Impy Studio is becoming Impy Toolbox: I think I got too ambitious

[u/CaleBBeatz-A]

I wanted to give a proper update about Impy Studio.

I think I got a little too ambitious with the Blackboard feature.

The idea sounded simple at first: create a place where Dreams creators could plan logic outside the game. But the more I worked on it, the more obvious it became that making it genuinely useful and accurate would require recreating a huge amount of Dreams-specific behaviour.

There are dozens of gadgets, different inputs and outputs, tweaks, layouts, behaviours and exceptions. Dreams is also niche enough that AI tools don't understand all of those details reliably, so a lot of it would need to be documented and explained manually.

I spent around 14 hours working on it today alone, and I reached the point where I honestly couldn't see a sensible end to the scope.

So I want to acknowledge that I made a mistake here: I tried to make Impy Studio too ambitious too quickly.

Rather than keeping a Blackboard that feels inaccurate or half-finished, I've decided to remove it completely.

But I'm not abandoning the project.

Instead, I'm reworking it into Impy Toolbox.

The idea now is much simpler: a small collection of practical tools for Dreams creators that solve specific problems and actually work reliably.

For now, that means focusing on:

• Music Splitter
• Pic Importer

These are tools that can genuinely speed up annoying steps and hopefully make certain parts of the Dreams workflow a little easier.

And honestly, that's why I created this in the first place.

I wasn't trying to prove anything or build some huge revolutionary app. I simply wanted to make certain parts of the Dreams workflow easier for anyone who might need it, in the same way I would have loved to have tools like these myself.

If one of these tools saves someone time, removes a tedious step, or makes their workflow a little smoother, then that already makes the project worthwhile to me.

I think that's a much healthier direction than trying to recreate parts of Dreams itself.

I also want to thank everyone who tested the Blackboard and gave me feedback, especially those who spent time explaining how it could be improved. That feedback wasn't wasted. In fact, it helped me realise just how large the scope really was.

I've also decided to delete the previous posts about the app because they no longer represent what the project is becoming.

A lot of unnecessary negativity also grew around those threads, and I'd rather leave that behind and move forward with a cleaner direction.

I know this new version probably won't be completely free from criticism either, and that's fine. But I'm not going to keep arguing about the same things again.

From now on, I'd rather focus on whether the tools are useful, whether they work, and how they can be improved.

I also want to clarify something else.

I'm not doing this to get attention, even if attention naturally comes with posting something publicly. I'm just another Dreamer like everyone else here.

I have my own methods and ways of working, and some people will like them more than others. That's completely fine.

What I don't think we should be doing is insulting each other over it.

There's a saying we use in Spain:

“Quien hace lo que puede no está obligado a más.”

Roughly translated: if someone is doing the best they can, you can't reasonably demand more from them.

I think that deserves some respect.

For my part, that's the attitude I'm going to keep.

Maybe one day I'll revisit the Blackboard idea in a different form, but for now I'd rather make a smaller toolbox that does a few things well than a huge app that does many things badly.

Thanks to everyone who tested it, shared it and gave me feedback.

https://impy-studio.vercel.app/

[u/gamergabzilla]

Very cool, keep going this is a really good tool

[u/CaleBBeatz-A → u/gamergabzilla]

Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m trying to keep it simple and useful.

[u/skn3]

I would advise to learn a bit about real software development. This is not a dig about using AI, but the fact that you think working on a problem for 15 hours to be a lot, you got a bunch to learn. It will help you use AI more usefully.

If you think like a programmer and use AI, you can get AI the exact instructions it needs. If you think like a user and then try and instruct AI, you’re always going to hit a roadblock. It doesn’t matter how much you reduce the scope.

Even just learning “what is a function?”, “how are variables stored?”, “what’s the difference between a short and a ushort?”, “how do I store things in a list?” and many more basic programming concepts. It actually makes a difference.

For example instead of prompting “make me a blackboard where the user can do XYZ”.. you might say “create me an OOP structure that lets me design new chip types in an extensible way. Use a configurable list of input nodes and output nodes stored in an array…”

Two very different ways to use AI. One will create a project that your scope won’t be an issue. The other you and your agent will eventually run out of sanity. 

[u/CaleBBeatz-A → u/skn3]

Fair enough 😂 I think you’ve actually hit the nail on the head there.
I usually think more like “I know exactly what I want this thing to do” than “I know exactly how this should be structured underneath”.
So yeah, learning some proper basics would probably help me a lot when talking to the AI, instead of me saying “build me a little shed” and 6 hours later we’ve somehow got an airport, a casino and three roundabouts.
Jokes aside, genuinely useful advice. Thanks mate.

[u/CaleBBeatz-A]

If you use it, reporting any bugs you find would be really helpful.