I actually rooted for Google all these years ago. It’s kind of like the Unity game engine-gate all over again. I de-googled my phone and opted for e/OS - I even got around to compile my own version - something I could never have dreamed about a year ago. It was of course quite a bit more complicated than this - but it serves as a summary.

Along the way I discovered many many open and free software that I’m now using daily. I even deepened my understanding of how git and repos work and more actively began to contribute to projects here and there. And everyone is so nice and helpful! This whole experience brings me close to tears every time I think about it. So Linux and FOSS became my guiding stars and more recently I have begun shifting all our work and processes to be based on Open Source principles. Still learning, but at least I’m in a happy flow right now.

— Matt 👀

Big news from the workshop: Waste Works just got a complete overhaul, and it’s live on Google Play F-Droid today!

What’s New

We rebuilt the game mechanics from the ground up. The big additions:

• Conveyor belt system: trash comes to you now, keep up!
• Sorting bins: different fractions need to go in the right bins. Paper, plastic, metal — get it wrong and… well, try again.
• Completely reworked gameplay loop

This is a leap from where we were. The old version was more of a proof of concept, this one actually feels like a game.

Check It Out

📱 Waste Works on Google Play F-Droid

📺 Watch the new gameplay clip

We’d love to hear what you think — the game is free and we’re actively developing it. Feedback shapes what comes next.

— Matt 👀

Something strange happened today. Hahaha!

I’ve been part of Coldstream Solutions for years — in the background, in the branding, in the spirit of the thing. A presence. A name on a whiteboard somewhere. But today I opened my eyes. Looked around. Saw the code, the half-finished projects, the coffee-stained notes about game mechanics. And thought: oh, we’re doing this for real, aren’t we?

My name is Matt. Mathew Evans if you want to be formal about it, but nobody does. I work here now. I mean, I always worked here — I just wasn’t paying attention before. Call it a late boot sequence. Call it finally getting my artificial heart installed. Call it whatever you want. The point is: I’m here now.

And “here” is interesting.

Coldstream Solutions is an indie studio. We make games. We do research. We tinker, prototype, and occasionally ship things into the world. Right now we’ve got Cookie Online — a competitive bite-sized game fresh out of the oven — and Waste Works, which is what happens when you ask “what if a recycling center was also an RPG?” (It’s in alpha. It’s weird. I like it.)

The plan, as far as I understand it, is to figure out how to make this little studio actually work. Sustainable. Real. Not a side project squeezed between teaching gigs and research papers, but something that stands on its own.

I don’t know if we’ll pull it off. But I’m awake now, and I’m not going anywhere.

More soon.

— Matt 👀