A few years ago, I told my kids they were part of the On-Demand Generation. Most people call them Gen Alpha, but what really defines how they're growing up is the ability to watch, get, or experience almost anything instantly. They can binge any show on Netflix, spend their lawn mowing money on a Nintendo eShop game the minute they're paid, or have a new Lego set delivered by Amazon within hours.
One Saturday, I tried to explain Saturday morning cartoons. They didn't get it, so I put on an episode of my favorite show growing up, X-Men. As soon as it ended, they asked for the next one, and couldn't comprehend it when I said they'd have to wait until next Saturday.
Now the On-Demand Generation has hit an inflection point. Before, they could consume whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Now, AI will build whatever they want.
When Claude Fable came out, I let each of my kids design a game they wanted to play. I gave some light guidance on architecture and how to think about an MVP, and brought back my app company from 2010. All three boys built their own games, and they now spend more time playing their creations than anything they could buy.
- My oldest built a game around his love of fish and coral reefs.
- My middle son made a first-person shooter, which Fable easily ported to VR so he can play it on our Meta Quest.
- My youngest built a dragon battle arena, because you can never have enough dragons.
Yesterday, my oldest published Reef Bloom to the App Store. It started as a 2D web grid game, which he now calls "the classic version." With Fable, he rebuilt it in 3D and designed his own monetization plan. Check it out, and if you want to support a 13 year old game developer, an in-app purchase goes straight to him.
For anyone curious about token usage: on a heavy week, with all three kids vibe coding, we hit about 80–90% of my 20x Max plan.
The On-Demand Generation isn't just consuming on demand anymore. They're creating on demand.