The best way to learn about new tools and technologies is to use them. I’ve been vibe-coding apps and games as fast as I can think up ideas. Happy to talk about my experience with Replit, Google AI Studio, and others.
Applications
- Kwill is a platform for local advocacy and public comment campaigns. It’s freely available to pro-housing organizations and others by request. Built in Replit, it’s a multi-tenant and multi-user platform with a rich permissioning system, configurable at multiple levels, and integration with both OpenAI and Anthropic APIs. Try a demo at https://app.kwill.tech/c/arc/.
- Podfolio lets you create virtual, subscribable podcast feeds by collecting individual episodes from elsewhere. Originally built to help me share my own appearances on this site, it’s been used to collect episodes on a range of topics. Built in Replit, it supports multiple users, an admin interface, and utilizes APIs from YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, and other services. Check out a sample feed at https://app.podfolio.me/u/herzigma/pm-jobs.
- Archie is a simple PWA that lets you quickly view the archived version of a web page. It was intended to let mobile users easily evade paywalls (you can “share” a URL to the installed app, which auto-opens the site). I wanted to build it in Google AI Studio, but I couldn’t get the PWA to work. It was trivial in Replit. https://archie.jhm.lol/
- Random Choice Announcer does what it says on the label: you provide a list of options, and it picks one at random and says it out loud every x seconds. Configuration is embedded in the URL for easy sharing. Nerd-sniped into building it in Google AI Studio to see how quickly I could get something working (less than five minutes). Example
- Social Media Assistant generates comments for sites like LinkedIn and Twitter. Paste in a screenshot and it’ll generate a reasonable response. You can customize length, tone, and intent, and share your own style guide (or just examples of comments you like). Also built with Google AI Studio and using the Gemini API for image interpretation and text generation, this one took about 10 minutes. https://social.jhm.lol/
- Announcer was a demo of how vibe-coding can be part of the product discovery and/or design process (i.e., not for building internal or productivity tools, not for building production software). I built it live, in front of a studio audience, in about 20 minutes, with AI Studio and it uses the Gemini APIs. Just for fun, I single-shotted it in Replit with OpenAI - you can check that out here (no fun URL). https://announcer.jhm.lol
Games
- Humdoodle was my first “fun” app, built to try out Google’s AI Studio Build feature. Not very interesting, but fun for kids. https://humdoodle.jhm.lol/
- Comet-Pede 2600, an homage to the original Atari games of the early '80s, combines elements of Asteroids and Centipede. Built with AI Studio. https://cometpede2600.jhm.lol/
- Comet-Pede 5200 is an updated version with higher resolution, detailed sprites, and more complex gameplay. Probably closer to a 16-bit console. Built in Replit. https://cometpede5200.jhm.lol/
- Monster Rally is another 8-bit game built in AI Studio. Drive your monster truck, shoot monsters, and gain their powers. Built with AI Studio. https://monster-rally.jhm.lol/
Failures or incompletes
- Various versions of the “chatbot to help HS students with their homework without cheating.” Early in 2025, the AI coders weren’t good at this kind of work. Then ChatGPT and Gemini baked it into their core product.
- A blog crawler/browser. https://managementblog.org/ is one of my favorite resources, but over 21 years and almost 3500 posts, this WordPress site is hard to navigate. “Let’s build a web crawler!” I said. “It’ll be easy!” I said. And then I’ll make it fast and easy to search and browse! Friends, there is a reason renting a webcrawler is expensive.
- A platform for running a cohort-based community. This should be straightforward, but I realized I didn’t have a clear enough model in my head for how all the pieces should work and fit together. Something I’ve noticed: the more clear in my head the way the pieces will fit together, the better the final product works out.
- A few years ago, I became obsessed with this article: Let’s Build a Village from a Parking Lot and I thought it’d be fun to automate the process: find a parking lot from aerial imagery, map out streets, map out structures, build a 3d image. My friends: each one of these tasks far exceeded the abilities of AI to code or to generate. I tried with Replit, AI Studio, ChatGPT, and Claude. None of them were successful with any part of the process. None of them were successful making it even semi-automated/manumatic. This will remain a dream.
- Wouldn’t it be cool if there were a tool that helped with group or individual brainstorming? Maybe one that combined mind-mapping, crazy-8s, and voting? I thought so, too, but couldn’t figure out the magical incantations to get
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😅 I provide coaching and support to founders and solo PMs. You can grab time with me!