A solo dev built Nelly Jellies with Codex over about six months, a few hours a week. Six months ago 174 people played it. Last month more than 16,000 did — without a storefront push.
The strategy is a distribution funnel:
- Only the free browser version ever gets shared — click and play, no download, no account
- The native app carries the monetization: rewarded ads plus a Jelly Pro unlock with extra bonuses
- Browser players who enjoy it self-select into the app; the web build acts as the demo
- Growth comes from re-sharing the link as updates accumulate, not a one-time launch spike
The numbers, stated plainly in the comments:
- About $200 a month between ads and pro unlocks across native apps
- Revenue is “creeping up very slowly” — a hobby-scale income, not a windfall
The lesson: for a small AI-built game, distribution beats production. A zero-friction playable link converts attention into plays, and the paid layer lives where the friction returns — the app store. Modest money, but the funnel turns a casual build into something thousands of people actually find.