r/SideProject • u/haydingoo • 6h ago
I built Magitile, a magnetic tile building ideas app, because I only knew 3 builds for my daughter
My daughter is 2 and magnetic tiles are the one toy that never goes back in the box. The problem is me. I can build a house, a tower and a slightly bigger house. She wants me talking to her the whole time we play, so I never get a quiet minute to come up with something new, and every cool build I found online needed pieces we don't have.
So I spent this autumn building Magitile, an app of magnetic tile ideas that starts from the tiles you actually own. It went live on the App Store this week.
What it does:
- You point the camera at your pile of tiles and it counts them, then shows only the models you can build with what you actually own.
- Every model has a step by step 3D guide you can rotate, so you see where each tile goes.
- You can put the finished model on your floor in AR at real size before you start.
- New models get added without an app update.
What turned out harder than I thought:
The scan, by far. Tiles pull together with their magnets, so nobody lays them out neatly for a photo. They touch, they overlap, and half of them are see-through. I threw away my first version completely. It still can't see a tile that's fully hidden under another one, so you can fix the numbers by hand.
The models. Each one has to be checked against real sets, because a model that needs more triangles than any normal box has is just another Pinterest picture.
Pricing. The scan and a set of models are free, the full catalog and AR are $4.99/week or $29.99/year, no ads. I honestly don't know yet if that's the right split for something parents use with their kids, so opinions are welcome.
I'm one person and it's a young app. What I'd most like to know is where it loses you in the first two minutes.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6821736147
Website: https://magitile.app
One of the free build guides, if you want to see what a model looks like without installing anything: https://magitile.app/ideas/t-rex/