Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | What I’d Tell Myself Before Starting (Lessons Learned)
Reflections after 14 weeks, 550+ versions, and one seven-year-old co-designer Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Floor Is Lava started as a seven-year-old talking…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | First Organic Download and Automating Promotion (August 5, 2026)
Wednesday, August 5, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The first download from a stranger A small but real milestone: downloads ticked up…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Fixing the Premium Sign-In Bug for Good (August 4, 2026)
Tuesday, August 4, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The premium sign-in bug, properly fixed A lighter day, running on not much sleep,…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Building the Trigger Registry System (August 3, 2026)
Monday, August 3, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Morning testing, before school The newest build had gone live overnight, so the morning…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | First Revenue and the “AI Slop” Comments (August 2, 2026)
Sunday, August 2, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Console listing touch-ups A quieter, tidying-up kind of day. A teaser video for Scorcha’s…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Published Live on Google Play (August 1, 2026)
Saturday, August 1, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Approved for production The day started with the news: Floor Is Lava had been…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | An Automated Promotion Pipeline (July 31, 2026)
Friday, July 31, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Promotional artwork and an automated pipeline Built promotional art from real in-game assets: the…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Lance Draws the Lava Ship (July 30, 2026)
Thursday, July 30, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Lance draws the lava ship A genuinely lovely collaborative moment: found a spaceship Lance…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A Toy Lava Ship for Lance (July 29, 2026)
Wednesday, July 29, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A toy lava ship for Lance A small, off-screen echo of the game showed…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Final Polish Before Launch (July 28, 2026)
Tuesday, July 28, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Final polish: leaderboards and victory music A last bug sweep before launch: victory screens…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | “I’ll Be Live on Wednesday” (July 27, 2026)
Monday, July 27, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play An apostrophe crashed the game Found and fixed a genuinely sneaky bug: the code-comment-stripping…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Update Notifications and Version 515 (July 26, 2026)
Sunday, July 26, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Update notifications Looked into automatic update delivery and chose the more portable option: a…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Version 504, Nothing Left to Build (July 24, 2026)
Friday, July 24, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Version 504, and pure testing Nothing left to build: downloaded v504 onto the phone…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Hearts, Checkpoints, and a Bug-Replay Tool (July 22, 2026)
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Hearts and checkpoints Added collectible hearts after finding the last level brutally hard to…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Difficulty Tiers, Legs, and Lance’s Dinner Feedback (July 21, 2026)
Tuesday, July 21, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Three difficulties, and legs Added Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty tiers to Story Mode:…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Stress-Testing the Build (July 20, 2026)
Monday, July 20, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Testing, not building A quieter day: no new features, just climbing nearly 1,000 platforms…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Eight More Days Until the Game Is Live (July 19, 2026)
Sunday, July 19, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Scorcha scales with the story Tuned Scorcha’s boss fights to appear every seventh level…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A Full Icon Set and Boss Mode Polish (July 18, 2026)
Saturday, July 18, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Boss mode, made presentable Boss mode worked mechanically from yesterday but looked too primitive:…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Boss Mode and Scorcha’s Backstory (July 17, 2026)
Friday, July 17, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The guest-account payment hunt Traced a guest-account Paddle payment that appeared to succeed in…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Server-Side Payments Confirmed Working (July 16, 2026)
Thursday, July 16, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A frustrating, essential day A genuinely rough stretch; the whole day spent wrestling with…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Moving the Coin Economy Server-Side (July 15, 2026)
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Moving the economy server-side A major hardening pass against the cheating vulnerability found on…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Chasing the Crash and a New Win Screen (July 14, 2026)
Tuesday, July 14, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Chasing the crash, and a proper win screen Traced the crash bug further; it…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Ten Testers and a Confirmed Crash Bug (July 13, 2026)
Monday, July 13, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Ten testers, and a confirmed crash Up to ten testers now, two short of…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Seven Testers and a Confirmed Coin Exploit (July 12, 2026)
Sunday, July 12, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Seven testers, and a real vulnerability Up to seven closed testers, five short of…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Anti-Cheat Testing Finds a Sandbox Coin Leak (July 11, 2026)
Saturday, July 11, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Level editor cleanup: v358 to v367 A long stretch of level-editor debugging: fixed a…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | First Outside Testers Recruited (July 10, 2026)
Friday, July 10, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A live in-page configurator Built a new platform configurator that pops out directly on…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A Project Tracker and a Real-World Playtest (July 9, 2026)
Thursday, July 9, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A project tracker, built from scratch Built a genuinely useful side tool tonight: a…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Debugging by Video and the First Trailer (July 8, 2026)
Wednesday, July 8, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Mapping the coin economy Had Claude generate a full flow chart and a 12-scenario…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | 39 Help Pages and Claude Playtests the Game (July 7, 2026)
Tuesday, July 7, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play 39 pages of help articles, built overnight Checked in on the Cowork task from…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | AdSense Rejection and an SEO Tutorial Site (July 6, 2026)
Monday, July 6, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play AdSense rejection, and why Google AdSense rejected the Floor Is Lava website tonight; policy…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A Real Recorded Playtest Session (July 5, 2026)
Sunday, July 5, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Focusing on one game at a time Consciously decided to stop context-switching between Floor…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Closed Testing Live, Recruiting Testers (July 4, 2026)
Saturday, July 4, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Closed testing, screenshotted Set up closed testing properly; added myself as a tester via…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Guest Login and Submitted to Closed Testing (July 3, 2026)
Friday, July 3, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Let people play without an account A genuinely important UX fix started today: Floor…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | 99% Complete, Waiting on Ad Approval (July 1, 2026)
Wednesday, July 1, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play 99% complete, waiting on ads A short status entry while most of the day’s…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Real Payments Tested End to End (June 29, 2026)
Monday, June 29, 2026: approx. afternoon to past midnight Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Showing a friend: “It’s pretty good” Demoed the game…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Filling Out the Google Play Store Listing (June 28, 2026)
Sunday, June 28, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Filling out the shop Steady admin progress on the Google Play Console listing: three…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | The 12-Tester, 14-Day Path to Google Play Release (June 27, 2026)
Saturday, June 27, 2026; approx. afternoon to 9:30 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Showing a friend the pipeline Walked a friend through…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Play Store Screenshots and Mode-Switch Bug Fix (June 26, 2026)
Friday, June 26, 2026; approx. evening to 1:05 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Screenshots for the Play Store listing Spent the evening…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A Roadmap, a Domain, and a Serious Bug Caught (June 25, 2026)
Thursday, June 25, 2026; approx. 1:45 a.m. to 2:50 a.m. the next night Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A roadmap and a Gantt…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A New Death Screen and Layered Map Backgrounds (June 24, 2026)
Wednesday, June 24, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A restless day, but a good death screen Not every session is a burst…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Why Analytics Matter for Launch (June 23, 2026)
Tuesday, June 23, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Analytics as the missing piece Realised Google Analytics makes publishing worthwhile beyond just having…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Analytics, Ads and Native Sign-In Setup (June 22, 2026)
Monday, June 22, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Four setup tasks toward launch A documentation-and-configuration day, listing out what’s left before launch…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Playtesting Feedback and Teleport Bug Fixes (June 21, 2026)
Sunday, June 21, 2026; approx. 8:15 p.m. to 3:35 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play His mom plays the game: and finds a…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | The Game Already Has Name Recognition (June 20, 2026)
Saturday, June 20, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play “Floor is Lava!” A small but telling moment showing the game already has some…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A Night Off From the Update Queue (June 17, 2026)
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Choosing what not to touch A short, deliberate note rather than a build session….
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Practically Complete, Heading to Play Console (June 16, 2026)
Tuesday, June 16, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Practically complete A short check-in: the game is now practically complete, sitting in Play…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Redesigning the Power-Up Buttons (June 15, 2026)
Monday, June 15, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Redesigning the power-up buttons Uploaded the newest build to Play Console, then turned to…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Wiring In the Last Story Mode Animations (June 14, 2026)
Sunday, June 14, 2026; approx. 7:20 p.m. to past 2:00 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Wiring in the last animations A relatively…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Not a One-Pass Developer (June 13, 2026)
Saturday, June 13, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Not a one-pass developer A reflective entry, prompted by watching online creators brag about…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | The Floor Is Lava Dance (June 11, 2026)
Thursday, June 11, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The Floor Is Lava dance A lighter entry; real-world play built around the game…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Building Episode End Animations (June 8, 2026)
Monday, June 8, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play End animations, episode by episode Working steadily through the end-of-episode animations in Claude Design:…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | All 51 Story Mode Animations Complete (June 7, 2026)
Sunday, June 7, 2026; approx. evening to 3:00 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play All 51 sprites, all 51 start animations Cropped and…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Fixing the Duplicate Animation Bug (June 6, 2026)
Saturday, June 6, 2026; approx. 8:30 p.m. to past 2:00 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The duplicate-animation mystery A genuinely maddening bug…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Testing Space Mode, Version 209 (June 4, 2026)
Thursday, June 4, 2026; approx. midday to 1:50 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Lance’s portal idea Shown the new space section, Lance…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Mobile Ads Go Live (June 3, 2026)
Wednesday, June 3, 2026; approx. 9:15 a.m. to 1:40 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Ads land on mobile, desktop lags behind Published…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | First Steps Into Google Play Console (June 2, 2026)
Tuesday, June 2, 2026; approx. GP waiting room to 1:20 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The lava ship level: story mode’s finale…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | First APK Build and Ghost Race Multiplayer (June 1, 2026)
Monday, June 1, 2026; approx. 9:10 a.m. to past 10:00 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Building the first APK Up to now…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Building Parachute-Down Mode (May 31, 2026)
Sunday, May 31, 2026; approx. 10:40 p.m. to 1:55 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The parachute-down mode, built in two hours With…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Three Games Move to Firebase (May 30, 2026)
Saturday, May 30, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Three games on Firebase A quick confirmation entry: War Chest Vastaria became the third…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Humming a Copyrighted Melody (May 29, 2026)
Friday, May 29, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Humming into cavern mode music An attempt at an original theme for cavern mode…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A Day of Small Pieces (May 28, 2026)
Thursday, May 28, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A day of small pieces A planning-heavy day rather than a building one. The…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Premium Skins and the Path to Google Play (May 27, 2026)
Wednesday, May 27, 2026; approx. 9:15 a.m. to 11:32 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Premium skins Morning session added premium groundwork: 20…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Moving to Firebase Hosting (May 26, 2026)
Tuesday, May 26, 2026; approx. 12:29 p.m. to 1:15 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Ambient background art Added a more animated background…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Building the Horizontal Platformer and Cavern Mode (May 25, 2026)
Monday, May 25, 2026; approx. 12:10 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A horizontal platformer, recycled from what already exists…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | The Vertical Platform Section and Mine Train (May 24, 2026)
Sunday, May 24, 2026; approx. 11:00 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The Vertical Platform section After nearly two weeks away from new…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Reusing the Login and Database Code (May 21, 2026)
Thursday, May 21, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Floor Is Lava as a reference module Floor Is Lava’s own code became a…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A Toast to a Stable Build (May 20, 2026)
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A toast to a stable build A short, reflective entry marking a real milestone:…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Pinning Up the App Icons (May 17, 2026)
Sunday, May 17, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Printed icons on the window pane A small, physical piece of housekeeping: sitting down…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | An Old Build Catches Up With Me (May 16, 2026)
Saturday, May 16, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Playing side by side with Lance An old-build bug turned up during a quiet…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Setting the Ad Philosophy (May 14, 2026)
Thursday, May 14, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Showing the game to a friend Demoed Floor Is Lava; music on, power-ups and…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Building Timer Mode (May 13, 2026)
Wednesday, May 13, 2026; approx. 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Turning Lance’s idea into Timer Mode Lance’s Time…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | A Real-World Playtest at McDonald’s (May 9, 2026)
Saturday, May 9, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Four games, one stable A stocktake across everything I’m building: Sky Finder mostly built,…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Drawing a Line Under Development (May 8, 2026)
Friday, May 8, 2026 Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play A line drawn under development A short but important entry; the first time I…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Balancing Power-Ups With the Platform Configurator (May 7, 2026)
Thursday, May 7, 2026; approx. morning to 11:45 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Balancing the power-ups by spreadsheet logic Fixed the teleport…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Lance’s Train Track Mode Idea (May 6, 2026)
Wednesday, May 6, 2026; approx. 10:15 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Morning bug pass Working on the bad guy’s…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Fixing the Watch-Ad Coin Bug, Version 100 (May 5, 2026)
Tuesday, May 5, 2026; approx. 4:30 p.m. to 12:10 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The Firebase piggy bank bug A bug that…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | The Bad Guy Enemy and an Online Leaderboard (May 4, 2026)
Monday, May 4, 2026; approx. 11:30 a.m. to past midnight Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The bad guy Today’s headline feature: a recurring…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Vine Swings and the Story Mode Coin Bug (May 3, 2026)
Sunday, May 3, 2026; approx. 12:40 p.m. to 12:45 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Vines, and a two-to-three-minute rule Testing yesterday’s build…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Ice Platforms and the Story Mode Concept (May 2, 2026)
Saturday, May 2, 2026; approx. 5:00 p.m. to 11:50 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Ice platforms, finally built A two-hour programming session,…
Floor Is Lava: Developer Diary | Debugging Sheets and Mobile Fixes (May 1, 2026)
Friday, May 1, 2026; approx. 10:00 a.m. to 3:10 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play The debugging sheet Claude’s latest build had no…
Floor Is Lava | Developer Diary: Day 3 | Ice Platforms and the First GitHub Push (April 30, 2026)
Thursday, April 30, 2026; approx. 1:57 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Playing it back Between transcription work I sat…
Floor Is Lava | Developer Diary: Day 2 | Multiplayer Modes and Bug Fixes (April 29, 2026)
Wednesday, April 29, 2026; approx. 8:40 a.m. to 11:05 p.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Showing Lance the finished game This morning, around…
Floor Is Lava | Developer Diary: Day 1 | Lance’s Idea Becomes a Game (April 28, 2026)
Tuesday, April 28, 2026; approx. 4:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Get Floor Is Lava on Google Play Lance’s idea The afternoon started with paper. Lance…