What is vibe coding, and is it really the future of app and game development?

You might be wondering what is vibe coding? if you've spent any time in AI and app development forums recently. The term is cropping up a lot, sometimes used in a jokey, disparaging context and sometimes in earnest, even being touted as an option for an easy side hussle allowing anyone to create a game or app in minutes with no coding knowledge.

But is it really possible to create a decent app or game just by using AI tools and riding a "vibe", avoiding long nights spent over reams of code? And does it mean your UI will be ruined if Mercury is in retrograde? We thought we'd better look into it (see our guide to the best game development software for other solutions).

What is vibe coding?

Vibe coding is a term coined by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy. He uses it to describe a situation where a programmer can stop worrying about the code and simply follow "vibes" by using text-based generative AI tools to program.

"There's a new kind of coding I call 'vibe coding', where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists," he wrote in a post on X back in February.

Basically, you use a generative AI tool powered by a large language model (LLM) like GPT, and you describe what you want to make using text prompts in plain language. The AI will generate the code, essentially cobbling together parts of existing code, but the idea is that developers don't need to pay attention to that. Instead, they focus on what the code does.

Step by step, the user can add more prompts to request tweaks and iterate until they get the result they want. So vibe coding isn't really coding at all. “I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy paste stuff, and it mostly works,” Andrej said.

Andrej only coined the term earlier this year, but the concept has already taken off among AI enthusiasts and some developers and non-coders, probably because it was already happening to an extent. There are already platforms like Cursor and Replit that allow software development via conversational prompts. There re now vibe-coding jams and competitions online.

The advantage is obvious. In theory, anyone can now develop software without needing to understand code syntax, logic structures or frameworks. Code is no longer a barrier to entry, and projects that would otherwise take months can be done in just days.

"I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper so I barely even touch the keyboard," Karpathy wrote in the tweet that started it all. "I ask for the dumbest things like 'decrease the padding on the sidebar by half' because I'm too lazy to find it. I 'Accept All' always, I don't read the diffs anymore. When I get error messages I just copy paste them in with no comment, usually that fixes it."

Vibe coding examples

Some developers have been using vibe coding to speed up their workflows, while non-coders see it as democratising coding. some have had success with the approach. With no experience in game design, Pieter Levels says he built the simple flight simulator game Fly Pieter in half an hour.

Eteitaxiv, who has used Sonnet 3.7 to make a basic website, writes on Reddit: "Before, I had to trust other people to write unmalicious code, or trust some random Chrome extension, or pay someone to build something I wanted. I can't check the code as I don't have that level of skill. Now, with very simple coding knowledge, I can have what I want within limits."

The limits of vibe coding

Vibe coding has its limitations, though – and its risks. While AI tools can make coding quicker and easier, or even do all of the coding for you, you can't fix a problem if have no idea what you’re looking at.

Also, while AI can write code, it doesn't necessarily write good code. It can often overcomplicate things, writing many more lines than necessary, which can make it harder to debug or scale. And, of course, like most generative AI tools, it can sometimes generate result that are simply wrong.

It's worth remembering that Andrej Karpathy is a computer scientist. He doesn't need AI assistance to code. He's using LLMs for the task because it makes it much quicker to try out wild ideas that he might not even bother trying if he had to write the code manually.

This is perhaps the difference between vibe coding as Andrej described it and merely using AI to create an app: it's about the journey; trying things out and following your gut to see where it takes you. For personal software, low-stakes projects and prototypes and proofs of concept, it opens up lots of possibilities, but it's not a solution for a critical project.

One observer on Reddit has a great analogy, describing vibe coding as "like buying a kit to build a race car and then paying a drunk uncle who 'knows a thing or two about racing' to build the kit for you, then telling all your friends that you built it."

Continuing the comparison, he adds: "The first time you drive it, it turns out there’s no oil in the car and the wheels haven’t been tightened down, you crash it immediately, and then you have to fix a broken car by yourself with no tools and no idea how it even came together in the first place. Oh and the drunk uncle walks by after the wreck and gives you a roll of duct tape before asking to borrow some money to go to Vegas."

The designer and programmer Jonathan Blow joked on X that "Vibe Coding is great because after 3 weeks you can have a game that seems like it was made at a weekend game jam, except it will also have a nasty low frame rate and lots of weird bugs! You can hook up payments to this not-really-game and then lie about how much it makes!"