Musecat

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

  Poster (A3)

Inspiration

Musecat started with a simple goal: make it easier for rhythm gamers to find the right arcade, fast. What began as a tool for a niche community grew into a globally launched product with proven demand.

What it does

Musecat is a location-based search platform for rhythm game arcades. Users can find nearby arcades, filter by the specific machines they want to play, and quickly check venue details through a clean, mobile-friendly experience.

For more details check out Key Features

How we built it

We built Musecat around precise search, machine-level filtering, and community-powered updates. The product is designed to stay practical in the real world, where arcade information changes often and accuracy matters.

Challenges we ran into

Going global was harder than expected, especially on a tight budget. We had to keep the service inexpensive to run while still designing for long-term maintainability. We also learned that rhythm game coverage and user expectations vary a lot by country, which required substantial research to adapt the product for different markets.

For more details check out Engineering Docs

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Since our global launch, Musecat has gained real traction and proven strong product-market fit. In Korea, the product has already achieved commercial success, and we’ve continued to scale internationally.

• 2,000+ registered arcades
• 9,500+ community edits
• 80,000+ average monthly views
• 15,000+ registered game machines

What we learned

We learned that product expectations vary widely by market, even for the same core use case. We also learned that using a service and contributing to it are very different behaviors: over the past three years, even with millions of visits, fewer than 10% of users became contributors.

Turning passive viewers into active contributors is much harder than expected, and it requires careful UX decisions, trust-building, and strong motivation design.

What's next for Musecat

Next, we want to improve global coverage, strengthen data freshness, and make the contribution flow even more seamless. Our goal is to become the default discovery tool for rhythm gamers worldwide.

Built With

• go
• nextjs
• pwa
• python