Hey Reader - Simon here 👋

Last week I spent some time building something slightly different: a Fire TV app with React Native.

Not a mobile app.
Not a web app.

An actual TV app.

It’s funny because React Native has been around for so many years, but most developers still think of it only as a mobile framework.

Turns out the ecosystem has expanded quite a bit!

🎥 New Video: I Built a Fire TV App with React Native using Vega OS

This week I tried something new: building a Fire TV app using React Native and VegaOS.

Amazon recently introduced VegaOS for Fire TV Sticks, and I wanted to see what the developer experience actually feels like.

In the video you'll see:

• how React Native works on TV platforms
• the monorepo approach to combine Vega OS and Expo
• what building for remote-controlled UIs looks like

👉 Watch the full video​

💭 A few thoughts this week

I’ve been experimenting a lot with AI-powered development recently.

One funny realization from this week:

You can build a working mobile game in under 60 minutes with AI.

I actually tried it as an experiment for and idle game idea.

And the result?

It technically worked…
but it was completely boring 🙃

Which reminded me of something important:

Building software fast doesn’t mean building something people want.

The hardest part is still:

• designing mechanics
• making things fun
• deciding what actually matters

AI helps with implementation.

But taste and product sense still matter a lot.

🛠 What I’m building

This week I'm mostly working on:

• Fixing open bugs and planning a new feature for Tiny Harvest​
• Recording new short-form videos about building games
• Get back into the habit of writing actual articles like this​

That’s it for this week - back to building.

If you’re experimenting with AI development tools, I’m curious what your current workflow looks like.

See you next week,
Simon