Tagda Fun: A Casual Mini-Game App for Android, Built Solo

• React Native
• Expo
• TypeScript
• React Navigation
• React Context
• AsyncStorage
• React Native Skia
• Reanimated
• Unity LevelPlay
• EAS Build

What it is

Tagda Fun is a free Android app with casual mini games in one place, leaning on desi favourites. Around the games sits a progression system: XP and levels, achievements, a daily challenge, a daily gift, and a shop where players spend in-game coins on skins, themes and power-ups.

It started in 2025 as a few simple party games and grew release by release into a full game app. I built it alone, from the first screen to the Play Store release. The app also has its own website, tagdafun.devmanushraky.com, with the games, screenshots, privacy policy and contact page.

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The games

Seven games are on the Play Store, and an eighth is built and coming next.

• Sher aur Bakri: the village strategy game on a lattice board. Play the computer on Easy or Hard, or a friend on the same phone.
• Patang Baazi: kite fighting. Fly your kite, cross strings with a rival and swipe fast to cut theirs. Every fifth level adds a boss kite.
• Bubble Shooter: aim with wall bounces, pop three or more of a colour, and drop what no longer hangs from the ceiling. Bombs and rainbow bubbles unlock from combos.
• Water Sorting: pour water between bottles until each holds one colour, with levels, hints and stars based on how close you get to the best possible number of moves.
• Memory Cards: match the pairs. Later levels hide bombs that reshuffle the cards.
• Tic-Tac-Toe: against the computer or a friend. The computer slips one time in four, so it can be beaten.
• Coin Toss: call heads or tails and watch a 3D coin flip.
• Coming next: Rassa Kashi, a dice tug of war against the computer or a friend.

Offline and private by design

There is no account and no backend. Games, progress and an optional nickname stay on the phone, and the games work without a connection. Only the ads need the network. The app asks for no Android permissions.

It collects no personal data of its own. The ads SDK may collect device information such as the advertising ID, and the privacy policy says so. Coins have no real-world value, nothing costs real money, and two-player games give no coins.

How it is built

• React Native with Expo and TypeScript, with bottom-tab navigation for Home, Coins, Shop and Profile.
• State with React Context and storage on the device with AsyncStorage. No Redux and no server.
• Skia for the action games. Patang Baazi and Bubble Shooter are drawn with React Native Skia at 30 FPS. The rules live in plain TypeScript, separate from the drawing, so I could tune a game without touching its screen.
• Ads through Unity LevelPlay, added with a custom Expo config plugin: banner, native and interstitial ads, plus optional video ads that players can choose to watch for bonus coins.
• EAS Build and Submit for Android release builds.

Problems I hit and fixed

Coins and XP were sometimes lost

Symptom

After a quick second action, such as two fast coin flips or an ad bonus arriving during a save, a player could end up with fewer coins or XP than they had earned.

Root cause

Each change started from the stats it had read earlier, so a slower save could overwrite a newer one.

Fix

Every change now starts from the latest stats and saves run one at a time in a queue. Double taps on the daily gift, the daily challenge and the shop can no longer pay or charge twice.

Players got stuck at the maximum level

Symptom

Players saw 'Max level' at 6,600 XP and could not progress.

Root cause

The level table had 11 entries, and the code stopped at the last one.

Fix

Levels now continue without a limit, and each level after 11 needs 300 XP more than the one before.

Saved coins could be edited by hand

Symptom

Anyone who edited the phone's stored data could change their coins, XP and shop items.

Root cause

They were saved as plain numbers.

Fix

Coins, XP and shop ownership are now saved with a signature. Bad numbers reset to 0, and a failed save or a broken history never stops a game from finishing.

Two games crashed in Expo Go

Symptom

Tic-Tac-Toe and Rassa Kashi crashed as soon as a game started, but only in Expo Go.

Root cause

Expo Go cannot run the native ads SDK, so the app uses a stand-in, and the stand-in was missing the interstitial ad class.

Fix

Added the missing class to the stand-in. Store builds were never affected.

Android production builds ran out of memory

Symptom

EAS production builds for Android failed.

Root cause

The build ran out of memory.

Fix

Raised the memory settings for the Gradle and EAS build.

Game design details

• A fair first roll. In Rassa Kashi, a simulation of 200,000 games showed that the side that rolls first wins 64% of the time, so letting one side always start would be unfair. The first roll now alternates from game to game.
• A computer you can beat. In Sher aur Bakri the computer looks one move ahead, often at random, on Easy, and three moves ahead on Hard. I tuned both by simulating a decent player against them.
• Hints that respect the player. A hint can cost a short video ad. The app first checks that a useful hint exists, so no ad is shown for nothing, and the game timer pauses while the ad plays.
• Honest rules for coins. I removed an early spin-the-wheel game, because coins have no real-world value, and a wheel that costs coins to win coins added nothing.
• History that stays small. Game history keeps the last 30 days, with at most 500 entries.

What I did

• Designed and built the app, the game rules and the computer opponents.
• Set up ads, the shop, saves and the progression system.
• Handled builds, the store listing, the privacy policy and the launch images.

Related work

More mobile work: CourtKonnect, an AI sports matchmaking app and Gaadi Vritant, a fleet management app. Both are React Native. See what I build for mobile.

Need a mobile app built?

If you have an app idea, I can take it from design to the Play Store, the way I did with Tagda Fun. Tell me about it on the contact page.