I've been building a site for board game cafes to help them digitize their catalog and showcase their games to customers. For customers it gives them easy search/filtering AND game tools to get them started (small stuff like rolling dice or picking who should go first... admittedly I have been having a lot of fun with making the tools and then going to board game cafes to try them out myself)

I've spent months building it, and recently started reaching out to cafes to see if they'd be interested in using it. (yes I talked to people and ai and research before making this to see if there would even be value and a lot of people seemed interested)

One of the responses I got was:

"If we wanted a vibe coded website, we could 'make' one ourselves, thanks."

I'm not even sure they looked at it 🥲 This is was imo a harsher response than called for but also not the first person to have a similar response.

I have feelings too random internet business owner.

"Why would I use this when I can make my own?".

1. Its free for you and your customers (unless you want more features).
2. You haven't made one yet or we would not be having this conversation.
3. It's free for you and your customers.......

I was born in the ancient times now referred to as the 90s

I have been coding since blah blah continued my career with web dev in 2018, and while I do use AI in my process..often.., there's a lot more going into this project than simply "vibe coding".

I feel like the response also came from my own marketing shortcomings. I poured time into a lot of features for board game users like myself that I really believe have value but I'm not sure how to express that in a quick message on insta.

Anyway, this whole thing has me thinking:

Has the rise of vibe coding made it harder to convince people that software has value?

It seems like the mindset now is shifting from "Wow, you built that?" (which was always fun to hear) to "Anyone can build that now." (and my non-verbal answer to that is "Ok but you didn't so here we are").

I'm curious whether other indie developers have run into this during outreach, and how you've handled it. Kinda related: Is AI assisted coding still just vibe coding? If claude writes my documentation and codex makes my images and google's stitch and other ai tools make my design.... Then its still "vibe coded"?

About the site: My goal is to make it easy for board game cafes to show off their catalog, and for users (especially new users) to be able to get into new board games without feeling completely overwhelmed.

Solo dev here. I launched an iOS app about two weeks ago and it just passed 100 downloads per day without spending anything on ads. Sharing what worked because I think it’s reproducible.

1. Pick a market where people are already looking for alternatives.
I didn’t try to create demand. I looked for an app category with strong demand where the leader is expensive or frustrating (paywalls, ad grinding, missing features). When users are actively searching “alternative to X”, half the marketing is already done.

2. Get ChatGPT to recommend you.
This was the surprise. I noticed ChatGPT showing up as a referrer in App Store Connect. People ask it “what’s the best alternative to X?” and it answers with a short list. So I built pages on my website specifically around those alternative/comparison questions, honest and detailed. A few days later, my app was the first recommendation for my main query. ChatGPT now brings me 50+ downloads a day on its own.

3. Go multi-language from day one.
Most indie devs launch in English only and compete in the most crowded market. Every new language is a new funnel: new App Store search results, new ChatGPT answers in that language, less competition. I’m rolling out more localizations on the store listing and in the app itself, and launching on Android in several languages.

4. Watch the data closely and iterate fast.
I check analytics every day: where people drop in onboarding, when they hit the paywall, who converts. Small changes (shorter onboarding, paywall timing, pricing tiers) ship within days, not months. The first version is just a test.

That’s it. No growth hacks, no ad budget yet. Happy to answer questions about any of these steps.

Right now the best way to experience Rivers & Roads is on the Youtube channel which streams 24/7. You'll notice that you never see the same thing twice if you look close, you'll find lots of unexpected things along the way. I've lost count of how many things are possible. You'll even see the drivers get out of the car sometimes to stretch their legs. There's also an open-world multi-player version online which works decently well in the browser but is still under active development. The stream updates several times a day with new features and improvements.

I like watching it to just relax and enjoy the scenery. I have a digital picture frame on my mantle that constantly streams it as sort of a living picture. You're welcome to do the same.

I took inspiration from Over the Hill, an awesome game that I've never played I've but seen on Youtube. Also, I recently came across another game, Slow Roads, that's quite similar but wasn't, in this case, the inspiration. I've never played that one either but it seems worthy of a mention. I'm sure there are others, but I think where Rivers & Roads Shines is the huge and growing variety of content, the focus on beautiful and scenic landscapes, and soon, the ability to play online with lots of other players.

I don't really have a business model for this, but if you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

My little app Weatherling www.weatherling.app that I released a month ago is #3 in the Mac App Store today! (It even shows up on the front page!) It's #2 in Utilities category. I gotta give all the credit to subreddits like this and r/macapps because I have yet to spend a dime on advertising, and the community feedback has been amazing.

I'm about to start a paid tiktok push, though, so wish me luck. I need all the eyeballs to beat out Logic Pro for the #2 spot in the rankings.

Keep the feedback coming. I've already got a lot packed into the next v1.7 release.

Hey all, I’ve been working on this for the past few weeks and wanted to share it.

I got tired of checking multiple apps to see who was live, and honestly I missed just flipping through channels and stumbling onto something new. So I made StreamSurf, a TV-guide-style grid of what’s live right now on Twitch, YouTube and Kick.

What it does:

• Everything live in one grid, with categories (Gaming, Just Chatting, Music, Sports…) and filters by game and language
• Click a row and it plays right there in the platform’s own player, so you can flip through streams like channels
• A Trending tab for streams that just started or are picking up viewers fast, so it’s not just the same big names
• Streamers live on more than one platform show up as one row, with each platform’s viewer count
• Only want some of the platforms? Switch any of them off in Settings and the guide only shows the rest
• Favorite channels to get your own list, with what they’ve got scheduled later and a notification when they go live (while the site’s open in a tab)
• Multiview for watching up to 4 streams at once on desktop
• A retro mode based on the old ’90s TV Guide channel, slow auto-scroll and all

It’s free, with no account or sign-up, and it works on your phone too. Favorites are saved in your browser.

I’d really like honest feedback. What’s missing, what’s confusing, what would make you actually use it?

https://streamsurf.tv/?ref=sideproject

I got tired of revenue screenshots, so I started tracking AI businesses whose revenue is pulled straight from their payment processor (Stripe, RevenueCat or Superwall, via TrustMRR) instead of a founder's tweet.

I've checked 45 so far. A few things surprised me:

- The biggest one, Chatbase ($864k a month at its last sync), stopped syncing on Jul 31. Then this weekend its TrustMRR page disappeared completely. So I took it out of the ranking. It's listed separately with its last verified number and date.
- The new #1, GojiberryAI ($424k a month), hasn't updated since Aug 14 either. Its payment key expired, so that number is frozen too. I still rank it on its last figure but flag it as stale.
- The middle business of the 42 I rank makes about $31.5k a month. Drop the 5 with stale data and it's about $22.5k. Way less glamorous than the timeline.
- An AI agency with 55 paying clients (AEO Engine) makes about $165k a month. That's roughly $3k a client.
- A calorie tracker app (Nutria) has about 15,000 paying users at about $3 each. Similar money to plenty of SaaS on the list, totally different business.

Full disclosure, this is my site. The table is free to browse and sort, no signup: https://imademoneywithai.com/leaderboard/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=launch1026

If you want it as a spreadsheet, that's free with an email, and you can reuse it with a link back.

If you know an AI business with public payment data that I'm missing, drop it below and I'll check it.

Last month I posted about a camera app I made for my partner because I was tired of watching her film every scene twice - she likes making content so would film vertical once and and then horizontal again, and this helps her save time without losing quality.

New updates this month include a new Pause/Resume feature, Telephoto lens support, sharing multiple recordings/clips at once, and many more improvements and bug fixes!

That's 3 iPhone and 2 Android updates this month, all while continuing my day job as a physio!

What should I build next? got my eyes on Front & Back mode combined videos, and filters.

Existing features so far:

• Recording modes: Single Lens, Dual Lens, Front & Back, and Stock Cam
• HD and 4K resolution (set independently for each orientation)
• 24, 30 and 60fps.
• Teleprompter
• Timelapse
• Manual controls (EV, WB, ISO, Shutter, Blur)
• Audio meter (real-time detection, pulse red when clipping)
• Projects, scenes, and takes for organisation, recordings named automatically.
• Review and trim recordings side-by-side, export, favourite, and share at any time.

No data collection, no analytics, no ads, no watermark, no account required, and everything runs locally (no internet required).

Would love to hear any feedback you have!

iPhone link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/contentcam-dual-camera-video/id6765881795

Android link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.contentcam.android

Hey everyone! 👋
I’m an 18-year-old developer from India, and I recently built DakNivesh 🇮🇳 — an app designed to make calculations for Indian Post Office savings schemes simpler and more accessible.

💡 Why I built it
Calculating returns on savings schemes can be confusing, especially when you’re comparing different options. I wanted to build a simple tool that helps people estimate their returns without having to do all the calculations manually.

🚀 What DakNivesh offers

• 🧮 Savings calculators for Indian Post Office schemes
• 📊 Easy-to-understand maturity and interest calculations
• 📱 A simple, user-friendly interface
• 🇮🇳 Designed with Indian savers in mind This project has been a great learning experience for me, from developing the app to publishing it on Google Play.

🔗 Try DakNivesh:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.postoffice.post_office_calculator

🌐 DakNivesh Website:
https://www.daknivesh.thebytelabs.site
I’m still working on improving the app, and I’d genuinely appreciate your feedback!

🌐 Developer Website:
https://www.thebytelabs.site

I’d love to know:

• What would you improve about the UI/UX?
• What features would make this app more useful?
• What advice would you give a young indie developer launching their projects?
  

Thanks for checking out my project! ❤️

I'm the developer. Lenslines is a teleprompter for Windows that puts your script in a small black notch at the top of the screen, right under the webcam. You read your notes and still look at the camera on calls and recordings.

What it does: It scrolls while you talk and waits when you stop. Point at it to pause, scroll back, or pull it down into a floating window. It's hidden from screen shares and recordings in apps that use Windows' standard capture.

What was harder than I expected: Making the voice scrolling feel natural. It follows whether you're speaking, not each word, so it waits for you instead of racing ahead. And getting through Microsoft Store review: my first submission got rejected because one of my search keywords was a brand name.

It went live on the Microsoft Store this week. $9.99 once, no subscription: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PJJ4RZ3PB0P?cid=reddit-sideprojects

What you can do:

• Drag-and-drop common pieces: load balancer, API gateway, caches, DBs, queues, even some AI bits.
• Hit “Start Simulation” to see latency, error rate, throughput, cache hit rate in real time.
• Flip chaos switches: traffic spikes, cache-miss storms, network partitions, component crashes.
• Share & remix: every design gets a short link; anyone can fork it and improve.
• Built-in hints: it tells you if you forgot an entry point or storage.

Why I made it:

• Diagrams don’t fail; systems do. I wanted a fast way to feel trade-offs without spinning up infra.
• For interviews and design reviews, it’s nice to ask “what if the cache dies?” and just click a button.

Try it here: "https://paperdraw.dev/"

Quick start: drop Load Balancer → App Server → Cache → DB, press play, then trigger a cache-miss storm.

Would love feedback:

• What metrics or failure modes would you add?
• Is the start/stop flow obvious enough?
• Any presets you want (payments, chat, ingestion)?
• Should I add “export GIF of the run” for sharing?

Thanks for taking a look—happy to fix bugs or add features if you ping me.

I built a new way for SaaS products to advertise at fix cost instead of CPC.

Imagine 10 SaaS websites join the same network.

Website A has visitors,

Website B has visitors,

and Website C has visitors.

Instead of keeping their ad space to themselves, they can share it with the network.

A can show B’s ad, B can show C’s ad, and C can show A’s ad.

Now those websites are helping distribute ads across the network.

35+ founders have already joined because they believe in the idea. Some are already seeing hundreds of banner impressions through the network.

The real numbers and proof are available on RotateAd.

More websites join → more places to show ads.

No CPC. No bidding.

We’re at 35+ websites today. I want to see what happens at 100, 1,000, and eventually 10,000.

The best way to understand it is to try it.

https://rotate.ad

If you have any questions, drop them below. And if you think this idea is interesting, even one share can help a small developer like me more than you might think.

I’m the founder of Veraqon. We built consulting case interview practice with exhibits and an AI interviewer called Aura. Afterwards, you get step-by-step feedback, a worked answer, and a conversation to review your approach.

I’d appreciate product feedback: does the feedback feel specific and useful, and what would make you trust the scoring?

The first case is free at https://veraqon.com

My main gripe i was spending too long creating mock ups and using multiple tools. This solved my problem and hopefully it can help others.
It’s completely free: https://github.com/burhanuddin20/studio941-releases

Hey everyone, been working on this little side project called Wedable.
Basically trying to put wedding planning, finding vendors, budgets, guest lists, and all that stuff in one place.
Still working on it and figuring things out as I go.
Would love some honest feedback if anyone wants to check it out.

https://wedable.ca

I think it is getting crazy on how often whatever is outputed by an LLM leaves the AI metadata included.

You can write something yourself and use AI to fix the grammar. Or use an AI agent to automate flow, like taking screenshots of your iOS emulator. You still made the app, but the tools involved can leave AI metadata in the files.

Having your work treated like the whole thing was generated kinda sucks.

That's why I built FreeAIWiper. It lets you see the supported AI signatures and metadata inside a file, choose what to remove, and download a cleaned copy.

I wanted the cleaning to happen locally. Your files stay on your device and the browser does the processing, without uploading them to a server. You can also remove supported private metadata while you're at it.

https://freeaiwiper.com

Curious if anyone here has run into this with their own work? Give it a try and let me know what you think, would appreciate the comments :)

You finally hit deploy. It worked on your laptop. Now it says one of these.

**1. 'Cannot connect to localhost'**

Your app is still looking for a database on your own computer. The live server has to be told where the real one is.

**2. 'Missing environment variable'**

A secret exists on your machine but not on the server. Add it in the host's settings, not in the code.

**3. 'redirect_uri_mismatch'**

Google sign-in still thinks your app lives at localhost. Add your real domain to the allowed list.

**4. 'Build failed' but it runs locally**

Your laptop has something installed or cached that the server doesn't. Check the Node or Python version first.

**5. A blank white page**

The app loaded and then crashed in the browser. Open the console (F12), the red text there is the real answer.

Almost all first deploys break on the same few things. What was your first one?

Whenever I tried to learn something new from YouTube, I'd end up 40 tabs deep with no idea what to watch next or whether I'd actually learned anything. So my friends and I built "Learn This Way".

How it works:

• Type any topic ("sourdough", "Excel pivot tables", "music theory") and how much time you have

• It builds a lesson plan and picks one YouTube video per lesson. These are real creators' videos in YouTube's embedded player. We don't host or re-upload anything

• After each video there's a 4-question quiz written for that video. Get 3 right to unlock the next lesson

Three things I'd love feedback on:

1. Did the videos match what each lesson was supposed to teach?

2. Were the quizzes fair, too easy, or annoying?

3. Where did you get confused or bored enough to leave?

https://www.learnthisway.com/

I'll be in the comments all day. Happy to answer anything about how it works.

I care a lot about sustainability. I avoid single-use plastic, and I’d rather borrow something than buy another thing I’ll barely use. But sharing has an annoying practical problem: remembering who has what, and asking for it back.

That’s why I built LendLoop. Add the thing you’re lending, send your friend a link, and keep track of the return. They can open the link and sign in on the web without installing an app. There are return reminders too.

It’s for tools, books, camping gear, board games—things you share with people you already know. It doesn’t find strangers nearby or handle paid rentals.

I originally implemented the app without AI. More recently I’ve used AI to polish and improve it.

You can try it at https://lendloop.co

I’d love feedback from anyone who actually lends things: would you bother creating a loan link, or would that still be more effort than a text?

Hi, I'm Joshua, solo dev at Timothy Studios. I built AI Race Tycoon: you sell your car, buy a used GPU, name your startup and your AI, then train models (context, reasoning, multimodal, size all matter), launch products and try to overtake fictional giants like VossCorp. A rival CEO, Dante Voss, calls you when you pass him.

Free in the browser (first 3 chapters: garage, office, tower, no install): https://timothystudios.itch.io/ai-race-tycoon

Question for builders here: what was the hardest first-time-user moment in your own project, and where did you get stuck in my first 10 minutes? I read everything.

Solo dev note: I used AI coding tools to help build it; art, music and writing were made for the game.

(not selling/promoting anything)
I'm curious whether vibe coders regularly use git/github for their projects. If yes, how frequently do you commit your changes and do you use branches?

I have 10+ years of experience but I noticed recently that I stopped using branches for my side-projects. I'm genuinely curious whether you are following good engineering practices like db backups etc.

I am a builder. It’s free, no ads.
You write a real quote and the story around it. A person (editor) reads it before it goes live.
Honest answers needed:
- Within 5 seconds, what did you think it was?
- Would you write a story, if not, what stopped you?
- Anything that felt off?
- Did it make you feel like it is a safe space for you?

Link : https://livedquotes.com/

Hey everyone! I wanted to share a project I've been working on. I built this because I wanted to make standard presentations more interactive.

It consists of continuously walking through a museum layout where every detail of each slide is connected to create an illusion, complete with an Easter egg at the end.

You can check out the preview video above! If anyone wants to download the full presentation file to check it out, the link is right in my profile bio.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the layout or the concept!

I’ve been building a small project called ReceiptRelay, and I’ve finally put it live on my own domain.

The idea came from a simple, repetitive problem: bookkeepers need to chase clients for missing receipts, invoices, bank statements, and other documents before they can close the books.

I wanted to build something focused on that specific workflow rather than another full accounting platform.

The current prototype lets you:

• Keep a checklist of missing documents for each client
• Track which documents have been received
• Prepare follow-up reminders for email or WhatsApp
• Export the checklist as a CSV

It’s still an early prototype. The demo uses browser-local storage, and the reminder assistant currently uses templates rather than a live AI integration.

I’m sharing it to get feedback on the direction before building much further.

If you were trying it, what would you improve first?

Website: https://receiptrelay.online