It is absolutely wild seeing people who do not know how to code building and shipping computer games.
This kind of language is fascinating/terrifying:
> I assume doing all this computationally is more processor-intensive than using pre-rendered monsters, but it’s very smooth for me on both desktop and phone, so it must not be too intensive. I guess I’ll hear from people if it’s choppy on their device.
I think the nature of our profession as coders is in process of shifting very rapidly, from "write code to do something useful" to "write code to do something useful, better than I could vibe code myself".
Feels like the painful transition when professional photographers started having to differentiate themselves from whatever people could do with their own phone.
On the other hand, as someone who can code in certain domains (web, maps), I could definitely see myself vibe coding as a way to quickly create something in a domain where I have no expertise (eg, Unity).
danielheath · 50m ago
We already had to beat "I made a spreadsheet", which continues to be pretty damn hard even for large teams of experienced engineers - ask your finance team sometime how many custom spreadsheets they use regularly.
A) Lots of useful apps aren't a great fit for a spreadsheet. AI seems to be opening many of those up the same way.
B) Lots of spreadsheets have bugs which cause then to give wildly inaccurate results, which are relied on to make crucial decisions. AI is also repeating this part of the pattern.
If you need it to work correctly all the time, there's still no substitute for expertise - but looking at the state of computing, clearly many people are willing to use things that have obvious, serious bugs.
enobrev · 2h ago
In theory, I'm a fan of it. I think getting a working mock-up as a demonstration of an idea is far better than building something from a few napkin sketches and then iterating while we close in on the original vision.
As for my own work, I just spent a couple hours this afternoon in a back and forth discussion with claude code, asking it to mock up a UI for me before "we" start building it tomorrow. It was just a mock-up, so I didn't require precision, but I was impressed with some tidbits that came along for the ride.
Some things it did without me asking
* Mock data for the lists and pages in json format, so I could easily add records to it for different scenarios
* Working navigation between pages, including modals
* Working progress bars and timers
* Working list sorts and filters
* Toasts for functionality that was beyond the scope of the mock-up ("sending email to author of post" or "banning user")
* Not-half-bad animations and transitions between pages, screens, modals, etc
* A responsive layout that worked better than expected on mobile and desktop
* Some ideas I hadn't considered, that we then expanded upon
I would have mocked this up for a client, but not for myself. It's quite nice to have a working html / javascript / css mockup to play with while I flesh out my own ideas - with a benefit that I actually fully understand the output and can tweak it myself as needed.
conception · 55m ago
The Photographerizationing of software engineering has come.
p1necone · 3h ago
You may not be able to code, but the fact that you identified the need for asset editor tooling ("lab") entirely on your own, and built and used it successfully tells me you'd probably make a great engineer.
You also invented a movement control method I have never seen before - please keep making games.
galuggus · 4h ago
I used ai to make a simple game for a hackathon:
you are an ai gathering training data
its a bit like warioware with an extremly annoying soundtrack
originally it had levels and bosses but The code got too messy. I'm thinking about coming back to it and adding some more games.
I don't use instagram or any social media actively so didn't know about double tap!
will add it to the todo list.
miek · 1h ago
hahaha this is so good
Dilettante_ · 3h ago
Would love an option to adjust the "mouse sensitivity", and flicking(is that the right term? I mean that the momentum from scrolling continues even if you lift your finger from the screen). Right now movement feels a mite heavy, I'm scrolling like three times as much as I'd find comfortable.
Aside from that, this might become my new favorite time waster of the week.
hodgehog11 · 50m ago
That was a lot of fun, and far too addictive to play on a weekday!
I feel like you are forced to get the power upgrades at first to get past the larger roadblocks before the fire wall hits you, but maybe this is avoidable if you're fast enough.
mananaysiempre · 3h ago
> I had ChatGPT build labs with sliders that I could adjust to decide how I want things to appear, instead of getting frustrated with the chatbot.
Your very own Steve Jobs Roll Your Own Calculator Construction Set[1].
(It is of course very common to do all sorts of game art using ad hoc parametric stuff like this, I just find the similarity amusing.)
This 100% occurred to me as I did it. I may not be a coder but I did read the Steve Jobs biography.
pbd · 1h ago
Finally, a game that accurately simulates my daily productivity. I open it intending to play for 5 minutes and somehow 3 hours later I'm still there, having accomplished nothing useful, with a vague sense of dread and the feeling that demons are chasing me. The verisimilitude is uncanny.
masswerk · 3h ago
Proof for there being still some pretty simple ideas to be explored. – Well done.
bobmcnamara · 3h ago
This is awesome!
Finally camped by the health and was rewarded with...one health.
Kept hoping the +spread would shoot closer to down.
wilson090 · 56m ago
Love to see that people are able to create games without technical barriers. Being able to bring your ideas to life is such a powerful thing and it's great that more people can experience that
forbiddenvoid · 3h ago
Really nice. Cool mechanic. I wish it was a little bit harder, though. At 2000m, I just sort of got bored, because the weapon was so powered up that all of the enemies died instantly.
btbuildem · 1h ago
Lava is a nice touch. And the backscroll feels like a cheat code tbh
giveita · 2h ago
Great game! I like the share button copying to clipboards ha ha.
keyle · 4h ago
Clever idea, this is why indie games are so fantastic. They explore ideas that no studio would touch, until...
jama211 · 1h ago
Cool!
lif · 4h ago
a good start!
(reminds me of a simpler, bullet-hell variant of absolute legend "Doug Dug")
klipklop · 4h ago
Pretty fun. I enjoyed.
cubefox · 2h ago
Kind of concerning what a non- programmer can do with vibe coding... On the other hand, it's somewhat reassuring that the game is clearly missing scroll inertia/momentum. I guess he didn't yet get the language model to do it for him.
felineflock · 2h ago
Am I the only one who finds in bad taste to use "Epstein victims demand release ..." in the game?
Is rape and pedophilia already normalized and I didn't notice?
mitkebes · 2h ago
It pulls news headlines via RSS feed, so the developer didn't intentionally put that headline in the game.
p1necone · 2h ago
The game is just pulling news headlines - specific text isn't being intentionally included.
tylervigen · 2h ago
It’s a live RSS feed of New York Times articles.
giveita · 1h ago
Out GTAed GTA
deadbabe · 2h ago
Cool, but I came across a headline for some reason about Charlie Kirk and wondered what the hell that was about, I left the game shortly after.
derektank · 2h ago
This is mentioned in the piece, it's a further play on the idea of 'Doomscrolling'
"I was pretty happy with the game and ready to share it. But then at the last minute I got another nagging idea in the back of my mind: What if it was somehow more like actual doomscrolling?
It would be easy to get an RSS Feed of headlines from a news site. Could I make them appear in the game as you scroll, in a way that felt integrated with the game?"
tylervigen · 2h ago
Because he was shot today, it was in the news, and the game pulls a live feed of news articles via RSS to simulate doom scrolling.
This kind of language is fascinating/terrifying:
> I assume doing all this computationally is more processor-intensive than using pre-rendered monsters, but it’s very smooth for me on both desktop and phone, so it must not be too intensive. I guess I’ll hear from people if it’s choppy on their device.
I think the nature of our profession as coders is in process of shifting very rapidly, from "write code to do something useful" to "write code to do something useful, better than I could vibe code myself".
Feels like the painful transition when professional photographers started having to differentiate themselves from whatever people could do with their own phone.
On the other hand, as someone who can code in certain domains (web, maps), I could definitely see myself vibe coding as a way to quickly create something in a domain where I have no expertise (eg, Unity).
A) Lots of useful apps aren't a great fit for a spreadsheet. AI seems to be opening many of those up the same way.
B) Lots of spreadsheets have bugs which cause then to give wildly inaccurate results, which are relied on to make crucial decisions. AI is also repeating this part of the pattern.
If you need it to work correctly all the time, there's still no substitute for expertise - but looking at the state of computing, clearly many people are willing to use things that have obvious, serious bugs.
As for my own work, I just spent a couple hours this afternoon in a back and forth discussion with claude code, asking it to mock up a UI for me before "we" start building it tomorrow. It was just a mock-up, so I didn't require precision, but I was impressed with some tidbits that came along for the ride.
Some things it did without me asking
* Mock data for the lists and pages in json format, so I could easily add records to it for different scenarios
* Working navigation between pages, including modals
* Working progress bars and timers
* Working list sorts and filters
* Toasts for functionality that was beyond the scope of the mock-up ("sending email to author of post" or "banning user")
* Not-half-bad animations and transitions between pages, screens, modals, etc
* A responsive layout that worked better than expected on mobile and desktop
* Some ideas I hadn't considered, that we then expanded upon
I would have mocked this up for a client, but not for myself. It's quite nice to have a working html / javascript / css mockup to play with while I flesh out my own ideas - with a benefit that I actually fully understand the output and can tweak it myself as needed.
You also invented a movement control method I have never seen before - please keep making games.
you are an ai gathering training data
its a bit like warioware with an extremly annoying soundtrack
https://vibeware.vercel.app/
came 2nd! thanks claude
(Also I was dissapointed that double-tapping the picture for the Instagram one didn't work..)
you can add your own!
I put it together quite quickly for @levelsio vibe coded games competition
https://x.com/levelsio/status/1915127796097290534
originally it had levels and bosses but The code got too messy. I'm thinking about coming back to it and adding some more games.
I don't use instagram or any social media actively so didn't know about double tap!
will add it to the todo list.
Aside from that, this might become my new favorite time waster of the week.
I feel like you are forced to get the power upgrades at first to get past the larger roadblocks before the fire wall hits you, but maybe this is avoidable if you're fast enough.
Your very own Steve Jobs Roll Your Own Calculator Construction Set[1].
(It is of course very common to do all sorts of game art using ad hoc parametric stuff like this, I just find the similarity amusing.)
[1] https://www.folklore.org/Calculator_Construction_Set.html
Finally camped by the health and was rewarded with...one health.
Kept hoping the +spread would shoot closer to down.
"I was pretty happy with the game and ready to share it. But then at the last minute I got another nagging idea in the back of my mind: What if it was somehow more like actual doomscrolling?
It would be easy to get an RSS Feed of headlines from a news site. Could I make them appear in the game as you scroll, in a way that felt integrated with the game?"