What If I Actually Went All In on Cybernetks?

It has been a while since the last Cybernetks Log.

Part of that is just life and client work getting in the way. The other part is less flattering: I have been procrastinating. Not only on publishing these Logs, but also on one of the final steps between Operator and the App Store.

Last time, I thought the next hard part would be marketing. That was slightly naive. Before I can worry about marketing, I still need to get through the Apple Developer Program enrolment and make a few decisions about what Operator should cost.

The pricing question took me longer than I expected.

Do I make Operator free? Do I make it a paid app? Do I add a subscription? Or do I find something in between?

I can imagine a subscription making sense in the future, once there are genuinely valuable features to support it. But the current version did not feel like enough to justify that yet. More importantly, Operator is still an experiment. I do not want the first thing I learn from my first app to be that nobody tried it because I put the wrong price in front of it.

So I settled on a middle road.

Operator will launch as a genuinely useful free app. The features that are there now will remain free, and I still want to add a few more free features later. Alongside that, there will be a one-time Founding Supporter Pass for €9.99.

That pass is really a way for someone to say: I like this app, I want to support it, and I want to be here early. In return, they get lifetime access to future Pro features.

When there are enough features to justify a paid tier, the Founding Supporter Pass will disappear and Operator can move towards a subscription model. The people who supported it early will keep their access. I still need to work out the exact future tiers, but I can do that when I have features worth paying for and, ideally, feedback from people actually using the app.

That last part matters most. I need Operator in the App Store so I can find out what people like, what they dislike and what I should improve. Until then, I am still making guesses.

With the pricing decision made, I was ready to start the Apple enrolment.

Naturally, I found another project first.

I realised I needed privacy and support pages on the Cybernetks website. I already knew I did not really like the existing Ghost site, so what began as “add two pages” turned into replacing the entire website.

The new version is built with Hugo and hosted on GitHub Pages. That makes it cheaper, but it also gives me much more control. Projects can have their own styling and proper URL structures. I can shape the site around the studio instead of squeezing the studio into the limitations of the old site.

Once that was finished, I looked at Agilix and thought that website could use some love too. So I rebuilt that one as well, using plain HTML and CSS and hosting it on GitHub Pages.

This is the point where “productive procrastination” becomes a very accurate description.

Both websites needed work. I am happy I rebuilt them. But they also gave me somewhere comfortable to put my attention while the Apple enrolment sat there waiting.

The strange thing is that I cannot give you a sensible reason why the enrolment bothers me. There is just this feeling that I might set something up incorrectly, discover I need another account or have to repeat the process later.

It is totally irrational.

I know that. It still slowed me down.

That has made me think about Cybernetks more broadly. It originally started as a way to learn, experiment and keep up with the developer market. That is still valuable, but I keep wondering what would happen if I treated it as more than that.

What if I actually went all in on Cybernetks?

Not in the dramatic sense of dropping my consultancy. That is not the plan. I mean taking the time I already have, including evenings, weekends and the hours I sometimes spend zoning out behind YouTube, and putting more of it into building a real studio.

I know how to build software. AI-assisted development gives more people that ability, which is a good thing, but I also understand the code I am reading and what the tools produce. I have the experience to turn ideas into products. If I take that seriously, Cybernetks could eventually create more freedom in what I work on, when I work and how I spend my time.

The website now reflects that shift. Cybernetks is not presented as just an experiment anymore. It looks and sounds more like a studio because I want to see what happens when I treat it like one.

Of course, my brain responded to this serious commitment by proposing a second project.

There may be something useful in that idea, though. Operator is a product with business decisions, release work and the pressure of getting it right. When that work feels heavy, I tend to avoid it. A game could give me a second lane: something creative, slower and more playful that I can work on without every session needing to move a business goal forwards.

Games still take a lot of work. I am not pretending otherwise. But the work feels different, and game jams show that it is possible to create something small in a short period. It could also be a more natural setting for streaming: relaxed development sessions where I can build in public without turning every stream into a formal product presentation.

There are practical problems to solve. My office is not completely finished, which makes camera angles awkward. I would mostly stream in the evening when the children are asleep, so I need to keep the noise down. None of that is impossible, but it means the idea still needs some thought.

For now, the next steps are clear enough.

First, finish the Apple Developer Program enrolment and get Operator into the App Store. I need real users and real feedback more than I need another round of private polishing.

Second, start exploring a first game project as the looser, more creative side of the studio.

And third, publish these Logs more often without turning every recording into a production problem. I tend to think each one needs a perfect video, podcast and written version, which means I need time to set everything up, record it properly and edit out every mistake.

But mistakes can stay. I can say something twice. I can ramble a little. The point is to document the work while it is happening, not to pretend I had a perfect plan afterwards.

So that is where Cybernetks is now: Operator is close, the studio has a new home, and I am trying to find out what “going all in” looks like without pretending the uncertainty has disappeared.

Would you be more interested in following Operator’s road to the App Store, the start of a game project, or the attempt to make Cybernetks into a more serious studio? I would genuinely like to know.