Solo dev built Wordtrak, a 1v1 browser/iOS word battle game using Rails and Expo, aided heavily by Claude Code for design iteration and implementation.
Key Takeaways
Wordtrak is a 1v1 game with 3 or 5 “traks”; players pick lanes to play words on, winner per trak determined by point total, adding lane-selection strategy.
Built with Rails backend and Expo for hybrid web/native; split-flap display UI inspired by Vestaboard; dark mode added during late-night playtesting.
Design phase ran nearly a week with only markdown docs and LLM mock games before any code was written; Claude used for rules iteration and visual mockups.
Triangular scoring bonus for filling a full trak was a late addition based on Discord feedback; custom dictionary required combining multiple public word lists.
Lessons: skip waitlists for new games, inflate scores to feel rewarding, control randomness (e.g., avoid all-vowel hands), and budget heavily for app store submission friction.
Hacker News Comment Review
Minimal discussion so far; the one concrete thread flagged a responsive image layout bug where a large photo forces two-directional scrolling on the post page.
Notable Comments
@fred_is_fred: “your page loads an insanely large picture… I have to scroll two directions” – real layout bug report on the marketing page.
