---
title: I had a thought at the gym. It's now in the App Store.
description: "Coffee plus sun equals what? That thought hit me at the gym, and this week it became my first game in the App Store. Not a case study. The build story comes Tuesday."
date: 2026-08-06
tags: [build, build-in-public, ios, games]
url: "https://mahdif.com/blog/i-had-a-thought-at-the-gym-its-now-in-the-app-store/"
---

# I had a thought at the gym. It's now in the App Store.

Coffee plus sun equals what? That thought hit me at the gym, and this week it became my first game in the App Store. Not a case study. The build story comes Tuesday.

☕ + ☀️ = ?

Mine is 🧻. If coffee is part of your morning, you already know why.

That thought hit me at the gym a few weeks ago and I couldn't let it go. What would other people answer? Their answers would say everything about them. Clearly this needed to be studied. For science.

So I built it. It's called [Weirdo](https://youweirdo.com), and this week it became my first game in the App Store. You get an emoji equation, you pick the answer that's honestly yours, and then it tells you how rare that answer is. The two weeks of App Store review felt longer than anything else in the process.

<figure style="margin:2.75rem 0;">
<video autoplay muted loop playsinline controls preload="metadata" poster="/images/blog/i-had-a-thought-at-the-gym-its-now-in-the-app-store/videos/gameplay-poster.jpg" style="display:block;width:100%;max-width:380px;margin:0 auto;border:1px solid var(--border);border-radius:var(--radius-lg);background:var(--card);">
  <source src="/images/blog/i-had-a-thought-at-the-gym-its-now-in-the-app-store/videos/gameplay.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  A round of Weirdo on an iPhone: two emoji equations, then the result screen scoring how rare the answers were.
</video>
<figcaption style="margin-top:0.85rem;text-align:center;font-size:0.85rem;color:var(--muted-foreground);">Three questions, then it tells you how rare your answers are.</figcaption>
</figure>

I hid a few things in the game and a few more on the site. Nobody has mentioned any of them yet. If you find one, tell me which one.

<div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;align-items:center;gap:1.75rem;margin:3.25rem 0;">
  <div style="position:relative;width:100%;max-width:280px;padding-top:130px;">
    <img src="/images/blog/i-had-a-thought-at-the-gym-its-now-in-the-app-store/mascot.png" alt="" aria-hidden="true" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:50%;transform:translateX(-50%);width:150px;height:auto;z-index:0;border:none;border-radius:0;" />
    <img src="/images/blog/i-had-a-thought-at-the-gym-its-now-in-the-app-store/wordmark.png" alt="The Weirdo logo" style="position:relative;z-index:1;display:block;width:100%;height:auto;border:none;border-radius:0;" />
  </div>
  <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/weirdo-daily-emoji-takes/id6793402135" target="_blank" rel="noopener" aria-label="Download Weirdo on the App Store" style="display:inline-block;line-height:0;">
    <svg viewBox="0 0 180 60" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" role="img" aria-hidden="true" style="display:block;width:100%;max-width:200px;height:auto;aspect-ratio:180/60;">
      <rect x="0.7" y="0.7" width="178.6" height="58.6" rx="12.5" fill="#000" stroke="#a6a6a6" stroke-width="1.4"/>
      <g transform="translate(17,13.5) scale(0.033)">
        <path fill="#fff" d="M788.1 340.9c-5.8 4.5-108.2 62.2-108.2 190.5 0 148.4 130.3 200.9 134.2 202.2-.6 3.2-20.7 71.9-68.7 141.9-42.8 61.6-87.5 123.1-155.5 123.1s-85.5-39.5-164-39.5c-76.5 0-103.7 40.8-165.9 40.8s-105.6-57-155.5-127C46.7 790.7 0 663 0 541.8c0-194.4 126.4-297.5 250.8-297.5 66.1 0 121.2 43.4 162.7 43.4 39.5 0 101.1-46 176.3-46 28.5 0 130.9 2.6 198.3 99.2zm-234-181.5c31.1-36.9 53.1-88.1 53.1-139.3 0-7.1-.6-14.3-1.9-20.1-50.6 1.9-110.8 33.7-147.1 75.8-28.5 32.4-55.1 83.6-55.1 135.5 0 7.8 1.3 15.6 1.9 18.1 3.2.6 8.4 1.3 13.6 1.3 45.4 0 102.5-30.4 135.5-71.3z"/>
      </g>
      <text x="52" y="24.5" fill="#fff" font-size="11" letter-spacing=".2" font-family="-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Download on the</text>
      <text x="51" y="46.5" fill="#fff" font-size="22" font-weight="600" font-family="-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">App Store</text>
    </svg>
  </a>
</div>

I'll write up how it was actually built next Tuesday, from a gym thought to a shipped iOS app. Today I just want your answer: ☕ + ☀️. What do you say?