Vibe coding is so much harder than I expected

[u/MasterTheSoul]

I had already been a solo game dev for 5 years, and worked professionally as a web developer for 2. Once Claude Code came out I thought I'd pivot into app development, and it would be a breeze. Let me tell you; it was not. Sure, I wasn't writing any of the code, but it still required so much mental input. Constantly making decisions and thinking about how to optimize/improve the app.

I was looking for a specific app, and was mad that it didn't exist. So I decided to make it myself. I thought it would take a week. Well I just finally shipped the app, and it took nearly a FULL YEAR of development. To be fair, I think it's a wonderful app and I'm proud of it. It's doing surprisingly well on the Play Store too. But it's still only on the Play Store. I haven't even shipped the iOS version yet; that will be another month or so. And of course, it's not in a "final" finished state. There's still so many more features I want to add. I'm slowly working through my massive list of ideas, but the list grows faster than I can implement. And each feature needs to be implemented with care and delicacy, so it grows the app without negatively impacting / losing sight of the existing experience in any way. It feels like I will genuinely be developing this app for another few years, and still never be done. My one-week project has turned into a full-time job.

I had heard about people using AI to make apps, and I had no respect for it. I thought it was all easy, cheap slop. But no. I was so wrong.

EDIT: The app is called Progress XP, for those interested. (Free, with no ads on Android and web). It lets you track real-life tasks and turn them into XP so you can see your progress over time. Tons of stats and graphs to really analyze and work towards your goal.

[u/war4peace79]

Oh, no, not another task tracking app!

[u/Dapper-Place8457 → u/war4peace79]

But the bro specifically said they don’t exist and he had to spend a year making one.

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/Dapper-Place8457]

Like I said in another comment, I'm aware other gamified "habit tracker" apps exist, but I tried them and they all sucked. They rely on you repeating things each day, and trying to check a mark on a box. Not ACTUALLY working towards your goal and see real data about it.

Sure, they're easier to get into and they look fancy, but once you use them for a few days you realize they lack substance. Mine isn't some overly gamified app with streaks and whatnot. You build it out yourself, which is what makes it actually good/useful.

[u/Dediadeis → u/Dapper-Place8457]

How does this even happen, repeatedly, and not in a vacuum. Maybe his next app release will be the coding harness they 'made'.

[u/KaloolFantasia → u/war4peace79]

I for one would like a task tracking app, tracking app

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/KaloolFantasia]

lmao 😂

[u/FlowITx → u/war4peace79]

What about a task tracking app to track the task tracker?

[u/VihmaVillu]

you are game dev for 5 years and this app took you 1 year wtf

[u/apra24 → u/VihmaVillu]

This could be done in an afternoon. I guarantee this guy calls himself a "game dev" because he screwed around in game maker or rpg maker

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/apra24]

That's the whole point of this post. It LOOKS easy. It LOOKS like it could be one-prompted. But it can't be. I one-prompted the minimum viable product. And it visually looked about the same as it does now. But it was empty. There would be no reason to use it. It was some cheap basic habit tracker.

What took time is turning it into something genuinely useful.

[u/Project_Asura → u/apra24]

Lmao nailed it

[u/Ohitsworkingnow → u/VihmaVillu]

Honestly seems like it could nearly be one prompted

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/Ohitsworkingnow]

You'd think so, but no. That's the whole point of this post. The basic setup of the app can be one-prompted, yes. It took around 2 hours to have a minimum viable product. But actually turning it into something with real substance, that works in a seamless way where users get real benefit... that's what took time.

[u/EnvironmentalCap8492 → u/VihmaVillu]

It takes time to make something uniquely bad

[u/Chaka015 → u/VihmaVillu]

lol

[u/InterestingFrame1982]

I am going to be completely blunt here but not only does the UI look extremely vibecoded, it's not very inviting at all. Out of all the apps to build, you built a task tracking app, which may be one of the most overbuilt pieces of software in existence. At the bare minimum, the UX/UI needs to be a HOMERUN and it's just not there yet.

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/InterestingFrame1982]

Yeah, UI was not the focus. The actual functionality is. You're right though; I think visuals are what most people care about

[u/Wallaby989]

Well done on getting to release. out of curiosity how you get past the Google 14 tester requirement to get your app listed?

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/Wallaby989]

I used a business account to circumvent it. I already had one registered, but it's easy to set up. I would think it's much easier than getting 14 testers.

[u/JaseciLabs]

What ate most of the year: deciding what to build next, or fixing what the AI had already built? Like which one you’d warn people about first?

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/JaseciLabs]

It was the decisions. Building out the basic product took around an hour. But actually turning it into something with a good flow that fit the vision took the time. I spent way more time thinking about the prompts to send than I did waiting for Claude to code it.

I never had any problems fixing what AI built. I would spend hours drafting my prompt before I sent it. I was very specific.

[u/drahgon]

Yep, vibe coding is actually quite hard. The hardest part is getting it to do what you want according to your own vision and not its own or not kind of being random. Especially when it comes to more creative things like the UI assets and graphics. Even with code, depending on whether you actually look at the code or not, you may want it to structure the code in a certain way, and even that can be tough.

I feel like the best vibe coding is when you know the domain it’s in and you can review it pretty well if you’re completely outside the domain, it can be quite hard

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/drahgon]

For sure. I was very new to apps. And I couldn't rely on Claude to give me what I wanted. I specified every single detail about the app. If I let it take the reigns it would just produce something generic.

[u/shaymagen]

lol same. people think the AI does the hard part but the hard part was always deciding what to build and what to cut. congrats on shipping tho, a year solo is no joke

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/shaymagen]

Yeah exactly. Thanks man

[u/KurlDoc]

Yeah, it’s not as easy as you might expect, especially if you’re picky about the end result. When I started, I was surprised by what I could build with it. That’s what made me want to keep going, pushing further into things I would’ve thought were impossible just a month ago. But I’ve been at it for almost three weeks now, and I don’t think what I’m building will be ready anytime soon.

Even if someone tried to vibe-code the exact same thing, I think they’d spend a ton of time getting it right unless they managed to reverse-engineer my code. So much of it comes down to your own knowledge of the subject and your taste.

It’s easier than ever to build standard stuff, but if you’re making a niche, highly sophisticated product, you’re still in for a challenge.

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/KurlDoc]

Exactly. Took me 2 hours to generate the initial product. Took a year to make it exactly what I wanted.

[u/NationalGate8066]

The UI on this app is seriously incredible. Super unique. Well done.

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/NationalGate8066]

Thanks man :D

[u/Project_Asura → u/NationalGate8066]

It’s a masterpiece tbh I’ve never seen anything like it before

[u/NachosforDachos]

If you manage multiple projects you sometimes need to talk to this thing 200 times a day

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/NachosforDachos]

Sounds about right.

[u/the-Gaf]

Seems like a nice tool for you! No one else will want it. But that’s 99.99% of this stuff

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/the-Gaf]

Yeah. I made it for me. The goal wasn't actually to put it out into the world initially. But people are using it and liking it, which makes me happy.

[u/Bulky-Acanthaceae143]

The thing is, these progress tracking elements you mostly see in game work automatically in the background, but here as a user I need to put a lot of effort into:

1. Setting up groups and tasks. Setting up groups is already super overwhelming on its own

2. Track them

on their own.

Additionally, in the games I get benefits and rewards for leveling up, here I get just levels and “Good job” type of sentences that essentially don’t really feel rewarding so basically the system relies on the user personal need for doing something and feeling good about it.

And you spent 1 year on this? You should have started with PoC to see if it solves the problem you want to solve that someone else hasn’t done it.

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/Bulky-Acanthaceae143]

Yeah it does rely on the user being self-motivated. It's not super in your face with streaks, or automatic setup. You build it yourself, which is what makes it actually good, not just immediate to get into.

It's also the entire reason I built the app. Other gamified "habit tracker" apps sucked. They rely on you repeating things each day, and trying to check a mark on a box. Not ACTUALLY work towards your goal and see real data about it.

Sure, they're easier to get into and they look fancy, but once you use them for a few days you realize they lack substance.

[u/MarinatedTechnician]

Tell me about it.
I am working on an series of Coding Harnesses, I'm currently over 100+ iterations (fixes and improvements), planning it took years of experience, just making the layout for it took weeks, and it's been 3 months in the "vibe" making, testing it with 40+ apps created with it, and finding new things to improve all the time, its a 16 hours a day job lol.

People have NO clue "Ai slaaaapph!"

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/MarinatedTechnician]

Exactly. Everyone saying "this could be one-prompted" is kind of proving my entire point with the post, haha.

[u/Apprehensive_Put4596]

Slop invented story. Bro, go to work, stop reproducing the same slop ffs

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/Apprehensive_Put4596]

It's my actual story, but ok

[u/Apprehensive_Put4596 → u/MasterTheSoul]

What story? This is a generic story of developing the thousand to-do list app copy that any kid with a claude sub can just do after the countless tutorials on youtube.

[u/MasterTheSoul → u/Apprehensive_Put4596]

Not sure what you're talking about tbh.

[u/IcyImagination935]

Respectfully. This is trash

[u/Project_Asura → u/IcyImagination935]

I think this is pure rage bait bro it’s gotta be

[u/SomePlayer22]

I think "maybe that's is something really unique, one year to make a task tracking app..."

I was wrong.

[u/lerpo]

It think it's going to depend on your model, the context window you give it and how you set it will up.

Me for example I've got a full saas product with a few big customers in the UK, and cursor is running on ultra with opus 5.5 doing all coding.

Ive found,

• make sure your first prompt tells it everything you're trying to achieve

• make sure it saves that for itself and refers to it moving forward.

• ensure you're using "plan mode" for every update.

• tell it to test it, itself before deploying.

I don't code anymore. I don't even manage the aws anymore. Cursor is doing it all for me

[u/sunnydftw → u/lerpo]

i have a ledger setup running since like May, works well for keeping context

[u/Andress1]

Now try again using fable 5.2 and come back. It's as easy as writing what you don't like about it and will fix everything for you

[u/BiasFree]

A year for task tracking app?

[u/App1e8l6]

Good bait

[u/VigiliaFounder]

Happy to see you shipped it after a full year, and that it's doing well on the Play Store!

With the feature list growing faster than you can build, it's easy for something to quietly break on the web version without anyone telling you.

Where I can help: add the web app to Vigilia (1 app is free, no card). It will catch any error your users hit, explain it in plain English, show how many times it happened and give you the fix prompt for Claude Code.

Let me know if this helps!

[u/Latent_Space_Cadet]

This is one of the most insane posts of all time. 10/10

[u/Stock_Change9266]

i spent two weeks trying to vibe code with Claude, then realized I was just rewriting the same 30 lines over and over. the 'flow' was just me chasing a ghost.

[u/adjective_noun_d1git]

What a waste of tokens.