RakuDenZ · Orenda Cosmos · 0 → 1 MVP · from Oct 2025
One place to work, play and build communities.
Taking RakuDenZ from an idea to an MVP: built from scratch, web first, then the Android app.
Act 1 · The idea · Why nothing existing worked
Every app did one pillar well. None did all three.
These four were benchmarked on the board. Each one covers a piece of what young people do together online, and each one stops short.
- Discord builds communities, but it's hard to learn and nothing about it is playful. The need was for something gamified.
- Slack and Google Meet let people talk and work together, but collaboration stays flat: no shared place, none of the feeling of being somewhere together that virtual worlds give.
- Roblox has the world and the avatars, but it's a game, not a place to get anything done.
| Community | Workspace | Playground | Easy to start | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Discord | ||||
 Slack | ||||
 Google Meet | ||||
 Roblox | ||||
| RRakuDenZ MVP |
Act 2 · The journey · Research
I split the research by object, not by feature.
Each thing the product had to invent got its own track, and each track ran from use cases to scenarios to open questions to task flows. The questions were the useful part: they're the ones a feed normally answers for you.
Three questions the board left open
Answered in D1 · Arrival
Answered in D4 · D5
Answered in D4
Act 2 · The journey · The first model
The first sketch was a map, not a screen.
Before any UI, the product was drawn as geography. That settled the model every later screen sits on: you don't scroll RakuDenZ, you go somewhere in it.
- Home is the centre. Your den is where you land, every time.
- Communities are districts, grouped by interest (wellness, sport, dance), not by what's trending.
- Paths, not rankings. Nothing is served to you. You choose where to go.
Lo-fi on the same logic: splash, sign-up, avatar, interests, then the den
Act 2 · The journey · 18 Oct 2025
A product about places needed place words.
"User", "personal space" and "community" made every screen sound like a SaaS dashboard. We replaced them with one family of words, so the copy got shorter and the world stayed consistent.
- My Denz and Joined Denz split the directory into the spaces you run and the spaces you visit.
- Denizen is the default role every new member gets.
- New Community Den is how you start one.
The Denz directoryThe vocabulary doing the explaining: yours, and the ones you've joined.
Act 2 · The journey · Avatars
Describe people by personality, not by gender.
The avatar is the first thing a denizen chooses, so it sets the tone for everything after. The plan changed between the meeting notes and the final feature list.
3D avatars for the MVP: 5 options each for male and female.Meeting notes · 15 Oct
Avatar selection: up to 10 options. No tagging of gender.Final feature list
What shipped: each avatar has a name, a one-line description and traits like Fun loving, Active lifestyle, Outgoing, with outfits to switch. You pick who you'd like to be in the room, not which box you tick.
Act 2 · The journey · The look T1 Playground vs workspace
Two looks went head to head. The answer was half of each.
Both directions were built far enough to judge, each with its advantages and drawbacks written beside it on the board. Neither resolved T1 on its own.
Direction A
Clean spatial
For: translucent, floating panels. The 3D room is never blocked.
Against: low contrast. The room behind distracts from the task.
Direction B
Illustrated game
For: warm, loud, game-like. Solid panels are easy to read.
Against: open any menu and the room disappears.
Shipped
B's world, A's glass
Illustrated isometric rooms under dark, translucent panels. The world stays visible, the controls stay readable, and orange marks the one next step.
Act 3 · The decisions · The solution in one line
The den is the home screen. Everything else happens inside it.
Decision 1 · Arrival T2 Customisation vs time
Show the first-timer the room before the form.
A sign-up form, then a tutorial that explains the world in words.
The welcome screen is a furnished den. Sign in with email, Google or Discord, pick an avatar, and "Go to home". Every session ends in your den, which also answers the question of where you are when you log back in.
Trade-off: the very first screen carries heavy art. It's the one screen that has to sell the idea, so it earns the weight.
Decision 2 · Make it yours T2 Customisation vs time
Customisation in minutes: every object is a slot.
Max customisation with min time spent.Goal 05 · the brief
A free-placement editor: drag any furniture anywhere. Hours of fiddling, and plenty of broken rooms.
Rooms arrive furnished, and every object is a slot. Edit mode fades the room and marks each one with a +. Tap it, pick an app from the store that opens in place, done. Personal layout turns apps on or off.
Trade-off: you can't move the sofa. You can make it play your playlist.
Decision 3 · Presence T1 Playground vs workspace
Without a feed, you find out what's happening by looking.
Avatar to avatar: clicking on an avatar could show brief information about them in the form of an ID card.Meeting notes · 28 Oct 2025
An activity list or a notification stream: a feed under another name.
People are in the room. Name tags show where each person is standing. Tap one and their ID card opens over the world, with their links, their communities, and Add friend, Chat, Gift and Kick.
Trade-off: a quiet room looks quiet. Nothing fakes activity, so hosts have to invite people in (D7).
Decision 4 · Communities T3 Mine vs ours
A community is a den with a door, a limit and a headcount.
Maximum of 30 avatars will be visible for MVP. (needs discussion)Community feature list
A room can only render so many avatars before it stops reading as a room. Discord's model (unlimited members, a list of channels) doesn't survive being drawn.
The render limit became the membership rule: 30 per den. The header reads 29/30 · 4 online, and the about card shows creator, tags and widgets before you step in. Layouts grew from two presets on the board to three (Library, Funhouse, Office), picked before the name.
Trade-off: big clubs split across several dens, and what happens past 30 (a queue, priority members) was still an open question on the 28 Oct board.
Decision 5 · Rules for shared rooms T3 Mine vs ours
Same editor, different den: roles decide who can use it.
Assign roles: Admin (all), Moderator (kick / edit), Denizen.Community feature list · first plan
Three fixed tiers. Simple, until a MUN club or a gaming guild needs a job nobody planned for, which is exactly what goal 03's "safe space" asks hosts to handle.
A role is a checklist of widget access. President and Police come by default; hosts write their own (one club made a "Vice Dragon"). Every member is Edit access or View only, and new members start as Denizens.
Trade-off: more setup for a host who wants it. The defaults carry everyone else.
Decision 6 · Talk T1 Playground vs workspace
Conversation happens in the room, not in another tab.
A separate chat screen, like Discord or Slack. You leave the place to talk about it.
Channels open over the den with an online/offline roster beside them. DMs dock along the bottom as small windows, so the room stays in view. Calls are a Meet widget pinned to a meeting room. On a phone, chat takes the screen and the den stays one tap behind it.
Trade-off: long threads get less room on the web. Conversation in the room tends to be short anyway.
Decision 7 · Invites T3 Mine vs ours
With no feed to discover you, the invite is the front door.
Find Den: primarily by invite link. Listing of dens, search by names, filter by tags and interests.Community feature list
Visibility states for a den (open gate, closed gate, guest-list entry) and accepting or ignoring join requests.
The link comes first; search and requests back it up. Invites start in the den's own settings. The link lands on a page that says who invited you, to which den and how many people are inside, before any form. The Denz directory keeps a Requests inbox for people who find a den on their own.
Trade-off: growth depends on people inviting people. That's the point: every new denizen arrives with a friend already inside.
Act 4 · Where it landed · Outcome
From an idea to an MVP, and people moved in.
RakuDenZ opened early access as one place to work, play and build communities. People arrive through a friend's link, land in a room that's already theirs, and meet, talk and hang out in the same den.
The team seeded a few communities for the MVP (28 Oct) so early denizens had somewhere to go. I'd go further and design the first minute in an empty personal den before the editor: presence (D3) can't help when nobody's home yet.
The world kit it runs on
Deliberately left for later
- GuestbookLeave a note in someone's den
- Visitor logWho dropped by while you were away
- World mapJump between every den from one view
- QuestsNudges to explore features
- Past 30Queues and priority members for full dens
- Collab and task boardsWork widgets for office dens
Thanks for reading.Building a place people should want to live in? Let's talk.