Tapatro

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  Main menu

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  Collectables

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  Typing test

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  Level select

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  Typing game

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  Result screen

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  Power-up shop

Inspiration

I always wanted to learn touch typing, to write on a keyboard with only moving fingers. I tried many online tools, but did not find them engaging enough. Playing Balatro which is very engaging I wondered if I could use some of its mechanics in a typing game.

Balatro Influence Level structure: Each round consists of 3 levels with the third being a boss level. Power-ups: The level score is influenced by collectable power-ups, with stacking effects, like Balatro's jokers.

What it does

Tapatro is a roguelike typing game where you try to beat a certain score each level by typing fast and accurately, but also adds a strategic element by using cards and combinations of cards to increase the score.

Features and functionality

Game The game consists of five rounds of sets of three levels with increasing difficulties. Each level has score requirements which are determined by accuracy and speed To beat later levels you also have to use the money you earn each level to purchase power-ups in the shop which appears at the end of each level.

Roguelike The game is a roguelike which means you only have one chance to beat a level if you fail to meet a level's requirement you will need to start from the beginning again.

Beating the Game If you manage to defeat the boss in the fifth round, you’ve officially beaten the game! Your final score will be saved and displayed on the main menu - giving you a new high score to chase in future runs.

Audio When you make a mistake you will get an audible cue and you can choose to keep on going or going back and correcting your mistake for higher accuracy. Audio volume can be set in settings.

Collection The power-ups have different rarities which you can find by going to the collection screen where you can view power-ups you have encountered and collected.

Local Storage The game uses local storage so you can close and come back to it at a later time.

Desktop and Mobile Support Tapatro is designed primarily for desktop keyboards. While the game does support mobile touchscreens, typing on virtual keyboards is generally slower - which may make it difficult to complete higher rounds or beat the game.

Typing Test There is also a typing test where you can compare your normal typing speed to touch typing which means typing without looking at keys as well as your touchscreen typing speed.

How I built it

Tapatro was built entirely using Bolt.new's conversational AI interface - design, logic, visuals, all generated and refined through back-and-forth in the chat.

Challenges I ran into

Most of the development went smoothly. One bug did slip through: all levels showed as completed after finishing just one. When the AI claimed to fix it, the bug persisted. Investigating the code myself, I realized the game never reset the level state from "success" or "fail" back to null. After explaining this, the AI resolved it correctly.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Building and shipping a fully playable, fun game with AI tools!

What I learned

The importance of making the code modular. As the game grew I noticed that the ai assistance was working longer and longer on files, being unsure if it was stuck. I then noticed it was rewriting files each time, so by making many smaller files it generated code and gave feedback faster. AI-assisted “vibecoding” is great for quickly creating, seeing results and not getting stuck on errors for too long, motivating you to finish projects.

What's next for Tapatro

Increase Engagement For having the game help people it needs to be a become a habit, which means increasing replayability. Some ideas include:

🐱Prettifying the Cat Art Bringing more personality to each power-up by refining the CSS cat mascots — with expressive eyes, unique shapes, and animations to match their abilities.

🎮Expanding Game Mechanics Introducing new power-ups, modifiers, and round types that add strategic depth and replayability.

🔊Enhancing Sound Design Replacing placeholder sounds with satisfying, responsive effects that reinforce gameplay and boost immersion.

🧠Smarter Sentence Generation Using AI or external APIs to generate more natural, varied sentence challenges, scaling complexity based on player skill.

☁️Supabase Backend Integration Adding cloud saving, personal stat tracking, global leaderboards, daily challenges, and future community features — making Tapatro more connected and competitive.

Built With

• bolt
• react