The Pizza Labs Origin Story
“Vibe coding” is a silly term, but as a slightly-underpowered engineer with a real background in design and product, the appeal is real.
So I built a few web apps and utilities. Cool.
I started to wonder: Could I build an iOS app?
Pizza Pong: The First Experiment (December 2024)
To best prove whether AI-assisted development (“vibe coding”) could produce native iOS apps, I needed to remove as many variables as possible. The product itself had to be completely known—no product risk, no design decisions, just pure execution.
Enter: Pong. But with a pizza emoji as the ball.
It worked. Turns out you can vibe code in Swift. The editor-xcode-terminal loop is a little clumsy, but it’s workable. More importantly, the game was fun. I showed it to my kids, and they started fighting over who got to play. Next feature: pvp. Now I’ve got a MacGuffin to make them spend time together, disguised as an iPhone game.
I sent it to some friends. “My kids can’t stop begging to play Pizza Pong.”
Pizzaroids: Discovering the Fun (January 2025)
The classic arcade theme seemed like a natural follow-up. The Asteroids ship is a triangle (🔺), and pizza is a triangle (🍕). This wasn’t coincidence—this was DESTINY.
The original controls are simple: buttons to rotate, tap to fire, tap to thrust. Thats when I remembered that Asteroids kinda sucks. Steering in Asteroids is hard. I wanted to give players a reason to navigate the asteroid field. So: power-ups. Now, organically, we’re starting to iterate on product and game design. Cool.
With two games under my belt, I guess I better figure out this whole App Store thing. I slapped a $2.99 price tag on Pizza Pong and put Pizzaroids up for free. What kind of adoption would I get?
Answer: the free Pizzaroids is doing 10x the number of installs than Pizza Pong (but the sample size is tiny).
Pizzaroids v2.0.0 is shipping this week with ads and Game Center support.
Tic Tac Pizza: The Dare (January 2025)
Fan feedback: “So when are you going to make Pizza Tic-Tac-Toe?”
Challenge accepted. I just shipped Tic Tac Pizza—Ultimate Tic Tac Toe with 🍕 Pepperoni vs 🍄 Mushroom.
Learning goal: Different monetization strategies. This game lends itself to unlockable characters and AI opponents. Can in-game coins drive engagement without ads?
Pizza Ping: The Utility Pivot (January 2025)
Every Pizza Labs project is a dumb joke, but that doesn’t mean every Pizza Labs project has to be a game. I was having trouble getting quick network status reads at coffee shops with flaky WiFi. Hence: Pizza Ping.
A network latency monitor that shows your ping time with a pizza emoji (🍕🟢/🟡/🔴/🚫).
Learning goal: What does it look like to go wildly multi-platform?
- Mac App Store doesn’t allow WiFi network name access → Pizza Ping Lite
- Homebrew distribution → Full version with network name
- iOS → Widget + Lock Screen widget
- Apple Watch → Complication
Same app, four platforms. Pure utility.
The Games in Development
- Ms. Pizza-Man (next release)
- You Must Build A Pizza
- PizzaSmash
- Pizza Invaders
What Pizza Labs Really Is
This isn’t about making hit games. It’s about:
- Learning in public - Each game teaches something new about Swift, monetization, distribution, or multiplatform development
- Portfolio brand leverage - One brand (Pizza Labs), growing library of apps, increasing market surface area
- Constraint-driven creativity - Every project MUST feature pizza. This limitation generates ideas, not restricts them
- Absurdist art meets indie dev - The pizza emoji isn’t decoration—it’s the medium
The Manifesto
We’ve published four versions of our artist statement:
- Academic: “Ludological tradition meets contemporary symbolic systems”
- Pretentious: “Semiotic terrorism liberating games from their original signifiers”
- Sincere: “Minimal modification, maximum joy”
- Manifesto: “THE AGE OF PIZZA HAS BEGUN!”
Which version is real? All of them. None of them. Pick the one you want.
What’s Next
I’m exploring marketing strategies for Pizza Labs as a brand, not individual games. The hypothesis: can you build a cult following around absurdist food-emoji-based retro gaming?
Early data point: A friend’s kids won’t stop playing Pizzaroids. That’s one data point. Time to find more.
Have fun. Don’t overthink it. But also: overthink it exactly the right amount to appreciate the sublime absurdity of pizza-based gaming.
Pizza Labs is part of Discovery Works, a product development studio exploring human-computer interaction through playful experimentation. Find all our games at discovery.works/labs/pizza