Akavjah Creations / Origin Log

I have never written a line of code. I still built a game.

Weeks ago I didn't believe AI could actually build something polished enough to release — not a demo, not a prototype, a real shipped app. Then I decided to find out the hard way — one prompt, one crash, one bug hunt at a time — whether a total non-programmer could go from a blank folder to a real Apple developer account in six days flat.

See Mad Orbit Dash → Read the build log

1Skeptic2First prompt3First real crash4Level 50, finally5Live on the App Store

Why I doubted this

I've watched a hundred “I built an app with AI” posts. Most were demos. None were something you could actually download.

I'm not a developer. I don't know Swift, I don't know Xcode, and until recently I couldn't have told you what a “build target” was. Every “vibe coding” story I'd seen online stopped at a pretty screenshot — nothing that actually survived contact with a real device, a real App Store review, or a real player mashing the screen in ways no one planned for.

So I picked one idea small enough to finish and stubborn enough to expose every weakness in the process: a one-tap arcade game where a dot orbits a hub and you dodge through collapsing rings. Simple to describe. Brutal to actually get right — collision has to be exact, difficulty has to ramp fairly, and one bad frame ends the run.

The actual build log

No polish. Just what happened, in order.

SAT

Started from zero. Described the game in plain English — a dot orbiting a hub, dodging gaps in collapsing rings — and watched it actually run for the first time.

first build compiled · didn't believe it either

SAT

Learned the hard way that “looks right” and “is right” are different things. Collision had to be checked continuously across the whole overlap zone — not just once a frame — or a visible graze wouldn't register as a hit.

GameEngine.swift · collision rewrite

SUN

Built a “demo mode” so the game could play itself and stress-test difficulty at levels I'd never reach by hand. It kept dying suspiciously right before the finish line.

autoplay added · mystery bug logged

MON

Chased that bug through 33 rounds of console logs before finding it: the game let the orb pass a gate, then quietly forgot it could still die a frame later. Fixed. Demo mode finally reached the top level.

33 log files · one real root cause

TUE

Composed and trimmed original music and sound effects by hand — down to isolating a single 0.35-second pop for the tap sound so it wouldn't echo.

audio pass · sfx_tap.wav, take 6

WED

Registered a real Apple Developer account, and got approved.

developer account · approved

THU

Six days in: Mad Orbit Dash was submitted to Apple on July 31. It came back once — the layout got cramped on the iPad Air 11-inch and iPhone 17 Pro Max screens — so it took a fix before it actually shipped, then shipped again with a tutorial, seven additional languages, and a free trial through level 15.

status: live · v2 released

The game itself

Mad Orbit Dash

One tap reverses your orbit. That's the whole control scheme. The rings collapse inward faster the longer you survive, the gaps get tighter, and by level 40 the whole board is moving against you. It's small on purpose — small enough that every rough edge was mine to find and fix.

50Levels to clear

1Tap to play

0Lines I wrote myself, by hand

See both games → Live on the App Store · Second release

What's next

Two games out. Why stop there?

Mad Orbit Dash was the proof of concept — that someone with zero coding background could take an idea from a blank folder to a submitted app in six days. It shipped, then shipped again with a tutorial, seven additional languages, and a free trial through level 15. Fool Me Once followed on August 24. Three more games are already underway.

Mad Orbit Dash — Live, v2Fool Me Once — LiveThree more games — In development

Contact

akavjahcreations@gmail.com

Mailing address

Akavjah Creations
PO Box 220300
Chantilly, VA 20153
United States