Merry Christmas from Cold Enemy Gaming 🎄

…and a little detour into uni stress + a smart routing side project

Hey everyone,

First things first: Merry Christmas! 🎅✨
Whether you’re spending the holidays with family and friends, enjoying the company of your favourite people online, or simply taking some well-deserved time to yourself, I hope you’re having a warm and peaceful season and managing to recharge a little.

I'm making this post a bit more personal than usual because, right now, my life is essentially divided into three areas that are all competing for my attention:

1. Uni
2. Projects
3. “Please let my brain rest for five minutes”

So here’s a quick end-of-year update.

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Uni Mode: Leadership & Communication (Exam Edition)

At the moment, I’m busy preparing for my university module, 'Leadership and Communication'.

Do you know that feeling when your head is full of concepts such as communication strategies, leadership approaches and teamwork dynamics — not to mention the question of what to say when everything is on fire — and your brain keeps switching between studying and planning the next feature idea?

Yes. That's me right now.

But, to be honest, it’s also kind of satisfying. Leadership and communication aren’t just 'business topics'. They’re extremely relevant to the success of projects, especially when you’re working with others, coordinating feedback or simply trying to motivate yourself.

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New Project: A Smart Route Planner for Germany (First Mile / Last Mile)

As well as university, I’ve started a new project that I’m genuinely excited about: a smart decision maker for route planning in Germany.

It's not just a "give me the fastest route" tool — it's more like:

‘What’s the smartest way to travel, given that I have a bike, a car and maybe an e-scooter, and I want to use public transport or go into a city centre?’

The core idea

You enter something like:

• Start: here
• Destination: there
• What I have: a bike and a car, and I can also bring other things like an e-scooter

Instead of simply suggesting “drive all the way” or “take the train”, it offers realistic mixed routes:

• Park & Ride strategy:
  Drive to a Park & Ride spot → take the train into the city → (optionally) handle the last bit on foot/bike/scooter
• Bike to station + bike on train:
  Bike to the nearest station → take the bike on the train → get off at a useful stop → bike the last stretch
• Last mile optimization:
  Train gets you close → bike or scooter handles the final distance faster than walking

Why this matters

Route planners often ignore the real-world time costs that determine whether a route is worthwhile, focusing instead on the 'simple' option:

• parking search time
• parking + walking distance
• city center congestion
• transit schedule + waiting time
• “Is it even smart to drive in, or does Park & Ride win today?”

The clever thing about the planner is that it doesn't just compare travel times; it also takes into account other factors to give you a realistic total time.

• drive time + parking time
  vs.
• train time + transfers + first/last mile

And it can make decisions like:

'It's technically possible to drive all the way, but once you factor in parking, it'll take more than 10 minutes longer than taking the train from a Park & Ride.'

It still offers standard car routes as a baseline, mainly so you can quickly see:
'OK, what would it look like if I just drove?'

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Built in Replit (and Why That’s a Big Deal for Me)

I’m building the whole thing in Replit, which is, quite frankly, perfect for the way my brain is working at the moment.

• I can prototype fast
• I can jump into the code from anywhere
• I can keep everything in one place while I iterate

An important point for me is that:

Working in this configuration helps me to use my own AI tools properly — not as a 'magic button', but as a useful addition to my workflow.

Think:

• faster brainstorming + structured decision logic
• cleaner iterations
• better testing and validation of “does this suggestion actually make sense?”

Basically: I want the project to be smart — and I also want my process to be smart.

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Small Holiday Question for You

If this idea sounds interesting, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What’s your most common pain point when you travel in Germany?
Is it parking? Or transfers? The last mile? Or unclear 'what's actually faster' decisions?

If you have a classic route scenario like this:

• “Going into a city center on weekends”
• “Commuting with a bike”
• “Park & Ride vs. driving all the way”
• “Train + bike vs. train + walking”

Drop it in the comments or message me. Real use cases like these are invaluable for developing effective routing logic.

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That’s it for now 🎁

I’ll keep this short so I can get back to revising for my exams (and because the holidays are for relaxing, not reading devlogs).

Merry Christmas again, and thank you for sticking with Cold Enemy Gaming.
Whether you’re here for the games, the projects or just the community vibe, I appreciate you.

See you soon!
— Cold Enemy Gaming 🎄✨