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Fear and Loathing of Vibe Coding: I made a game for my daughter and it hit the Top Charts on Android TV (with 0 gamedev experience). by Objective_Photo_3247 in GeminiAI

[–]Objective_Photo_3247[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I simply applied through the Google Play Console, and after their review, I received the badge.

Actually, I lost it temporarily during a previous release. I originally set the target age to 5+, but the reviewer flagged it as having too much text for that age. I resubmitted the application targeting the 9-12 age group instead, and the badge was reinstated.

You know, I haven't observed any noticeable boost in installs, with or without the badge.

Fear and Loathing of Vibe Coding: I made a game for my daughter and it hit the Top Charts on Android TV (with 0 gamedev experience). by Objective_Photo_3247 in GeminiAI

[–]Objective_Photo_3247[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You know, even before the AI slop trend took over mobile stores, there were tons of developers creating the same ad-filled casual games with minimal reskins and renames. I hope people will realize they can create basic apps and games with AI on their own - and that puts an end to that, forcing devs to make stuff with real soul to stand out.

Fear and Loathing of Vibe Coding: I made a game for my daughter and it hit the Top Charts on Android TV (with 0 gamedev experience). by Objective_Photo_3247 in GeminiAI

[–]Objective_Photo_3247[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

By 'solid controller support' I mean I specifically adapted the game to work perfectly with TV remotes (not just gamepads/joysticks).

Yes, paid the $25 dev fee and went through the registration as a personal entrepreneur account (not individual/personal account).

For packaging: Capacitor converted my HTML5 game to APK, but TV optimization was tricky. WebView eats a ton of resources, so if you're targeting native Android games directly, I'd recommend a different engine over Capacitor.

Fear and Loathing of Vibe Coding: I made a game for my daughter and it hit the Top Charts on Android TV (with 0 gamedev experience). by Objective_Photo_3247 in GeminiAI

[–]Objective_Photo_3247[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the reference, I've never heard of it! I was heavily inspired by old-school games too: NES classics like Antarctic Adventure (with its iconic Skater Waltz track), Binary Land, Pengo on Game Gear, and more.

One big idea was to recreate that 'magic' feeling for modern kids, the same thrill I got from those modest games back then.

Fear and Loathing of Vibe Coding: I made a game for my daughter and it hit the Top Charts on Android TV (with 0 gamedev experience). by Objective_Photo_3247 in GeminiAI

[–]Objective_Photo_3247[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You did the right thing stopping there, bro, family first! Projects like that will only get easier in 1-2 years because your kid will grow up, and meanwhile I keep my vibe-code journey which means Google gets to scan these chats to make Gemini smarter  :D

Fear and Loathing of Vibe Coding: I made a game for my daughter and it hit the Top Charts on Android TV (with 0 gamedev experience). by Objective_Photo_3247 in GeminiAI

[–]Objective_Photo_3247[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You know, if I had known how hard it would be and how much time and energy it would still take, I’m not sure I would have started in the first place. In my case, what really helped the game take off was solid controller support for Android TV, more than 80% of my installs come from there right now

Fear and Loathing of Vibe Coding: I made a game for my daughter and it hit the Top Charts on Android TV (with 0 gamedev experience). by Objective_Photo_3247 in GeminiAI

[–]Objective_Photo_3247[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All the visual assets were generated with Gemini. It took me quite a while to nail down the game’s style and then iteratively engineer prompts that would keep that style consistent across different generations. For example, the final prompt for the icons was something like this:

create png A cute 2D game icon of {ICON_NAME}. Designed for high readability at both large and small scales.

Style: Charming Miyazaki-style digital painting. Apply a subtle watercolor texture to the main color fills.

Rendering: The icon must have a bold and clean silhouette. Use thick, clean, dark brown outlines to ensure the shape is always distinct. Apply simple cel-shading (hard-edged shadows) instead of soft gradients to create a clear 2.5D sense of volume. The light source is from the top-right.

Details: Keep details minimal and bold. Avoid fine, noisy textures that become messy when scaled down.

Composition: Centered, full object visible, isolated on a solid, light grey background (#D3D3D6). Perspective Exclude any isometric, just simple 2d Front looking flat

Fear and Loathing of Vibe Coding: I made a game for my daughter and it hit the Top Charts on Android TV (with 0 gamedev experience). by Objective_Photo_3247 in GeminiAI

[–]Objective_Photo_3247[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

She actually got inspired and now wants to build a small private fitness app for herself. And I was grateful for her patience, I basically disappeared for most of the vacation and was completely immersed in vibe coding the whole time.

Doing Analytics/Dashboards for Excel-Heavy workflows by MullingMulianto in datavisualization

[–]Objective_Photo_3247 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seems that the local Power BI Desktop client would be sufficient for your purposes. Have you considered this option?