A Better Lemonade Stand #328

📈 Trends

🕹️ The AI Game Gold Rush

Not long ago, making a game meant coding for months, hiring developers, and burning through cash. Now?

When Levels.io built a viral flight simulator using AI in just 3 hours, he sparked an entire movement this past month.

• No game dev experience.

• Just AI-generated code, assets, and mechanics—fully automated.

Result? $17,000 in 9 days, selling in-game ad placements for $2,500/month—now generating $38K/month.

This changed the game for many people as tons of indie hackers, creators, and developers are following suit—realizing that they can create AI-powered games that generate:

✅ Traffic (AI games rank for SEO, go viral on X)

✅ Revenue (Ads, in-game purchases, lead gen)

✅ Audience Growth (AI games can drive massive newsletter signups & social engagement)

What changed?

• Grok 3, Claude 3.7, GPT-4.5 → AI can now generate full game logic, assets, and mechanics.

• Cursor AI, Three.js, P5.js → No coding required to implement and launch.

• AI-generated assets → No need for designers, animations, or dev teams.

Now, let’s break down two key paths you can take to make money with AI-generated games.

🕹️ Two Paths to Monetizing AI Game Development

You don’t need to build the next Fortnite to cash in on AI-generated games.

Here are two proven paths—whether you’re a creator, indie hacker, or business owner.

1️⃣ The Simple Micro-Game Model (NYT-Style Web Apps)

Microgames don’t need to be complex to make money. This is the easiest, highest-margin AI game business—because it leverages SEO & ad revenue from simple, evergreen games.

Examples of NYT-style AI-generated game sites making cash according to Niche Site Growth.

• ConnectionsUnlimited.org → A clone of NYT’s Connections game, now getting 1M+ monthly visitors.

• Spellbee.org → A NYT Spelling Bee clone getting 2.7M visitors/month → Making $15K-$30K/month in ad revenue.

• Flagle.io → A flag-guessing game earning $10K/month with 2.3M visitors/month.

• Riley Brown used @vibecodeapp to voice-command his way into a fully playable Connect 5 game. Then he added Tic Tac Toe... and then another game... all inside the same app.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• These games are super easy to build with AI. Grab this example prompt here to create your own web game using Lovable.

• They rely on SEO + social virality instead of paid acquisition.

• Monetization is passive & scalable (Google AdSense, premium memberships, brand sponsorships).

2️⃣ The AI-Generated Full-Scale Game Model (Levels.io’s $17K AI Flight Sim)

This model is more ambitious but highly viral.

Instead of simple word or puzzle games, you’re building AI-generated multiplayer worlds, shooters, and arcade-style games that drive:

✅ X/Twitter virality (AI-generated gameplay clips get insane engagement)

✅ Sponsorships & premium in-game purchases

✅ Paid in-game advertising (e.g., Levels.io selling $2,500/month blimps)

Examples of AI-generated multiplayer & viral games:

1. Alex Finn’s Call of Duty AI clone – He used this game to generate 500+ newsletter signups in 24 hours.

2. Minecraft alternative built entirely with AI (Claude & Cursor).

3. Peter Yang’s AI Game Journey: Peter Yang is building an AI-powered zombie game live, iterating with AI tools in real time.

• He started with a basic enemy system and kept iterating by asking AI to add features.

• AI built zombie waves, a boss fight, and a health system—all in a single shot.

• Now, he’s refining music, sounds, and final polish before launch.

📌 Follow his build-in-public updates here.

⚡ How to Build & Monetize AI Games in a Weekend

Here’s how to start from scratch and launch a more involved AI-generated game that prints money.

Step 1: AI-Generate a Game Concept & Mechanics

• Check out this collection of AI-built games for some inspiration on what sort of games you can build → https://aibuiltgames.com

• Use Grok 3, Claude 3.7, or GPT-4.5 for full-game logic & assets to Get your AI game running in 5 minutes following Penny’s tutorial. Here’s an example prompt to use.

• Follow how Alex Finn generated his Spaceshooter game in this live demo.

• Use an AI editor like Cursor AI to implement the code that you generated.

• AI just made building a game as simple as speaking out loud.

  Literally.

Step 2: Launch & Host a Playable Version

• Use GitHub Pages, Vercel, or Railway for instant deployment.

• Use Superbase.io for multiplayer, leaderboards & authentication.

Step 3: Monetization (Pick One or More):

Step 4: Drive Traffic (Growth Hacking Strategies)

1. Post gameplay clips on X (Twitter) → Elon Musk, Levels.io, and others regularly boost AI game projects.

2. SEO-optimize your game pages → Ride organic search traffic like NYT game clones.

3. Use AI to clone trending games → Copy successful formulas & put your twist on it.

💡 Next Move?

This is the future of indie game development, content creation, and viral growth marketing.

The NYT model works. The Levels.io model works.

AI removed the biggest barriers to building & monetizing games.

If you’re:

✅ A creator → AI games can explode your audience & engagement.

✅ An indie hacker → Single-page AI games can print passive income.

✅ A startup founder → AI-powered games can be a lead gen funnel for your SaaS, course, or newsletter.

💡 Insights

💰 Flip, Cash Out, Repeat

If you thought building a startup took years, Nico wouldn’t have sold two AI businesses—one in a week and another in under a year.

it’s about Speed + validation + smart exits.

🚀 The $200K Playbook

• Build in Days – No overthinking. One week from the idea to launch.

• Validate First – Generated $700 in revenue from startup directories = instant proof.

• Subscription > One-Time Fees – Recurring revenue = higher valuation.

📈 How He Doubled Revenue

• Targeted Ads – Hyper-specific (e.g., “Corgi Owners” ads) crushed broad messaging.

• Product Hunt Launch – Brought credibility + media exposure.

• Monk Mode Scaling – Locked in, optimized every second, and pushed hard.

😵‍💫 When Bugs Tanked Sales 70%...

Instead of fixing it, he sold it for $200K before the AI hype faded.

Now? $300K in the bank. Next startup already running.

👉 Watch How Nico Flipped 2 AI Startups for $200K

⚡ YC’s 2025 AI Playbook: The End of $100K Jobs?

YC dropped its startup wishlist for 2025, and the message is clear:

YC isn’t funding AI to assist workers—it’s funding AI to replace $100k jobs entirely.

Where the Money Is Flowing

💰 AI That Kills Jobs – Compliance, medical billing, tax prep—fully automated.
📈 AI App Store – The iOS App Store, but for AI agents. Own the ecosystem.
🛠️ Developer Tools for AI – AI kills jobs, but devs still need tools to manage it.

The Hard Math

• 4M compliance jobs? AI can erase most.

• $50K/year on legal templates? AI makes them free.

• Entire industries built on repetition? AI automates first.

👉 See YC’s Full Wishlist

🧠 SEO for ChatGPT? It’s All About Semantics, Not Hacks

Everyone’s trying to game ChatGPT visibility like it’s 2010 Google.

But If your content isn’t built for context, clarity, and semantic signals, it won’t show up anywhere—search or AI.

This guide from Gianluca Fiorelli breaks it down:

1️⃣ Entity-Based SEO > Keyword SEO
Don’t just write “pizza.”
Write “New York-style pizza introduced by Italian immigrants in the 1900s.”
Give your content shape—who, where, why.

2️⃣ Build Content Hubs
Think like a librarian, not a blogger.
Connect topics, link internally, create semantic clusters. That’s what LLMs (and Google) crawl now.

3️⃣ Optimize for Embeddings, Not Just Rankings
LLMs translate your content into math.
If your content floats alone, it’s invisible.
If it’s connected to related topics/entities, it becomes retrievable.

👉 Get the Full Guide

📈 The $1 CPM UGC Growth Play

Most brands are burning cash on $9+ CPM paid ads. While some are getting 10x more reach for just $1 CPM with UGC ads.

How It Works

1️⃣ Launch a Creator Competition – Pay 50–100 micro-creators $1–$3 per 1,000 views. Reward the best performers.

2️⃣ Retain High Performers – Put top creators on monthly contracts ($2K–$5K) for ongoing content.

3️⃣ Trigger the Viral Cascade – 1% of videos will go viral, inspiring more free exposure from copycats posting your tool.

$5K = 5M+ views. And it keeps growing without spending more.

👉 Watch This $1 CPM Play in Action

🎯 Why Your Onboarding Experience is Killing Retention

Users decide within seconds if your product is worth it.

Confusing onboarding = instant churn.

The 3-Step Fix

• Know Your Users – Not every user is the same. Design onboarding for power users, skeptics, and beginners.

• Work Backwards from Success – Show users their first win fast. Cut steps that don’t move them forward.

• Align Onboarding With Your Business Model – Push monetization too soon? They leave. Wait too long? They never convert.

👉 See Real UX Examples

🧰 Apps & Tools

🎞️ Supercut: Drop a long video. It scans, slices, and pulls out the best moments—automatically for TikTok, Reels, or YouTube.

🌐 WebWave AI: A Lovable/Bolt competitor that allows you to build, customize, and launch a fully functional website in 3 minutes.

📝 Rewritely: Write smarter, faster, and clearer—proofread, translate, rewrite, and summarize in one click. Perfect your tone without the struggle.

⏳ Stagetimer: The remote-controlled countdown timer to keep events on track, and send live updates. (Pulled in $29,059 in Feb.)

🧔 CrewAI: If you haven’t heard of it yet, this multi-agent platform automates workflows with AI crews that you can build with no code.

📊 Guse: Automate any workflow inside a simple spreadsheet. Create columns, set actions, and let it handle the rest.

🤖 Product Updates

🧠 MCP Just Had Its iPhone Moment

This wasn’t just a big week for MCP—it was the week it clicked for everyone.

If you’re new to it: MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a new standard that lets AI agents actually take actions—not just respond in chat. Think of it like a universal remote for apps, built for AI.

No more janky APIs. Just prompts that click buttons, move files, launch tools.

What’s Actually Happening?

• Zapier unlocked 30,000+ actions for AI agents—across 8,000+ apps.

• OpenAI, Camel, and Brex dropped MCP integrations that let agents actually execute.

• Box, Telegram, and Figma now connect directly to AI through MCP bridges.

• LiteLLM and Neon are acting as MCP routers between LLMs and real-world tools.

• Cursor AI is cloning websites, QA testing iOS apps, and editing Figma files—all through prompt-based workflows.

👉 Get All Updates Here

🎛️ Udio Just Made AI Music More Intuitive

Udio dropped Styles—a feature that lets you use audio as a reference to generate new music. Think of it like Midjourney for sound: instead of describing a tune, you just upload it.

Pair that with v1.5 Allegro, a new model that’s 4x faster and arguably better quality, and you’ve got one of the most powerful creation tools in AI music.

So What’s the Catch?

While the update opens creative floodgates, the UX bottlenecks are real.

🔹 Some pro users mention that they can’t find the "Use Style Reference" button.
🔹 Others say 1.5 doesn’t match the creativity of 1.0—especially for niche genres like AOR rock.
🔹 And then there’s the paywall backlash: locking new features behind a $30/mo Pro tier has sparked some real heat.

👉 How to Use Styles

🎨 Midjourney V7 Just Dropped

Midjourney just hit V7—and it’s like they strapped a rocket to your creativity.

The realism? Crisp.
The speed? Insane.
The personalization? Built-in by default.

You’re not prompting anymore. You’re directing.

V7 lets you:

• Iterate images in real-time with Draft Mode

• Use your voice to prompt and tweak

• Control aspect ratios, lighting, angle, and even override Midjourney’s native aesthetic

And with personalization now baked in, your images finally look like you made them—not just another stock Midjourney render.

👉 Check Out These v7 Examples  

🖇️ Everything Else

🧍‍♀️ H&M’s Digital Models Are Here: The fashion giant is now using AI-generated clones of real models in ads. Models keep rights (and get paid), but some fear it cuts out photographers, MUAs, and crew. (🔗 Read the Full Story)

🛍️ Amazon’s AI Agent Shop’s Other Sites for You: If Amazon doesn’t sell it, the new “Buy for Me” feature will browse third-party sites, autofill your info, and place the order inside the Amazon app. (🔗 See How It Works)

🗣️ Advice That Actually Hits: Paul William Harmon dropped a pack of insights—from why your calendar is killing your creativity to how choosing short-term pain leads to long-term peace. (🔗 Listen to the Hard Truths)

🤖 AI Is Writing Code—And Launching Products: John Rush dropped a mega breakdown of 36 AI coding tools & IDEs. (🔗 Explore the Full AI Coding Stack)