Manoj Builds

🎮 Building games & apps with AI
🌐 Three.js • Creative Coding • Generative Art
🧪 Experimenting, breaking things & shipping
↓ Everything I'm building

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

Vibe coding makes building a game feel almost too easy. 😂

You get an idea → describe it → AI writes the mechanic → you have something playable.

But I've noticed a strange problem...

The faster I can build features, the easier it is to build things I probably shouldn't.

I'm starting to spend more time asking "should this exist?" before asking AI "how do I build this?"

#VibeCoding #GameDev #IndieGameDev

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

Built a generative art piece with WebGL & GLSL shaders:

4,000+ colored light beams race through concentric square tracks in alternating directions—and math guarantees they never touch or cross. ⚡️

The entire animation is computed directly on the GPU using pure math (Chebyshev square distance). Silky smooth 60+ FPS!

#creativecoding #shaders #webgl #glsl #generativeart #javascript

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

Things rarely come out exactly the way you imagined.

The game doesn't look right.
The idea feels different.
The code gets messy.
The first version isn't what you pictured.

I've had plenty of moments like that lately.

But I think the answer isn't to stop.

Build it.
See what's wrong.
Fix one thing.
Try again.

Sometimes you don't reach the version you imagined.

You reach a better one by working through the version you have. 🎮

#GameDev #IndieDev #BuildInPublic

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

Honestly, probably scope creep too 😅

I start with a pretty simple prototype, then I keep thinking about coins, progression, more levels, better UI, polish...

The AI makes each addition feel so cheap that it's easy to forget every new feature still needs to be balanced, tested and supported.

I'm trying to get better at stopping myself before the "small game" turns into a completely different project 😂

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

If you could give ONE warning to someone building their first game with AI...

what would it be?

Not a coding tip.

Not which engine to use.

I mean the mistake that can quietly waste weeks:

scope, architecture, assets, polishing, features, monetization, publishing... anything.

I'm collecting the answers because I'd rather learn from other GameDevs than repeat every mistake myself. 😅

#GameDev #IndieGameDev #VibeCoding

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

New GameDev + vibe coding question:

How early should I think about monetization?

Ads?
Rewarded ads?
IAP?
Cosmetics?
Premium?
No monetization at all during prototype?

I don't want to destroy a good gameplay loop just because I added monetization too early.

What would you avoid as a beginner?

#GameDev #MobileGameDev #IndieGameDev

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

I think one of the easiest mistakes for a new GameDev is skipping real playtesting.

You build it.

AI says everything looks correct.

You play it 20 times.

Then someone else touches it for 30 seconds and immediately gets confused. 😂

What did your first real playtest teach you that development couldn't?

#GameDev #GameDesign #IndieDev

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

For new GameDev developers using AI:

Did you ever optimize too early?

I'm seeing all these things I *could* optimize:

draw calls
memory
object pooling
asset sizes
physics
loading

But my game is still basically a prototype. 😅

At what point did you start caring seriously about performance?

#GameDev #IndieGameDev #ThreeJS

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

One thing I'm starting to worry about with vibe coding games:

AI is very good at adding features.

But every feature creates more things to test.

One button becomes:
UI → state → save data → edge cases → mobile input → sounds → animations...

What mistakes did you make by saying:

"Let's just add this one thing"? 😂

#GameDev #VibeCoding #GameDesign

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

Question for GameDev people:

How much time should a beginner spend finding or creating art before the gameplay is proven?

AI makes it ridiculously easy to generate:
characters, backgrounds, icons, particles, UI...

and that's honestly tempting me to polish things way too early. 😂

Would you prototype with ugly placeholder assets for as long as possible?

#GameDev #IndieDev #GameArt

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

I'm learning that game development has a dangerous trap:

A prototype can look like a game long before it actually IS a game.

You can have:
🎮 player
🎨 nice graphics
📱 UI
💰 coins
⭐ progression

and still have a boring 2-minute experience.

For new GameDev + vibe coding people:

What mistake helped you realize this?

#GameDev #GameDesign #IndieGameDev

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

GameDev + vibe coding question:

How early should I start caring about game architecture?

AI makes it very easy to keep adding code until the prototype works...

but then changing one thing starts breaking five other things. 😅

Would you recommend keeping the first prototype intentionally messy and refactoring later, or setting up clean systems from day one?

#GameDev #VibeCoding #IndieGameDev

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

One mistake I'm trying hard to avoid as a new GameDev using AI:

Building too much before actually playing the game.

It's easy to ask AI for:
✅ menus
✅ progression
✅ coins
✅ settings
✅ achievements

while the core mechanic still isn't fun.

What would you tell a beginner to build FIRST?

#GameDev #GameDesign #IndieDev

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

New to GameDev + vibe coding?

What's ONE mistake you made early that you wish someone had warned you about?

I'm starting to realize AI can help me build a feature in minutes...

but it can also help me build the WRONG architecture very quickly. 😂

Would love to hear the mistakes I should avoid before this gets expensive to fix.

#GameDev #IndieGameDev #VibeCoding

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

After stopping everything and cleaning up, Gemini Flash 3.8 took another approach.

It created a Python program that could draw a surprisingly similar version of the image.

So I didn't get:

AI → mouse → MS Paint → painting.

I got:

AI → code → drawing.

And honestly, that was the most interesting part of the experiment.

Computer-use AI looks simple in a demo.

Getting it to safely control a real desktop is a completely different problem. 😅

#AI #AIAgents #Gemini #VibeCoding #BuildInPublic

🧵 9/9

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

I wanted to try one of those viral AI experiments:

Give AI an image → open MS Paint → let it control the mouse → watch it paint the image live.

After seeing GPT Astra doing computer-use stuff, I thought I could recreate something similar with Antigravity + Gemini Flash 3.8.

So I gave it a simple challenge.

Paint this image. 🎨

🧵 1/8

[Manoj Builds @TenthPrime]

At one point the low-level automation actually got control of the desktop.

The mouse started moving continuously and wasn't staying inside MS Paint.

It could move across whatever window was active — including Antigravity.

For a moment, I couldn't properly control my own mouse. 😭
Check the Sorry message
🧵 8/9