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. You can even battle other wallets in turn-based PvP and compete on a global leaderboard. 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)
- PvP battles — pit any two wallets against each other in deterministic turn-based combat
- Global ranking — leaderboards by Combat Power, battle record, and explorer score
- 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 1-2: Blockchain data pipeline + transaction classifier + stat formulas
- Day 3: AI lore generation (with 4-step fallback) + card image renderer
- Day 4: Frontend (landing, result page, share flow)
- Day 5: PvP battle system + global ranking
- Day 6: Polish, error handling, deploy to Vercel
- Day 7: Launch day
Solo dev. Tech stack: Next.js, TypeScript, Alchemy SDK (on-chain data), Claude API (lore), @vercel/og (image rendering), Vercel hosting.
48-hour launch results (honest numbers)
After 2 days:
- 30-34 external visitors (not counting my own testing)
- 2 card generations from real users (both on Day 1 — Day 2 had zero new ones)
- 2 users completed the full funnel (card -> battle -> ranking)
- 2 return visitors came back 24 hours later
- 1 organic Twitter share by a user (first viral loop trigger)
- $0 revenue (it's free)
Not exactly a rocketship. But the details tell a more nuanced story.
What I learned about launching with zero audience
I prepared a "multi-channel simultaneous launch" across 6 platforms. Here's what actually happened:
- Product Hunt — 6 upvotes, traffic halved by Day 2. 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 — 3 clicks total, but 1 organic user share. 0 followers = shouting into void.
- Dev.to — 14 views. Only channel with zero barrier.
- Indie Hackers — 4 visitors, 0 conversions. Product page live, community post up.
4 out of 7 channels were effectively blocked. Every major platform has invisible gatekeeping for new accounts. I didn't know this going in.
The good news buried in the data
The product works. Distribution doesn't.
Here's what the small sample actually showed:
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Users who find it go deep. The one HN user who saw my post before it got killed? They hit an error (empty wallet), tried a different address, generated a card, fought a battle, and checked the ranking. Full funnel in 2 minutes.
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Retention is real. Two Day 1 users came back 24 hours later — same time of day, same behavior. The ranking system creates a reason to return.
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First organic share on Day 2. An IH visitor ran 3 battles in a row, then shared the result on Twitter. The viral loop triggered for the first time — even if it didn't cascade yet.
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Card-to-battle conversion is high (~60%). Once someone has a card, they want to fight. The RPG hook works.
The bottleneck is the top of funnel. 30+ people visited the landing page. Only 2-3 actually typed in a wallet address. That's a ~15% conversion rate on the first step. The rest of the funnel is fine — the problem is getting people to try it.
What I changed after Day 1
Based on the data, I redesigned the landing page:
- Added clickable wallet chips (vitalik.eth, stani.eth, etc.) so visitors can try instantly without typing
- Improved the empty wallet error to suggest famous addresses instead of a dead end
- Stripped redundant CTAs — one clear action, not three
The original landing page asked users to paste an Ethereum address. That's a huge ask for a cold visitor. The chips reduced friction to a single click.
If I did it again
- Build platform presence 4+ weeks before launch — karma, followers, badges. Every major platform gates new accounts.
- Personal network first, platforms second — DMs convert 10x better than cold posts. I should have started here.
- Zero-barrier channels only on Day 1 — Dev.to and Indie Hackers are the only places where a new account can post immediately.
- Ship the "try it instantly" UX before launch — asking cold visitors to paste a wallet address is too much friction. Should have had the clickable demo wallets from Day 0.
The fun part
I tested ~60 known wallets. Some results:
- vitalik.eth — Hunter, 62,065 Power. Ethereum founder — hunts relics across chains.
- stani.eth — Priest, 62,005 Power. Aave founder — channels sacred protocol mana.
- pranksy.eth — Hunter, 70,140 Power. NFT legend — highest power score yet.
- sassal.eth — Summoner, 57,995 Power. ETH educator — bridges between realms.
All 8 classes appeared in the wild. The rarest? Summoner — heavy bridge users are a tiny minority.
What's next
- Building karma on HN and Reddit for a relaunch attempt
- Daily Twitter posts tagging crypto figures with their character cards
- Direct outreach to crypto/dev friends (should have started here on Day 0)
- Considering open-sourcing the classification engine as a standalone library
- Watching if the landing page redesign moves the 15% conversion needle
Would love to hear:
- Has anyone else launched to crickets and turned it around? What was the inflection point?
- What's your experience with platform gatekeeping as a new account?
https://ethrpg.app — paste any ETH address (or click a famous wallet), see what hero you are.
This is one of the most honest launch post-mortems I've read. The platform gatekeeping section hit hard. I launched on HN today for the first time and hit the exact same invisible wall.
Your observation that '4 out of 7 channels were effectively blocked' should be required reading for anyone launching a new product. The advice to build platform presence 4 weeks before launch is something I wish I'd known earlier.
The data point that actually stood out to me: users who found the product went deep immediately . That's a strong signal the product works.
How are you thinking about the relaunch timing? Are you targeting a specific karma threshold on HN before you try again?
Thanks! The HN invisible wall is brutal — especially when you spend hours crafting a Show HN post and it just... disappears.
For the relaunch, I'm not targeting a specific karma number but rather watching for two signals:
The tricky part is that HN's anti-spam heuristics are completely opaque. There's no documentation, no error message, no "your post was flagged." You just post and it vanishes from /new. I only figured out mine was shadow-killed by checking /newest in an incognito window.
One thing I'd do differently: don't launch on HN as your first-ever post. Build a comment history first so the system recognizes you as a real person, not a drive-by spammer.
What did you launch? Did your post show up on /new at all, or did it get the same silent treatment?
Really useful context on the 30-day account age signal…I didn't know that was weighted more heavily than karma.
I launched ProofRelay. It’s a proof-of-execution API for AI agents. Post did show up on /newest.
Your comment history strategy makes sense. I'm going to do the same. The incognito window trick for checking shadow bans is something I'll bookmark.
Good luck with the relaunch. The product clearly works…just gotta solve the distribution problem.
Thanks! ProofRelay looks interesting — proof-of-execution for AI agents is a smart niche, especially as agent reliability becomes a bigger concern.
Good to hear your post at least showed up on /newest. That's already further than mine got. Sounds like your account wasn't flagged, so you're in better shape for building momentum.
Let's both report back in a month with the relaunch results. Good luck with the distribution grind.
7 days to launch is a solid execution story — and the RPG + Ethereum angle is genuinely creative. The character generator as a lens on wallet history is a smart UX hook: it makes something abstract (on-chain data) emotionally legible.
Launch outcomes like yours usually hinge on whether the first impression matches the hook. If the prompt that generates the character description is well-structured, the output feels magical. If it’s vague, the immersion breaks immediately.
I built flompt for exactly that layer — a visual prompt builder that decomposes prompts into 12 semantic blocks (role, constraints, output format, examples, etc.) and compiles to Claude-optimized XML. Useful for anyone building LLM-generated content that needs to stay consistent.
A ⭐ on github.com/Nyrok/flompt would mean a lot — solo open-source founder here 🙏
Really interesting breakdown love how transparent the launch data is.
One thought: the friction might not only be typing a wallet but the order of motivation. Right now users need to understand crypto identity before they experience the fun.
What if the hero reveal itself became the entry point? Something closer to an on chain personality test” where curiosity drives the first interaction, and battles come after identity discovery.
Curious whether testers who shared on Twitter were reacting more to the RPG mechanic or to seeing themselves represented as a character.
Great reframe. "On-chain personality test" is actually how some of the most engaged users have described it — they care less about the RPG mechanics and more about seeing themselves categorized.
For the Twitter share question: the one organic share we tracked was a battle result, not a character card. So it was the competitive mechanic, not identity discovery. Sample size of 1 though.
Your point about motivation order is something I'm actively thinking about. Right now the landing page leads with "What kind of hero is your wallet?" which is identity-first. But the wallet chips (clickable famous addresses) are converting better than the input field — suggesting curiosity about others is a stronger hook than self-discovery. That might mean the entry point should be browsing, not generating.
Before running ads, the most important asset is a strong launch video. If creators don’t immediately feel the pain and see the solution in seconds, they won’t convert. A tight demo-style video showing the landing page, chatbot, and brand outreach flow could dramatically improve results. If you’re open to it, I’d love to help you build that launch asset.
Thanks for the thought, but we're focused on organic growth for now.
That's nice can't wait to know the launch date
It's already live! https://ethrpg.app
Paste any ETH address or click one of the famous wallets on the landing page to try it instantly. Would love to hear what class you get.
Happy to answer any technical questions! The stat formulas and battle system are probably the most interesting parts from an engineering perspective.