Vibe Coding Is Similar To F2P Success - Thibaud Zamora

I built & sold two game studios (the latter to Ubisoft), shipped 30+ F2P games reaching 100M+ players since the early 2000s.

The new “vibe coding” trend? It’s exactly how we succeeded in F2P gaming 20 years ago.

A thread on shipping fast, embracing imperfection & finding magic 🧵👇 1/10 In 2004, while everyone was in boxed game perfection, I went the opposite direction:

• Build MVP fast
• Ship immediately
• Iterate based on real player feedback

People called me crazy. “Games need polish!” Then we reached millions of players while others were still in development hell. 2/10 At my studios @Feerik and @1492studio , our mantra was simple:

A game sitting on your computer = $0 A “good enough” game with real players = opportunity

One of our games was built in just 3 weeks (some little game in just an afternoon)… Within months it had 2M DAU. Not vibe-coding, just fast coding! (

Perfect is the enemy of profitable: Ship fast, fail fast, insert a coin & try again 3/10 Today’s “vibe coding” feels familiar:

• Build fast
• Focus on core functionality
• Get real user feedback ASAP
• Iterate in public

The same principles that built the F2P revolution are now transforming indie development across all software. 4/10 Working with AI tools today reminds me of working with junior devs… and tbh, i was junior when i made my first games:

• They produce code fast but need supervision
• They require factoring & fixes
• They improve dramatically with guidance
• The speed advantage outweighs the cleanup costs

The right tradeoff is obvious. 5/10 The biggest myth in gaming: “If you build a great game, players will come” WRONG.

Success needs alchemy:

• A GOOD game (not perfect)
• Finding your audience
• Virality triggers
• Brand leverage
• Smart marketing

In game industry, we often heard $1indev=$1 in marketing…

We spent $1indev,$1000+ in marketing for our hits. 6/10 Our marketing approach was lean:

• Start with $100s in ads
• Track EVERYTHING
• Double down on what works
• Reinvest profits immediately
• Scale gradually

Our biggest months: 7 figures/m in marketing spending.

But we started small and let the data guide us. 7/10 I managed 90% of marketing myself. Why?

The numbers tell the story, but FEELING the market is something else. You need both the data AND the intuition for what resonates.

i automatized some decisions, make my own dashboard with all data i needed (i was the first European with access to FB API)

Some markets needed local experts with cultural intuition I couldn’t replicate… it’s the 10% 8/10 Parallels between F2P success and today’s indie makers:

• @levelsio @tibo_maker @marc_louvion building in public
• Shipping fast, minimal products
• Embracing “good enough”
• Building audiences before perfection
• Using personal brands as distribution

The playbook works everywhere. 9/10 CRITICAL LESSON: Don’t wait too long to sell your company!

With my first studio, we held on too long and missed peak valuation. With my second, we timed it right.

You often earn more from the exit than from years of operations. Don’t sleep on it!

10/10 20 years in F2P taught me:

• Most devs waste time on features nobody cares about
• Players forgive bugs in games they love
• Marketing > development (after a quality threshold)
• Speed beats perfection every time

Have questions about F2P or game building? AMA below!

11/10 (⇐ yes ship fast thread too even with small errors)

~ thibaudz