Tools: I'm Solo-Devving an AI D&D Game — and Now I'm Building in Public

Why I Started Building This ## What's Been Fun ## Why I'm Building in Public Now ## Check It Out I've been quietly building The SoloQuest for a while now, and I think it's time to start talking about it. The SoloQuest is an AI-powered solo D&D 5e experience — basically a personal AI Dungeon Master that lets you create a character, pick a scenario, and play through a fully narrated adventure with real ability checks, combat mechanics, and death saves. No scheduling, no party coordination, just you and the dice. Like a lot of D&D fans, I love the game but struggle to get a group together consistently. I wanted something that captured the feel of sitting at a table — the narrative tension, the mechanical crunch, the "oh no I rolled a 3" moments — but that I could pick up anytime on any device. When I went to the web I found Old Greg's Tavern and thought this is so cool, but I wish I could change a few things. So I started building it myself. A few things have made this project genuinely enjoyable to work on: The AI side is endlessly interesting. Getting an AI to act as a competent DM — one that tracks state, enforces rules, creates compelling NPCs, and doesn't just hand you the win — is a fascinating problem. Every iteration teaches me something new about prompt design and how to keep narratives coherent over long sessions. Also its been great practice adding agents and different skills to my workflow. Character creation was a blast to design. There are 40+ archetypes spanning all the D&D 5e races and classes, each with unique backstories and flavor. Building out that system and seeing characters like a Tiefling Shadowbound Arcanist or a Halfling Quickstep Trickster come to life was incredibly rewarding. It actually works. There's something special about playing your own product and getting lost in it. I've caught myself doing "just one more turn" testing sessions that turned into actual adventures. Here's the honest part: solo development is isolating. You can grind away for months and nobody knows or cares. The momentum comes entirely from within, and some days that tank runs dry. I've decided to start posting about the process here because I think accountability and community are the missing pieces. I want to share the wins, the weird bugs, the design decisions, the things I've learned about AI, game design, and shipping a product as one person. If you're into any combination of D&D, AI, indie game dev, or just the solo dev grind, I'd love for you to follow along. You can try it at thesoloquest.com — your first 50 turns are free. I also have a Discord if you want to connect directly. More posts coming soon, hopefully. Next up I'll probably dig into some of the technical challenges of making AI follow D&D rules without going off the rails. 🎲 Follow me here on dev.to to keep up with the journey. And if you've got questions about the game or the stack, drop them in the comments — I'm an open book. Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to hide this comment? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse