The Lab
Idea Warehouse is my personal technology lab, based in Toronto. It's where I experiment with new tools, frameworks, and ideas, and where they turn into real, shipped products — iOS games, civic data tools, AI assistants, e-commerce stores, and whatever else sparks my curiosity next.
Most of the recent work has been AI-assisted development: building with Cursor and Claude Code, then writing up what actually worked. Lately that has meant civic data projects — mapping Toronto's roadwork, scoring all 3,273 of its parks, and answering questions about city services from official sources. Every project is live and publicly available.
Cash Grab NG is the games side of the lab: a fast-paced vault heist arcade game for iOS, rebuilt from the ground up with modern iOS capabilities, a global leaderboard system, and a backstory featuring Robin — the daughter of the legendary Red Robber. It's free to play, with no ads or predatory monetization.
Built By
Colin Smillie
Founder & Developer
A technology executive by day and a product builder the rest of the time, with 25+ years in digital technology, product management, and marketing. Most recently VP Technology at YMCA Canada, previously VP Digital at Hill+Knowlton Strategies.
At Idea Warehouse I handle everything myself: game design and Swift programming, server infrastructure, and the web apps around them. Cash Grab NG was the project that started it — the rest of the lab grew out of the same habit of shipping the thing instead of just reading about it.
Recent Projects
Cash Grab NG
2025A fast-paced vault heist arcade game for iOS. Sprint through a high-security vault, snatch cash, and dodge robotic cops. Global Game Center leaderboards, power-ups, and weekly competitive resets — free, with no ads.
Built with Cursor AI and Swift
Toraffic.ca
2026Understanding Toronto traffic. An interactive map of the roadwork, lane closures, and patios chewing up Toronto’s streets, with a time-of-day congestion model, impact scoring per block, and layers for transit, cycling, and collisions.
Built with Next.js, MapLibre, and City of Toronto open data
Toronto Parks Atlas
2026A civic-research project that reads every Toronto park through two complementary lenses: Jane Jacobs urban vitality and ecological comfort. Scores all 3,273 parks across six dimensions and classifies them into twelve typologies.
Built with Next.js, Python ETL, and AI-assisted research synthesis
Zeever
2026A free Canadian AI assistant for City of Toronto services. Ask about building permits, property taxes, recycling, parking, housing, and recreation. Every answer is cited and grounded in official Toronto.ca sources.
Built with Claude Code
EVD2
2025Track any electric vehicle in Canada. A bilingual EV tracking platform covering 125+ vehicles with pricing, news, government incentives, and safety recalls, powered by automated content ingestion.
Built with Next.js and AI automation
Nine shipped projects in total, including Model Trust, Fresh News, Wolf Wednesday, and Eyes On Toronto. See them all at ideawarehouse.ca →
Connect
Questions or feedback? Reach us at support@ideawarehouse.ca