👋 Hi. on Christoph Voigt 🚀

Screen Manager

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I needed a more robust way to switch Screens. At this point in time I have three different screens:

Start Screen
Game Screen
Result Screen (shown when Game Over)

Switching to those screens worked via a global variable. Game starts? var screen string = "start". Enter the game? screen = "game"… You get the idea.

The problem with this approach: it is surprisingly hard to keep track about what screen is supposed to be shown. This gets messy pretty soon, especially when those screens are stateful.

So I “invented” a ScreenManager logic, to register screens at startup and set the right screen when desired. This not only makes intent way more obvious, but it also allows for some screen-lifecycle. I can now react OnEnter() or OnExit(), e.g. for loading/unloading assets. This structure would even be sufficient if I later want to implement a “back” functionality. If anyone is interested, I created a barebones PoC here.

Change: oozwpxwk

Creating a Settings Screen
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Now that I have something to switch screens, I started working on a settings screen. This will be the screen to view or edit configurations.

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Not exceptionally beautiful or even exciting. But it works and does what it is supposed to do. Everything design related is anyways a task on its own, that I successfully procrastinate…

Change: lkmypylt

Apotris

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Today I learned about Apotris. My first impression? Fuck! Fuck is this good!

When I started developing I didn’t have the ambition to create the best Tetris clone out there. But I was convinced I’d have a few novel ideas at least. Turns out my ideas aren’t as novel ;D

Even the cooperative multiplayer is something thats already existing in Tetris Effect Connected, as I learned just recently (if you haven’t seen it, check it out!).

To me this brings up a question: why implement a new Tetris clone, if there is already a very good, open source, freely available one that got ported to other platforms already? Why not port Apotris to Firefly-Zero instead?

I haven’t looked deeply into the source code, so I don’t know whether it’s possible or how much effort it would take. Maybe someone will port it eventually.

I, for one, am having a blast implementing Tetris. It has probably been done thousands of times, but I enjoy thinking through the problems, even if other people have already solved them. 😂

State Drift

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

New entry for the devlog: We now have a proper distinction between singleplayer/multiplayer-coop. The later one is now also fully functional. For coop I implemented player-specific colors, so it is possible to see who dropped which blocks (will be configurable in future). Without it looked a bit “chaotic”. Also I think it will be cool to see “who is faster”. I also thought about making the block drop round based… But I feel like this way its more fun.

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But oh no! The state drifts.

Gram told me I should be careful with getMe() calls outside of render(). Investigating…

References:

Discord

Cooperative Multiplayer PoC

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Started tackling (coop) multiplayer… I broke quite a bit of my input logic (have yet to understand why), but overall it does what I expect !😄

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References:

Discord

Save Blocks

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

After going through the topic of SRS I have to admit: it feels like a totally different game. It is incredible how much this rule set pays into the tetris experience!

It definitely took a while to find a good way to implement it; but pretty happy with the outcome.

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Oh, and you can now save blocks for later 😎

From a UI-perspective: do you prefer the save-block on the left or the right side?

References:

Zulip

SRS Shenanigans

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I was today years old when I learned, that my approach to dropping blocks is super naive. Hell, there is even an official Tetris guide on how blocks have to behave under certain conditions. They call it the Super Rotation System!😅

It even seems to be some kind of common sense among Tetris conoceurs.

Guess I will implement it, as this would mean blocks in the game would behave as in every other modern Tetris game. Also things like T-Spins would be possible.

References:

Discord

It's a game!

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Small update… already way more playable. Scores, line count, levels work. hard drop and drop shadow caused some headache today, but running fine now. Next I’ll probably dig into UI. A lot of things can be configured already, would be cool to do this from UI instead of code !😎

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References:

Discord

Humble beginnings

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Over Christmas holidays I spend some time playing with the firefly-zero SDK. Over the weekend I took some free time to implement a Tetris clone. Parts of the game loop are already functional. My goal is to create a highly customisable version (configure block colors, enable games with/without save blocks, toggle next block preview, configurable number of rols/cols…), to make a more interesting version of Tetris.

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Currently I’m struggling a bit finding a name… As I wanted to adhere to the firefly theme, I came up with “Luminos” (… Lumen, Tetriminos… get it? 😅). The problem: apparently there is a board game with the same name. I still like it and use it as a working name…

Other names I came up with:

Lumen Blocks
Firefly Blocks

Some additional names the fine folks of the Firefly-Zero Discord came up with:

Fourfly
Firetris
Tetrafly
Flytris
Lucitris
Lucid Blocks

References:

Discord

Trying smee

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I recently learned about smee, which is a tool to forward webhooks (or any other kind of HTTP Post request) to a locally running service. This can come in particularly handy while developing a service locally, which isn’t exposed on your machine.

The idea is simple:

You create a channel on smee.io. This gives you a public endpoint that can receive HTTP POST requests.
Smee.io emits incoming requests as Server-Sent Events (SSE).
A local smee client subscribes to these events and forwards them to your local service.

A simple walk through using a http-bin as locally running service which is not exposed to the internet:

Install smee-client on your local machine

$ npm install -g smee-client

Run http-bin (or any other service)

$ docker run -p 3000:80 kennethreitz/httpbin

Run smee-client

$ smee \  # smee client
 -t http://localhost:3000/post # locally running service
Forwarding https://smee.io/svEz8ll4Q0B8w36z to http://localhost:3000/post
Connected to https://smee.io/svEz8ll4Q0B8w36z

Note: you can also manually register a new channel by going to https://smee.io/ and clicking “Register New Channel”. Which will… create a new channel. You can use the endpoint of this channel by providing the -u flag:

$ smee \  # smee client
 -u https://smee.io/rCUe9fx5k03oryf7 \ # enter smee URL
 -t http://localhost:3000/post # locally running service
Forwarding https://smee.io/rCUe9fx5k03oryf7 to http://localhost:3000/post
Connected to https://smee.io/rCUe9fx5k03oryf7

If you now send your payload to the smee endpoint, it will be forwarded to you locally running service:

curl -XPOST 'https://smee.io/rCUe9fx5k03oryf7' \
 -d '{"hello":"world"}'

Your smee client should confirm that with a 200 (or any other HTTP code your service yields).

Forwarding https://smee.io/rCUe9fx5k03oryf7 to http://localhost:3000/post
Connected to https://smee.io/rCUe9fx5k03oryf7
POST http://localhost:3000/post - 200

Definitely a good tool to have as part of your tool box.

2025-09-18T00:00:00Z

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is a now page. If you have a blog, you should make one too.

It’s been a while that I wrote about things that are ongoing. Not because nothing is going on. Mainly because I’ve been busy with work and life. I’m married now. I bought a house. Busy times!

House 🏡
#

Last year, we moved into a house near Hanover, the place my wife and I have chosen as our home. While I’ve so far only experienced living in a flat I can say: it’s another quality of life. We are really happy with our decision.

Joining the local fire brigade 🧑‍🚒
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In Germany, more than 95% of firefighters are volunteers. That’s something I neither knew nor cared about when I lived in a big city like Hannover. But your perspective changes once you own property and start wondering who would show up if things really went wrong. Therefore, I joined my local fire brigade and completed the basic training needed to actually be of help. It’s been an exciting way to get involved as a volunteer: I like contributing to the local community, and I’ve come to really appreciate the camaraderie, which I honestly underestimated at first.

Sports 🏃‍♂️
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After a nine-month break and a tough time getting back into it, I’ve finally managed to rebuild a bit of a running routine. The real challenge will be sticking with it through the winter. In past years, things like sickness, work stress, and bad (cold!) weather often made me stop. Let’s see how it goes this time!

Work 👨🏼‍💻
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After more than six years I decided to quit Reply. While I definitely enjoyed the consulting business, I actually never wanted to stay there forever. I missed being part of an actual product. Create something and see it developing over years. As a consultant, you create a lot, but you rarely see things grow and mature, as project contracts are ultimately always finite. Which can be great, given the fact you have access to so many different organisations, teams, and system architectures. I will certainly miss a lot of aspects of working for Reply, but also I’m looking forward to my new challenges.

Reading SciFi 📚
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I’ve recently started reading novels again. While I’ve always enjoyed books, most of my reading in recent years has been limited to work-related technical material. It feels great to read purely for pleasure. I recently finished “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir, which I really enjoyed. Therefore I started another one of his books: “Artemis”.

Playing “Elden Ring Nightreign” 🎮
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I’ve been excited about this game since its announcement and have been playing it ever since release. It’s a clever blend of Soulslike, Battle Royale, and Co-Op mechanics, which makes it both challenging and unique. The biggest hurdle is finding a capable group, as the entry level is quite high - new players struggle, even those coming from Elden Ring, since there are many new paths and boss patterns to learn. What I love most is the playtime: a single run takes about 40 minutes to an hour, which feels just right - enough for one satisfying session, but still leaving room for another if I want. Even though I’ve already finished every boss, I can easily see myself enjoying the game for a long time to come.

👋 Hi. on Christoph Voigt 🚀

Screen Manager

Creating a Settings Screen #

Apotris

State Drift

Cooperative Multiplayer PoC

Save Blocks

SRS Shenanigans

It's a game!

Humble beginnings

Trying smee

2025-09-18T00:00:00Z

House 🏡 #

Joining the local fire brigade 🧑‍🚒 #

Sports 🏃‍♂️ #

Work 👨🏼‍💻 #

Reading SciFi 📚 #

Playing “Elden Ring Nightreign” 🎮 #

Creating a Settings Screen
#

House 🏡
#

Joining the local fire brigade 🧑‍🚒
#

Sports 🏃‍♂️
#

Work 👨🏼‍💻
#

Reading SciFi 📚
#

Playing “Elden Ring Nightreign” 🎮
#