Chaos Booth did not begin as a photo challenge app. It began with a much more practical question: could I build a useful mobile application with AI assistance, in the same way I had already started building games and improving websites?
When I created AI Built Projects, I wanted it to document more than one kind of experiment. Games were already an important part of the story, and websites had their own place, but the Apps & Tools section was still waiting for its first real project. I did not want to fill that space with a fictional concept or a design mock-up. I wanted to create something that actually worked on a phone and could eventually be released through Google Play.
The first idea was a shortcut for film ratings
My starting point came from an ordinary habit. When I browse Netflix and find a film or series that looks interesting, I often copy the title, leave the streaming app, search for it on IMDb and check the rating and a few details before deciding whether to watch it. It is not a serious problem, but it is repetitive. I wondered whether I could build an application that made that small journey faster: enter or select a title and immediately see the useful information in one place.
On paper, it sounded sensible. It solved a recognisable inconvenience, it had a clear purpose and it was easy to explain. But an idea being useful does not automatically make it worth building. Once I looked more closely, it became obvious that many applications and services already covered the same ground. I could have produced another version, but it would have been difficult to give it a reason to exist beyond my own curiosity.
The first important decision was not what to build. It was what not to build.
A gemstone app was closer to my world
I also considered ideas connected to gemstones. That direction was natural for me because gem faceting and photography are genuine parts of my life. An application that evaluated stones, organised information or helped people understand what they were looking at seemed more personal than a general entertainment database.
It also raised harder questions. Gemstones cannot be judged reliably from a simple photograph. Lighting, treatment, origin, clarity, colour and many other details matter. An app could easily appear more authoritative than it really was. I did not want to build something that gave people a confident answer when the underlying information could not support it. The idea was connected to my interests, but that did not make it the right first application.
The useful app became a playful one
The breakthrough came when I stopped trying to force the project into a conventional utility. During my conversations with ChatGPT, the direction gradually moved towards something visual, social and deliberately light-hearted. Instead of helping somebody look up information, the application could give people a reason to create something together.
That was the beginning of Chaos Booth: a photo challenge application that asks players to act out short situations, captures a sequence of pictures and turns the result into a collage. The concept was simple enough to understand immediately, but flexible enough to support very different moods. It also fitted the way I wanted to work. I could build it in Unity, test it directly on Android and see the idea becoming real screen by screen.
The two main modes emerged from that thinking. Funny & Friendly would offer playful challenges that most people could try without much preparation. Wild & Crazy would push the expressions, characters and situations further. A countdown would give the player time to prepare for each photo, and the completed sequence would become a collage that could be edited, saved and shared.
Changing direction was part of the work
Looking back, the abandoned ideas were not wasted time. They helped define what I wanted from the project. The film-rating concept showed me that usefulness alone was not enough if the market was already crowded. The gemstone concept reminded me that a subject I know and enjoy can still be a poor fit for a quick first application, especially when accuracy is difficult to guarantee.
Chaos Booth worked because it did not pretend to solve a major problem. Its purpose was clearer and more honest: create a funny moment, guide the photos and turn them into something worth keeping. Once that core idea appeared, decisions about the interface, challenge lists, camera flow and collage system had a common direction.
The first build then moved remarkably quickly. From the chosen idea to a working Android application took two days. That does not mean every version looked right or that every decision survived. One complete visual direction was later rejected, and the final interface changed substantially before the app was submitted to Google Play. Those parts of the story deserve their own articles rather than being compressed into this beginning.
Where the idea stands now
As of 17 October 2026, the first version of Chaos Booth is complete and under Google Play review. What began as an empty space in the Apps & Tools section became a real Android application with photo challenges, two distinct modes, local collage editing and a My Creations gallery.
The most important part of this first chapter is not that the original ideas were wrong. It is that I allowed them to change. If I had committed to the first practical concept simply because it arrived first, Chaos Booth would not exist.
Next in the development journal: how I turned the selected idea into a working application in two days.
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