It started with a text.
This spring I was studying for the MCAT and drowning. YouTube videos, flashcards, subscriptions I couldn’t afford for question banks I’d just memorize without getting the concept. Same cards, same grind, same bills… My brain was slowly turning into oatmeal.
Being an OR nurse for 8 years I hadn’t seen most of this material since before 2016. I didn’t have the time or the energy to grind through it the old way. I felt anxious just walking to my computer to start another set of questions, which was atypical because I’ve never struggled with tests in school, ever.
So I texted Cooper, a software dev: “Can we turn MCAT content into a game?”
He said yes and started building. He made the very first commit on 04/08 at 3:52 AM at our kitchen bar, me right next to him, after we spent hours scoping and generating art with ChatGPT. 63 mini-games were playable, albeit still in a multiple choice format. About two weeks after I asked, he set me up with my own Claude account and handed me the reins, both of us unaware of the life changing moment that was for me.
Day one at the wheel
04/19 was my first day. My first prompts set up the repo and installed a context tracker tool.
That same night I made my first real change to the Amino Acid Cafe. What started as a drag and drop into corner boxes became a conveyor belt of amino acids for me to sort. I’ve never been so proud.
In the beginning Cooper did about 90% of the work. A month later it had flipped. As of 10/01, MCAT Village has 887 commits from me and 30 from him. He built the boat. I just never got off it.
What it turned into
I’m an addict. My idea of a cozy afternoon is curled up on the couch with my pups and laptop, Claude Coding. From games, to websites, reel production and marketing, to data scraping and Tableau Vizzes, the possibilities seem limitless. I went from “Just a nurse” to “hold my beer” in under 6 months, giving my first Claude presentation on tips and tricks to making a simple bday video feel professionally done.
In the beginning, I’d describe a feeling, like “this should feel like a cozy village, not a test,” and Claude would build toward it with me. It asked good questions back. I learned to ask better, add rules, be specific, less emotion based, and ask Claude what it needed to complete the tasks I asked for. I was learning to be a prompt engineer and an AI game developer without even noticing.
MCAT Village opened to the public on 05/15 with a free biochemistry section, but I didn’t stop there. Soon came MCAT Village: Pocket, North Star (NCLEX), Nexus 360 Academy (Salesforce Data 360), Sinus Creek (EKG Rhythms), and Station Meridian (GRE), and more in the works. With each one, my prompts, rules, advisory counsel, and understanding of how to build it right the first time improved.
My crew today
Claude is my homebase and my main tool. Codex beta tests my games. ChatGPT helps me scope new ideas and make the art. And when we get stumped? Group chat. GPT, Claude, and me, tossing ideas back and forth until something clicks.
It opened my world to things I never knew I could do.
I came for fewer flashcards. I stayed because I love building things. Kids learn by playing… why did we ever stop?