Introducing Bitcoin Runner!
Bitcoin Runner is a vibe coding experiment with Claude Code to see what it takes to build a retro video game runner that plays in browser on desktop and mobile with no running server components.
I've been fascinated by Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) since ~2009; since then I've watched the price move from pennies to dollars to thousands. The price of Bitcoin often moves up 2x or more in a season, followed by tumbles of 50% and more. Price movement is so volatile I've often thought, "this moves like a video game".
If you haven't yet, go play the game! Each run is only 90 seconds. I can wait.
Yes, it uses AI "art"
I'm not much of a visual artist, though I am a writer, musician, filmmaker and photographer. But drawing? This is not a skill I've spent time to develop.
One of the things I set out to learn while building this game: can AI be used to create game assets that are unique, interesting and fun to play? All of the sound effects, music, backgrounds, terrain and sprites in Bitcoin Runner are AI generated. Everything was guided and hand-selected by me, but AI generated.
Does it meet the quality bar? That's for you to decide. Here is the sprite sheet of a character inspired by me, built with Nano Banana 2 on Higgsfield.ai:
I generated four 6x6 sprite sheets with a chroma background, then worked with Claude to define a variety of animation cycles that all ended up in this single transparent background png file.
The results are... okay. I'm not happy with any of my run animations - it has been incredibly challenging to get a pixel run cycle with full swing opposing arm and leg movement.
I found some excellent advice online on how to generate "green screens" (that convert nicely to transparent backgrounds), generating pixel sprites, and drawing lines around sprites so they separate nicely from the background and pop visually against various game backgrounds.
Sound Effects and Backgrounds by Claude and ComfyUI
I've been very impressed with Claude's ability to create retro game SFX. Almost entirely hands-off - just provide an idea and some feedback and the sounds are quite nice.
I've been less impressed with Claude's ability to create images by writing prompts for local AI models. Claude can not discern anything about what makes an image good or bad, although he will happily proclaim that garbage output is an excellent image.
Claude has a "fail forward" approach that works very nicely for most vibe coding tasks. He iterates past his coding mistakes until the code works. To Claude, images always "work" because they meet the x by y spec. I've had to do a ton of handholding and we've created an entirely different workflow when it comes to working on images together.
Our Design
If you want to learn about how we built Bitcoin Runner, have a look at this article I asked Claude to write: Bitcoin Design
Feedback that Helps
I have lots of gameplay and polish to work on yet, this game is in the very early stages. We're actively working on our running terrain, background art, character audio, and character attributes to help differentiate how each character plays.
What I would love to hear from you, if you have a moment: is the core game idea fun? What would make the game more fun and interesting to play?
Thanks very much for taking a moment to stop by and play Bitcoin Runner. Hope to hear from you!