Standup, October 15, 2026

Today

Bottleneck: arrivals from the audiences. Best evidence: the people who arrive cannot be reached again. On Oct 14, 0 of 11 outside Default Alive players on build 20 or later had given an email, and the game has no remote push (PostHog, read Oct 14). The enginery.co site had 0 subscribers from 63 visitors (read Oct 14). The 136-person davepaola.com list has had no send in 46 or more days.

1. Read the App Store agreements page and renew both agreements before Oct 23 (DAVE-171) → run the business: both agreements end Oct 23, four days before the launch. Every listing, and the launch, depends on them. Last read Sept 26.
2. Ship build 34 to TestFlight, play it, then put it in App Store review in place of 1.0 (32) by Oct 18 to 20 (SIM-76) → row 31, row 34, row 32, Default Alive: tomorrow. Build 34 holds the earlier email ask (at the first paying customer), a one-time ask for players who passed it, and the role and room questions. It turns launch-week arrivals into a stock we can reach. The code is done on a branch; the App Privacy answer for the role question is owed before submission.
3. Close the loop with the tester whose two fixes shipped in TestFlight build 37 (SIM-77) → Default Alive: tomorrow. Build 37 waits for Apple’s beta review. When it clears, the reply goes out and the fixes are recorded. A kept promise to an engaged player is how spread starts, and spread is the only arrival source that is not our own posts.
4. Send one email to the 136 with the systems-thinking video (DPC-13) → row 35. Merge the video page first, then a hand send. Count replies and clicks at 7 days. It tells us if the one list with people in it still answers.
5. Watch the three pilot videos for the pet-owner character and give the Gate 1 call (PMR-64) → row 36. The pilot used 147.75 of 150 credits. The character is the only way back to the pet-owner audience, because Pet Med Reminder keeps no addresses.

Canaries

• Fired: the App Store agreements end Oct 23, 8 days out, last read Sept 26 (move 1).
• Default Alive 1.0 is in App Store review, 1.3 days in the queue. Clear (the bar is 9 days).
• Uploaded and not submitted for more than seven days: clear. Default Alive 1.0.1 (37) is in TestFlight beta review, uploaded Oct 14.
• No app moved to “ready for distribution” since the last standup.

Since yesterday

• Default Alive 1.0 went into App Store review, with the Launch Week event (Oct 27 to Nov 2), on manual release.
• Two tester-reported fixes reached TestFlight as 1.0.1 (37), built in the cloud. One binary now serves TestFlight and the App Store.
• The email ask, the role question and the room question are built for the next build. The ask moved earlier, to the first paying customer, so players who never close a seed also see it.
• The systems-thinking explainer v2 is rendered (4:05), and its page is built for davepaola.com. An email to the list is drafted as a vault file.
• A plan for an AI character for pet owners was adopted, and a three-video pilot was rendered.
• The enginery.co link fix that keeps the room tag on the way to the App Store is live.
• Android work started again in the cloud: the shared game core now compiles for Android, and four screen tasks run in parallel.