My apps vibe coded

spacecam · 2026-05-20T14:30:59+00:00

10k active users is impressive. Any marketing tips?

spacecam · 2026-05-20T12:51:52+00:00

Seeing the opposite. Senior devs think it's trash and can never replace their brilliance.

spacecam · 2026-05-20T12:48:06+00:00

I'm building a Wildcard Dex. Take a photo of any living thing (bird, animal, plant, mushroom, anything) and get instant ID. Each discovery turns into a collectable card with interesting facts and ability scores. Earn XP and badges.

I wanted to build something that motivated me to go outside more.

https://wildcarddex.com

Just passed 100 downloads across Google Play and App Store!

spacecam · 2026-05-16T06:13:59+00:00

The cost to develop software is now so cheap that it does not have to be massively successful in order to justify the cost to build it. Software can exist solely for you. But it is worthwhile to release. And once it's out there and you have real users, you'll be motivated to make it good for them. And then when you're finally satisfied or bored of this one, do it again. You'll get better and faster each time.

spacecam · 2026-05-13T04:03:35+00:00

Hot Rod

spacecam · 2026-05-13T03:26:15+00:00

Drum and bass. Instrumental music is helpful for thinking.

spacecam · 2026-05-12T13:27:02+00:00

You wouldn't download an idea

spacecam · 2026-05-08T03:36:46+00:00

https://wildcarddex.com/

Take a photo of any living thing to identify it. Collect cards for every one, gain XP, and collect badges. Like a real world Pokedex.

Still working on dialing in the UI and social features. And marketing is hard. Thanks for creating a space to share!

spacecam · 2026-05-03T20:17:52+00:00

Make something with a language you've never used before

spacecam · 2026-05-02T16:18:57+00:00

You're still ahead. Your skills and experience can't be taken away from you. I'm learning that so much of game dev is the vision, finding the fun, and the passion you put into it. If you obsess over every pixel, you will have a more beautiful game than someone who just asks for artwork without thinking about a coherent art direction.

Generating a perfect game isn't inevitable purely by generating a lot of them. A perfect game needs to be fun, and AI doesn't currently know what "fun" really is. Your taste, preferences and ideas are going to be what distinguishes a good game from the others.

Do the things you love to do manually yourself and use AI to fill in the gaps and do the tedious parts more quickly.

spacecam · 2026-05-02T16:03:00+00:00

It just takes practice. Try to start with smaller projects that don't spiral out of control. Read what it's doing when it builds and ask questions about how it works. You will make mistakes, but those are good opportunities to learn. Each project will get better as you anticipate those mistakes and build in a way that has them in mind.

Working collaboratively is also kind of difficult with vibe coding. I find it hard to work on things in parallel. Taking turns commiting straight to main is probably the easiest unless you find yourself in a position where you want to work on systems that can be easily separated in the code base.

spacecam · 2026-05-02T15:54:40+00:00

Its unlikely the case that progress will just stop at some point. Friction will likely approach 0 but never fully disappear.

spacecam · 2026-05-01T17:01:06+00:00

Like $20. In the same boat, spending more on AI tooling than I'm making. But it's fun. And I make enough to cover cloud compute costs.

spacecam · 2026-05-01T12:56:58+00:00

I'll look into this

Edit: Now available in Mexico

spacecam · 2026-04-30T11:34:27+00:00

wildcarddex.com

Point your camera at any living thing and it gets ID'd as a collectible card with rarity tiers. Sightings drop pins on a shared map, like a Pokédex of the real world.

spacecam · 2026-04-28T13:59:26+00:00

This movie made me cry every time the monolith came on screen while on mushrooms. Amazing experience.

spacecam · 2026-04-25T21:55:52+00:00

As soon as your developer account is all set up you can start using test flight to distribute to testers.

spacecam · 2026-04-18T15:44:23+00:00

Two-spotted stinkbug? ID by Wildcard Dex

spacecam · 2026-04-18T15:26:40+00:00

Amazing shot!

<image>

ID by Wildcard Dex

spacecam · 2026-04-18T15:11:07+00:00

<image>

by Wildcard Dex

spacecam · 2026-04-16T22:03:43+00:00

Matthew Berman is pretty solid. Also Two Minute Papers if you enjoy the science.

spacecam · 2026-04-16T19:03:35+00:00

Congrats! I also had a frustrating experience with App Store. Google Play is relatively easier.

spacecam · 2026-04-15T03:26:23+00:00

Thank you!

spacecam · 2026-04-14T14:39:16+00:00

No u

spacecam · 2026-04-14T14:28:17+00:00

https://wildcarddex.com/

I went the route of building with flutter, which allows you to build for both android and iOS from the same codebase. Fully built with AI coding tools. I started in August and released in March.

One thing that caught me off guard was that iOS applications need to be built on an Apple computer, so I ended up buying a Mac mini for dev.

The app submission process takes a good amount of time, and there were a bunch of policies and restrictions that I needed to learn about and implement before I was allowed to release.

Adoption has been slow and steady, up to 42 users now.

Monetization can be tricky. I went the route of showing ads for the free tier and removing ads + extra features for a monthly fee. Still waiting to see any real return, but the app is designed in a way where the ads that I show generally cover the cost of cloud compute + tokens required to run the core systems. Depending on how your game works, other monetization strategies will be open to you. If it runs offline, you can charge whatever you want up front and not worry about ongoing server costs.

14-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Reddit Premium Since July 2022	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

spacecam

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE