making a toy called "badger"
My pet project for a month has been a web toy based on the idea that people love collecting badges. I thought that if I created a small website where people could make, share, and collect badges, it had the potential to be a fun, addicting game that could earn me a little bit of supplemental income.
A screenshot from itsbadger.online
The core concept: Make badges, collect badges, core base game is free but premium features cost a one-time fee of $2. My audience is people like me who enjoy simple, fun web experiences and who don't mind spending a micro-transaction to support an artist.
I teamed up with Claude to make this project, which accelerated the process significantly. However, I am a developer and found myself troubleshooting and working through problems similar to how I did before AI. My technical knowledge helped me more quickly understand and solve peculiarities in my app than if I had just been vibe-coding with no experience.
Further, I've been implementing scaffolding to prioritize the uniqueness and humanity of work that is assisted by AI. I think of AI as the frame that holds the painting, and letting AI tackle the framing helps me focus more of my time on the painting, if that makes sense.
Anyway, making "Badger" took a surprisingly long time because I was learning about integrating a full user experience from authentication to payment. One major blocker was building enough "credibility" online to accept payments. I erroneously thought that my LinkedIn page would be enough to show that I am a working online professional, but an automated review process (I'm guessing) denied me because my background is unique and interdisciplinary.
Making the core game loop was the most fun. I mentioned this in "making satisfying game loops" but having the five design tips for addictive gaming really helped clarify what was going to be fun and monetizable. With badges, I had to make sure that the process of making badges was fun. I took inspiration from picrews and the Mii creation flow. Users should have snappy buttons that immediately show them results of their toggling. That feedback loop is inherently fun.
The collection element also turned out surprisingly well. Badges accumulate on a wall, and you can see how many people have collected a specific badge. This creates a "specialness" for popular badges, and makes some inherently "rare". I'm excited to see how the badge culture emerges if we ever hit critical mass for this app to be a success.
You can check out the work-in-progress here. Everything should work except payment processing, which is still a blocker. I'll keep you posted on how that resolves itself.
The purpose of all this thought was to make a sale-able product end-to-end with help from Claude. Getting the app to production readiness took weeks, which challenges the idea that anyone can vibe code something scalable in a day. If you want to do it right, it helps to know the tools that you and your agent are working with.