Trade Rush
I've always wanted to make a game. Stock trading is what I have a genuine passion for, so I combined both into a retro arcade-style game where players trade their way through random days in stock market history.
The Concept
Players are dropped into a random day in stock market history on the 15-minute timeframe. They don't know what day it is. They start with just the premarket data and have to read the chart to make trades. Go long, go short, or sit it out. The market plays forward and you trade as best you can.
At the end of the session, your performance hits the leaderboard. Best percentage gain wins. It's competitive, fast, and teaches real chart-reading skills through gameplay rather than tutorials.
Key Design Decisions
Custom Charts
Everything is built custom: the candlestick charts, volume bars, price lines. No third-party charting libraries. This gives full control over the visual feel and lets me create the dark, arcade-inspired aesthetic I wanted. The chart playback uses speed controls (0.5x to 10x) so players can fast-forward through slow periods or slow down when things get volatile.
Leverage Unlock UI
The leverage selection screen is a game design moment. The "5x FREE FOREVER" option with a checkmark, the locked 10x and 20x tiers with "Watch 1 Ad" / "Watch 2 Ads" unlock conditions, the purple glow on the card borders. The visual hierarchy guides the player: free option is prominent, locked options tease what's available, and the PLACE ORDER button anchors the bottom.
Visual Direction
The dark UI is intentional. It references both the retro arcade aesthetic and professional trading terminals. Green and red carry meaning everywhere in trading, so the color system is built around those associations. The LONG and SHORT buttons are large, bold, and tactile-feeling. When you're in the moment, the interaction needs to feel decisive and immediate. The overall feel is closer to a game than a finance app. The playback controls, the speed selector, the "END DAY" button. These are game mechanics wrapped in a trading interface. The design supports the gameplay, which is about quick decision-making and learning through doing rather than reading.
Designed in Figma, Built with AI
Designed in Figma and built entirely with Claude Code in native Swift. The custom chart rendering, historical data processing, and game logic were all developed through AI-assisted coding. Game state management, animation timing, and performance optimization for real-time chart rendering required a different kind of design-development dialogue than typical app work.