Supervised Vibe Coding: Part One - Building a Severance-Inspired React Native Game

I’ve started building a React Native game inspired by the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) team from the show Severance. In the show, office workers circle numbers on a screen until some “feel scary.” It’s absurd, hypnotic, and unsettling, which makes it a perfect metaphor for hunting meaning inside monotony.

That energy slipped into how I code with AI.

I call it supervised vibe coding.

The Numbers Game

Instead of crafting the perfect prompt, I throw a long, messy description into an LLM and ride the chaos. The model spits out giant slabs of code that are almost right. It nails the skeleton but misses nuance: odd logic, bloated conditionals, missing pieces. Sometimes it even tries to edit node_modules like a toddler putting metal in the microwave.

But the skeleton is enough.

First attempt at the MDR interface — broken and not quite capturing the requirements, but a start.

Supervised vibe coding feels like Severance: scroll until something feels wrong, then refine. I look for code smells, overgrown files, and anything that will be miserable to maintain. I circle the scary parts, then cut, simplify, and reshape.

Momentum matters. I sometimes check in junk on purpose. The dopamine of “it compiles!” is real. I clean it later.

The Roo Extension Game-Changer

This experiment wouldn’t exist without the Roo VS Code extension. Roo understands my React Native project structure, handles cross-platform quirks, and makes surgical edits without breaking Metro bundler. It’s like pairing with a junior dev who actually gets React Native’s weirdness.

I’ve also contributed to Roo — here’s a PR that redesigns the message box UI for a cleaner flow. Improving the tool that powers your experiments feels deliciously recursive.

Setup Wins

In just under a day of supervised vibe coding with Roo, I:

• Set up the Android dev kit and Metro bundler
• Got React Native running with animations
• Redirected the AI when it veered off the rails
• Landed a prototype that actually feels like the start of a game

Clean MDR app icon with Lumon vibes.

By LinkedIn math, I now have 2+ years of React Native experience.

The Game Vision

An ASMR-flavored file refinement sim:

• Files = Levels: Enter any filename and it seeds a stage full of moving numbers.
• Cursor = Trackball energy: You slide your finger like a finicky trackball mouse. The fun lives in mastering speed and accuracy. Expect quirks that make precision spicy. This mechanic will get most of my iteration time.
• Progress = Quarters: Finish your file before the quarter ends or lose momentum.
• Rewards = Micro-celebrations: satisfying clicks, swooshes, tiny animations, maybe even a Waffle Party for top performers.

Cursor mechanics in action — numbers alive, refinement in progress.

Difficulty ramps with faster clusters and trickier formations. The core loop is slightly frustrating and very satisfying: refine until clean.

Why It Feels Good

Coding with AI mirrors the same loop:

1. AI dumps raw material.
2. I circle the scary numbers (code smells).
3. I refine until it feels human.

The AI is an overenthusiastic intern: huge output, limited taste. I’m the refiner. Half art, half janitorial. Weirdly fun.

// Before: AI-generated chaos
const handleNumberClick = (numberId, isSelected, metadata) => {
  if (isSelected && metadata?.type === 'scary' && !gameState.paused) {
    // TODO: handle edge cases
    updateScore(calculatePoints(numberId));
  }
}

// After: refined and readable
const refineNumber = (id) => {
  if (canRefine(id)) {
    addPoints(REFINEMENT_SCORE);
    markAsRefined(id);
  }
}

Why This Matters To Builders

• Fast 0-to-1: Use AI for breadth, then apply taste to carve depth.
• Human-in-the-loop: Keep the “taste gate” human so quality scales with your judgment, not token count.
• Leverage over labor: Spend energy on mechanics, UX, and feel — the parts machines don’t intuit yet.

Next Steps

• Polish the cursor feel until it’s tactile and a little addictive
• Layer richer sound design for full ASMR immersion
• Prototype a lightweight leaderboard, because numbers love comparison

The evolution continues — from broken first attempts to something that feels like Severance.

This is Part One. If you’ve wondered what it’s like to code with an AI as your chaotic intern, or what Severance would feel like as a mobile ASMR sim, stick around.

The numbers are getting scary, and I’m here for it.

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Want to try supervised vibe coding yourself? Start with a messy prompt, embrace the chaos, and remember: the skeleton is enough. Circle the scary parts later.