build then learn

Games and build logs by Kamari

Ship it.Then own it.

I build real apps, then turn every bug and decision into a game that teaches the code. Build first. Learn it for real.

Play Launch Week Try one bug first

A real bug from Launch Week

Can you spot it?

Fernly, a plant-care app, just shipped version 1.1. Then this review came in.

App Store review ★☆☆☆☆

All my plants disappeared after the update

“Updated today and my garden is empty. I had 23 plants in there!”

Version 1.1 added var notes: String to Plant. Saved plants are loaded with:

let plants = (try? JSONDecoder()
    .decode([Plant].self, from: data)) ?? []

What happened?

The games

One week, one platform, one game at a time

Each game puts you in a developer's week after launch: real bugs, a real project, code review and a deadline. All free to play.

Live now

Launch Week

Swift · SwiftUI · iOS

Five days to Demo Day. 131 bugs and questions, a simulator, pull requests and 8 endings.

Play now →
Next

Game 2

Kotlin · Compose · Android

The same week, on Android. Gradle, lifecycles and the Play Console.

Vote for this →
Later

Game 3

React · TypeScript · web

Ship a web app: state, deploys, accessibility and a 2 a.m. outage.

Vote for this →
Later

Game 4

APIs · databases · cloud

Your first backend: data, auth, logs and the bill at the end of the month.

Vote for this →

Players pick what comes next. Votes are GitHub issues, so you can see every one.

How it works

Build in public. Then explain it.

Build

Watch me build

Real features for real apps, shown before they're polished, broken parts included.

Then

Play it

The bugs and decisions become scenes in a game you can finish over a coffee.

Learn

Now learn it

Short write-ups on why the code works: one optional, one actor, one review comment at a time.

Build log

What shipped, and when

Every change goes through a pull request, the same way it does in the game.

  1. A welcome screen and a pause menu

    Press Escape or the menu button to pause and pick up where you left off.

    PR #4

  2. The project map, a simulator and code review

    See how Fernly starts, run it in a simulator, and get your pull requests reviewed by Priya.

    PR #3

  3. Launch Week goes live

    The first game, free on GitHub Pages, with a link preview for sharing.

    PR #1
Private I app icon

The build behind it all

Private I

My iPhone app. It locks your phone when someone other than you is looking at the apps you choose. Launch Week grew out of building it.

Get it on the App Store