If you balance a full-time job with side projects, you know the struggle. My GitHub graph for 2025 tells a tale of two different developers.
The first half of the year? A ghost town of empty squares. The second half? Over 4,000 commits.
The difference wasn't that I found more time. It was that I finally stopped fighting the "grind" and started using AI to radically accelerate my build speed.
Breaking the "MVP Barrier"
Years ago, I attempted to build a browser MMORPG. I burned out on the sheer volume of boilerplate code before I even reached the core gameplay. That is the "MVP Trap"—the setup kills the motivation.
With modern AI coding tools, that friction has evaporated. I realized I could now bridge the gap between "idea" and "deployed prototype" in days rather than months.
This momentum gave me the confidence to:
- Architect a robust backend with Node.js and MongoDB.
- Configure my own VDS and Nginx server from scratch.
- Actually ship a production-ready product.
The Project: Next-Gen AI Companions
I used this newfound velocity to build a platform focused on AI Chatbots that feel alive.
I wasn't interested in another generic assistant wrapper. I wanted conversational partners with depth—whether friendly, romantic, or supportive. To achieve that "human" spark, I engineered features beyond simple text generation:
- Long-Term Memory: The agents remember context and details from weeks ago, maintaining a continuous relationship.
- Visuals: The bots can send photographs to enrich the context.
- Embedded Gameplay: I didn't just stop at chat. I built 4 distinct mini-games where users can play with their AI companions.
- True Identity: Each bot has a deep backstory and specific personality traits, making them unique entities.
Why I Chose DeepSeek
The heart of the stack is the LLM. After benchmarking several models, I chose DeepSeek as the intelligence engine.
For my specific use case—roleplay, emotional nuance, and "human-like" responses—DeepSeek significantly outperformed the competition. (I’m writing a detailed technical benchmark comparing it against OpenAI and Gemini, so stay tuned for that!).
Looking Ahead
2025 was about learning to build fast. 2026 is about refining that process and pushing the quality even higher.
You can try the platform live here: rizae.com
What is the one AI tool you can't live without right now? Let me know below. 👇