I built an RPG character generator for Ethereum wallets in 7 days — here's what happened when I launched

I had a simple idea: what if your Ethereum wallet was an RPG character?

Paste any ETH address, and in 10 seconds you get a full character card — class, stats, AI-generated lore, and a Combat Power score. No wallet connect, no signing, completely read-only.

Try it: https://ethrpg.app

### What it does

The app reads your on-chain transaction history and maps it to RPG mechanics:

- 8 classes based on behavior patterns (NFT collectors become Hunters, DEX traders become Rogues, diamond hands become Guardians, etc.)

- 7 stats calculated from real data using log-scale normalization (so both 10-tx wallets and 50,000-tx whales get meaningful scores)

- AI lore that references actual crypto events (The Merge becomes "The Great Convergence," DeFi Summer becomes "The Alchemy Renaissance")

- Shareable card image rendered server-side — optimized for social feeds

### The 7-day build

| Day | What I built |

|-----|-------------|

| 1-2 | Blockchain data pipeline + transaction classifier + stat formulas |

| 3 | AI lore generation (with 4-step fallback) + card image renderer |

| 4 | Frontend (landing, result page, share flow) |

| 5 | PvP battle system + global ranking |

| 6 | Polish, error handling, deploy to Vercel |

| 7 | Launch day |

Solo dev. Tech stack: Next.js, TypeScript, Alchemy SDK (on-chain data), Claude API (lore), @vercel/og (image rendering), Vercel hosting.
### Launch results (honest numbers)

Day 1 stats:

- ~10 external visitors (not counting my own testing)

- 1-2 card generations from real users

- 1 user completed the full funnel (card -> battle -> ranking)

- 0 revenue (it's free)

Not exactly a rocketship. Here's why.

### What I learned about launching with zero audience

I prepared a "multi-channel simultaneous launch" across 6 platforms. Here's what actually happened:

| Channel | Result | Why |

|---------|--------|-----|

| Product Hunt | 6 upvotes, 0 comments | New maker account = low algorithmic visibility |

| Hacker News | Shadow banned | New account + low karma = auto-filtered |

| Farcaster | 0 engagement | No Power Badge = can't post in channels |

| Reddit | Couldn't post | Subreddit karma requirement not met |

| Twitter | 2 clicks | 0 followers, shouting into void |

| Dev.to | 14 views | Only channel with zero barrier. Worked as expected |

4 out of 6 channels were blocked on Day 0-1. Every major platform has invisible gatekeeping for new accounts.

### The actual lesson

The product works. Distribution doesn't.
The one HN user who saw my post before it got killed? They went through the entire funnel — generated a card, fought a battle, checked the ranking. The product delivered.

But I built first and tried to distribute after. Classic indie hacker mistake.

If I did it again:

1. Build platform presence 4+ weeks before launch (karma, followers, badges)

2. Seed through personal network first — DMs convert 10x better than cold platform posts

3. Dev.to and Indie Hackers for zero-barrier distribution — no gatekeeping, just post

4. Famous wallet tag posts on Twitter — tagging crypto influencers with their RPG card is the only organic reach hack that works with 0 followers

### What's next

- Building karma on HN and Reddit for a relaunch attempt next week

- Daily Twitter posts tagging crypto figures with their character cards

- Direct outreach to crypto/dev friends (should have started here)

- Considering open-sourcing the classification engine as a standalone library

### The fun part

I tested ~60 known wallets. Some results:

| Wallet | Class | Power | Notes |

|--------|-------|-------|-------|

| vitalik.eth | Hunter | 62,045 | Ethereum founder — hunts relics |

| stani.eth | Priest | 62,005 | Aave founder — channels sacred mana |

| pranksy.eth | Hunter | 70,140 | NFT legend — highest power yet |

All 8 classes appeared in the wild. The rarest? Summoner — heavy bridge users are a tiny minority.

---

Would love to hear:

- Has anyone else launched to crickets on Day 1? What changed?

- If you've gamified raw data before, how did you approach the scoring/classification?

https://ethrpg.app — paste any ETH address, see what hero you are.