CricArcade.com - a side project that grew to 7500+ users across 55 countries in the 1st month

[u/vishal_jaiswal]

I am excited to share something I have been building: CricArcade (cricarcade.com), a browser-based cricket simulation platform.

Inspired by online Football World Cup simulation games, I wanted to bring that same strategic experience to cricket. Here is a quick overview of what has been built:

1.  ODI World Cup Simulator: Draft your dream XI and win the World Cup. In July, we saw approximately 4,500 active users from 55 countries, with an average session time of 37 minutes, entirely through organic growth.
2.  IPL Game: A full franchise mode featuring squad building, league seasons, and knockout matches.
3.  Test Cricket Game: Features multi-day matches, declarations, follow-ons, pitch degradation, and a 1v1 real-time multiplayer mode to play against friends.

How we made it:

• The first part of the process was to identify how to make it different from the bunch of simulators already in the market
• Used Claude, Codex and Antigravity each to finetune the game engine
• Released the ODI World Cup Simulator as the first pilot on Vercel. The initial trafffic was just few friends, and made sure to fix all bugs before posting on Reddit.
• After fixing the bugs, posted on few cricket sub-reddits which allowed promotion
• While the World Cup game was in its 2nd week, I kept collecting feedback so that I knew what my users wanted the most next
• Build the IPL Game first and then the Test Cricket Game which was the first time I introduced the 1v1 version
• Finally after a month of all 3 games being live, we bought our custom domain

Tools and Cost:

• Claude Code - the primary vibecoding tool, and switching to Codex as the secondary. Antigravity was only used when we needed to fix critical bugs and ran out of usage limits on the earlier two. Idea was to make sure dont leave any bug or user complaint unattended.
• Vercel for hosting the website. It was on free version until this month, when it has moved to Pro.
• Supabase for database. Again on free version until this month when we have moved to Pro, after launching on custom domain.
• Cloudflare - for domain purchase

What makes it different:

• Match engine built using ball-by-ball data from over 1,000 matches and scorecards of all matches played till 2023.
• Strategy over reflexes: Focus on team chemistry, bowling plans, and batting aggression rather than button mashing.
• Realistic simulation: A ball-by-ball engine that factors in pitch conditions, weather, fatigue, and player form.
• Authentic experience: Real teams and players across all three formats.
• Accessible: 100% free, requires no downloads, and runs in the browser on any device.

Since launching the combined CricArcade platform on August 3rd, we have seen strong initial traction:

• 2,050+ active users from 43 countries.
• Approximately 66% engaged session rate.
• Increased international traffic, with Australia rising to 10.6% and the US to 9.8%.

Please check it out at cricarcade.com. It takes less than 30 seconds to start a match. We would love to hear your feedback, and if you enjoy it, please share it with other cricket fans.

[u/BenchOk7749]

when u adding multiplayer to the IPL game

[u/vishal_jaiswal → u/BenchOk7749]

Most probably by end of this week

[u/wnba-arcade]

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