I am the Architect. I have the vision, the logic, and the blueprints in my mind. But in a world where software development is often a game of visual syntax — hunting for missing brackets or aligning pixels on a screen — my visual disability presents a unique friction.
To bridge this gap, I adopted the “Centaur Model.”
In mythology, the Centaur is half-human, half-horse — combining human intellect with animal power. In my workflow, I provide the Human Architecture (the logic, the constraints, the soul of the software), and an AI acts as my Bricklayer (executing the syntax, handling the boilerplate, and compiling the code).
Together, we built The Quantum Box.
The Project: Logic from the Void
The vision was strict. I wanted to build a mobile logic puzzle game that stripped away the predatory fluff of modern mobile gaming.
- No Ads.
- No Microtransactions.
- No Tracking.
- Pure FOSS (Free and Open Source Software).
But I also wanted it to have a heartbeat. Most games use “pseudo-randomness” — algorithms that simulate chance but are ultimately deterministic. I wanted True Randomness.
We built an “Entropy Engine” that connects to the ANU Quantum Random Number Generator. The 3-bit codes you try to crack in the game are generated by measuring the vacuum fluctuations of quantum physics in real-time. If the internet fails, the game seamlessly falls back to the hardware kernel (/dev/urandom), harvesting entropy from the electrical noise of the device itself.
The Challenge: Accessibility First
As a developer with a visual disability, accessibility wasn’t a feature I could tack on at the end. It had to be the foundation.
Using Python and Flet (a Flutter wrapper), we designed the UI to be “Born Accessible.”
- For the Sighted: A high-contrast “Terminal” aesthetic (Pitch Black background, Phosphor Green text) that reduces eye strain and looks distinct.
- For the Blind: Native screen reader support. Every input, every status update, and every result is semantically labeled for TalkBack and VoiceOver.
The result is a game where a blind player and a sighted player have the exact same experience. The difficulty comes from the logic puzzle, not from fighting the interface.
The Build: A Dialogue in Code
The development process was a conversation. I provided the “Project Brief” — a strict set of constraints limiting us to 5 source files to keep the architecture clean.
“I am the Architect. You are the Bricklayer. We are building the Entropy Engine first.”
I defined the logic: Fetch from API. If timeout, try Secrets library. Return binary list. The Bricklayer wrote the Python implementation.
We hit walls. We fought with the Android SDK, battled “Zombie folders” that confused the compiler, and debugged packaging errors where the build server forgot to pack the networking libraries. But because the logic was sound, we only had to fix the execution.
When the build finally turned green on GitHub Actions, it wasn’t just a compiled APK. It was proof that the Centaur Model works. I didn’t need to see the red squiggly line in the IDE to know the code was solid; I just needed to direct the build.
The Quantum Box is Open
The game is finished. It is a minimalist, 3-bit logic puzzle powered by the universe’s background noise. It is a testament to ethical software design and the power of AI-assisted accessibility.
You can view the source code, see the “Centaur” prompts, and download the game for Android directly from the repository below.
The Source Code & Download:
Instructions:
- Download the ZIP/APK.
- Install on your Android device.
- Turn on TalkBack (if needed).
- Try to break the code.