For the Kiroween Halloween hackathon, I set out to build something ambitious: an immersive, narrative-driven horror web experience where users "make a deal with the devil." The catch? I wanted it polished, production-ready, and atmospheric—not just a themed website, but a complete journey into the underworld.
The vision: A four-screen experience with custom animations, horror music, video transitions, and a cohesive dark aesthetic. The timeline: Days, not weeks.
🤖 Enter Kiro AI
Rather than spending hours on boilerplate and implementation details, I partnered with Kiro AI. My role: creative director and architect. Kiro's role: implementation partner and problem-solver.
The Development Flow
- Foundation (30 minutes)
Me: "Set up Vite + React + TypeScript with Tailwind CSS.
Custom theme: blood-red (#f97373), neon-green (#39ff14),
horror font (Cinzel), dark backgrounds."
Kiro: Generates complete project structure, configs, and theme
- Component Building (Iterative)
Me: "Create a landing page with graveyard background,
glitchy title, floating particles, and horror music."
Kiro: Builds LandingPage component with Framer Motion animations
Me: "Now add a 5-step form where the devil interrogates the user."
Kiro: Creates DealFlow with validation, transitions, and Enter key support
- The Magic Moment
The most impressive generation was the HellGateTransition component. I described wanting "stone doors that slide open with hell light behind them." Kiro generated:
Two animated doors with realistic textures
Layered visual effects (cracks, gradients, glows)
Particle system with randomized timing
Proper cleanup and state management
When I later pivoted to a video-based transition, Kiro completely refactored the component—adding loading states, skip functionality, and error handling—without breaking anything.
💡 Key Learnings
What Worked
Specific, Actionable Requests ❌ "Make it look cool" ✅ "Add a glitch effect with x-offset, skew, and opacity variations"
Iterative Refinement Build → Test → Refine → Repeat. Each conversation built on the previous work.
Trust the AI for Implementation I focused on what I wanted, Kiro handled how to build it.
The Results
Development Speed: 3-4x faster than solo coding Code Quality: Type-safe, well-structured, production-ready Learning: Discovered new patterns and techniques from Kiro's implementations
🎯 The Technical Stack
React 19 + TypeScript - Type-safe component architecture
Vite - Lightning-fast builds
Tailwind CSS v4 - Custom horror theme
Framer Motion - Smooth animations
Vercel - One-click deployment
🚀 Real-World Impact
The final application features:
Custom skull cursors (💀 → ☠️)
Multi-step form with validation
Video transitions with loading states
Countdown timer with localStorage persistence
Optimized assets (reduced 9.6MB video to 2.8MB)
Comprehensive documentation
Live Demo: death-dealer.vercel.app GitHub: github.com/yourusername/death-dealer
🎓 Lessons for AI-Assisted Development
Be the Architect
You define the vision, structure, and user experience. AI handles implementation.Iterate Quickly
Don't aim for perfection in one prompt. Build, test, refine.Learn from the Output
Kiro introduced me to patterns I hadn't considered (like centralized audio control).Focus on What Matters
Spend time on creative decisions, not boilerplate code.
🔮 The Future
AI-assisted development isn't about replacing developers—it's about amplifying creativity. With Kiro handling implementation details, I could focus on:
Crafting the perfect horror atmosphere
Designing smooth user flows
Optimizing performance
Creating comprehensive documentation
The result? A polished, production-ready application that would have taken weeks solo, built in days with AI partnership.
💭 Final Thoughts
Building Death Dealer taught me that the future of development is collaborative. Human creativity + AI implementation = faster, better results.
The question isn't "Can AI replace developers?" It's "How can developers leverage AI to build better experiences faster?"
For me, the answer is clear: Partner with AI, focus on creativity, and ship amazing products.
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