Hi, I'm Vincent. I design and build software, and I love making things, with AI and without: games, stories, drawings, odd little experiments. I write about what I learn along the way. When I'm not at a screen, I'm up a mountain, on a river, or losing an evening to a board game.
This island is where it all ends up. Most things here have a story, and some only show up at the right hour. Pull up a log.
I also build things like this for other people: interactive websites, 3D, AI and games.Here's how that works.
Want to talk about AI, a game idea or a good river? You'll find me here:
Every cairn marks a stretch of the climb. The summit is where I am now.
The student years · 2007 – 2014 · Utrecht · Arnhem · Velp
Artificial intelligence, before it was cool
It started with garbage trucks. For a university project we had to plan their routes, and our team beat the best result of every year before us. Later came a scheduler for the university’s own exams. What hooked me was that you could hand a computer a problem far too tangled to work out by hand, and it would find a good answer by itself. So I filled my studies in Utrecht with as much artificial intelligence as would fit, back when few people expected much of neural networks. Soon after I graduated, DeepMind and OpenAI proved them wrong. Meanwhile I fixed computers all over Arnhem, built software for the care sector, and co-founded a company.
Bachelor, Informatics, Utrecht University 2007 – 2011
Master, Computing Science: advanced planning and decision making, Utrecht University 2011 – 2014
Student, Studentaanhuis · Arnhem 2010 – 2011
Web application developer, ZorgDigi · Velp 2011 – 2013
Co-founder, head of technology, uniQ Development · Velp 2013 – 2014
Look around: most things here have a story.
The Backbone years · 2013 – 2020 · Amersfoort · Ruurlo · Lochem · Berlin
Routes, buses and trains
It started with a thesis on route planning and turned into seven years at Backbone Systems, designing software mostly for (public) transport. At Qbuzz I was part of a team working on both ends of the bus: planning and monitoring software for traffic control, and the computers and screens inside the buses themselves, including a system I created to update and keep an eye on the whole fleet remotely. At Eijgenhuijsen, a transport company in Ruurlo, I worked closely with their product owner, sometimes alongside a frontend developer, on software for the drivers, the warehouse and planning the routes. And for Going Dutch, on the apps and servers behind a car-sharing service. For half a year I lived in Berlin, building a dynamic planner for package deliveries from a startup workspace, the Rainmaking Loft. That was a lot of fun.
Master’s thesis, Utrecht University, at Backbone Systems 2013 – 2014
Solutions architect, Backbone Systems · Amersfoort and Berlin 2014 – 2020
Software engineer, Going Dutch Studio · Lochem (a Backbone project) 2017 – 2020
Look around: most things here have a story.
The energy years · 2020 – now · Arnhem
Trading power
I would like to live in a solarpunk world, and we’re building towards it: solar panels on every roof, wind turbines on the horizon. But the grid is full. At the end of 2025 more than fifteen thousand Dutch companies were waiting in line for a connection, and cables can’t be laid fast enough to catch up. So the grid we have has to be used more cleverly. There’s plenty of flexibility out there, in batteries, heat pumps, electric cars and factories, that could take power when there’s lots of it and hold back when there isn’t, if a market made it worth their while. That’s what ENTRNCE, part of Alliander, is for: making it easier for more parties to trade on the energy and flexibility markets. I was a developer on the ENTRNCE Trader, for peer-to-peer trading between individual grid connections, and now I’m lead developer for Direct+, which gives smaller parties direct access to the wholesale power exchange.
Developer, ENTRNCE · Arnhem 2020 – 2025
Lead developer, Direct+, ENTRNCE · Arnhem 2025 – now
Look around: most things here have a story.
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Roll!
Line up
Wild water
Rivers over the ridge, gentlest first.
The DawdleGrade 2 · 0.8 km
Slow and green, a few rocks, a lot of ducks.
Fetch 25 of Beike’s balls · 300
Get your flow up to ×2 · 300
Down in under 1:45 · 300
W paddle · AD turn · QE brake · ←→ lean · Space brace
L2R2 paddle (✕ both) · L1R1 brake / brace · stick leans · ✕ braces when you're going over
Hold both sides of the screen to paddle, one side to turn away from it; low down to brake on that side. Hold Sprint to dig in. Over a waterfall, flick a thumb up the screen to tuck.
Best with a controller: plug one in and press any button. No controller? It plays fine without.
Tipping over
Lean against it. If she keeps going, brace: you’ve one brace in you every few seconds (the balance gauge goes dashed till then), so in big water keep leaning.
Upside down
Roll when the needle swings into the gap. Miss it and you swim, and your flow goes with you.
Big water
Point straight down it, lean forward and keep paddling. Broadside down a wave train, a leaning crest rolls you: lean into it, or square up.
Rocks ahead
Follow the arrows down the dark V between them. A knock costs your flow; steer early, a reverse sweep turns you even when you’re barely moving.
A ledge
Paddle hard just as the lip glows gold, to boof it. Too soon or too late and you land flat, or nose first.
A waterfall
The lip pulls you round: line up well before it and go over straight, leaning forward. Off it sideways throws you hard, and stops you.
Stuck in a hole
Lean forward and paddle hard till it lets you go.
The river splits
The hero line is quicker and pays more; the sneak is the easier way down.
Need a breather
Tuck in behind a rock or inside a bend: an eddy, where the water turns back upstream. Lean into the turn as you cross the eddy line.
How it works
↑↓ lean forward / back · S back-paddle · Shift (hold) sprint · P or Esc pause
□, L3 or a trigger squeezed right in (hold) sprint · Options pauses · on the cards, the d-pad moves, ✕ picks, ○ goes back
Read the water: long bright streaks are the fast line, and arrows ride down the dark V of a tongue; a ledge's lip glows gold at the moment to boof it; coming to a waterfall, hold the needle in the green to go over straight, then lean forward as it falls into the gold, not before; behind rocks and inside bends it turns back upstream, an eddy to catch. Lean into your turns, or the eddy line trips you. Down a straight the waves stand in a train: a crest leaning across the river rolls you, so lean into it (or square up), and a stroke as you slide down a wave's back pumps you on. Paddle on one side and you turn away from it. A blade planted as a brake only bites as fast as you're moving through the water; a reverse sweep always does. Forward on one side, reverse on the other, in rhythm: that's a 360. Boofs, braces, gates and good lines build your flow; a knock or a swim loses it. Score is distance × flow, up to double for speed; every capsize costs you. Make it to the take-out and it pays again: every second under par (times your flow), every gate and every ball. Every river has three goals of its own, and each pays every time you do it.
What to do when…
Tipping over
Lean against it. If she keeps going, brace: you’ve one brace in you every few seconds (the balance gauge goes dashed till then), so in big water keep leaning.
Upside down
Roll when the needle swings into the gap. Miss it and you swim, and your flow goes with you.
Big water
Point straight down it, lean forward and keep paddling. Broadside down a wave train, a leaning crest rolls you: lean into it, or square up.
Rocks ahead
Follow the arrows down the dark V between them. A knock costs your flow; steer early, a reverse sweep turns you even when you’re barely moving.
A ledge
Paddle hard just as the lip glows gold, to boof it. Too soon or too late and you land flat, or nose first.
A waterfall
The lip pulls you round: line up well before it and go over straight, leaning forward. Off it sideways throws you hard, and stops you.
Stuck in a hole
Lean forward and paddle hard till it lets you go.
The river splits
The hero line is quicker and pays more; the sneak is the easier way down.
Need a breather
Tuck in behind a rock or inside a bend: an eddy, where the water turns back upstream. Lean into the turn as you cross the eddy line.
Your best: 0 · quickest down: –
Paused
Holding on to a branch.
What to do when…
Tipping over
Lean against it. If she keeps going, brace: you’ve one brace in you every few seconds (the balance gauge goes dashed till then), so in big water keep leaning.
Upside down
Roll when the needle swings into the gap. Miss it and you swim, and your flow goes with you.
Big water
Point straight down it, lean forward and keep paddling. Broadside down a wave train, a leaning crest rolls you: lean into it, or square up.
Rocks ahead
Follow the arrows down the dark V between them. A knock costs your flow; steer early, a reverse sweep turns you even when you’re barely moving.
A ledge
Paddle hard just as the lip glows gold, to boof it. Too soon or too late and you land flat, or nose first.
A waterfall
The lip pulls you round: line up well before it and go over straight, leaning forward. Off it sideways throws you hard, and stops you.
Stuck in a hole
Lean forward and paddle hard till it lets you go.
The river splits
The hero line is quicker and pays more; the sneak is the easier way down.
Need a breather
Tuck in behind a rock or inside a bend: an eddy, where the water turns back upstream. Lean into the turn as you cross the eddy line.