Launched this week
Constraint Engine
Beat creative block with one constraint and a timer
5 followers
Beat creative block with one constraint and a timer
5 followers
Constraint Engine gives you one creative rule and a timer — and won’t let you overthink it. Pick your craft. Get your constraint. Make the thing. Works across 10 crafts — Music, Writing, Filmmaking, Art, Photography, Cooking, Game Dev + more. Free tier: unlimited constraints forever. Pro: AI constraints by Claude, 10 genres, AI Chaos Chain. Built by a music producer who got tired of staring at blank projects.
Hey Product Hunt 👋
I’m Mark — music producer and the solo developer behind Constraint Engine.
The app started as a personal problem. I’d open my DAW, stare at a blank project for an hour, and close it having made nothing. Not because I lacked skill or ideas — but because infinite options produce infinite paralysis.
I started giving myself arbitrary rules. “Only 3 sounds.” “No kick drum.” “Finish in 20 minutes.” And something strange happened — those limitations consistently produced my best work. The constraint removed the decision fatigue and the timer removed the perfectionism. I just had to make something.
I built Constraint Engine to automate that process for any creative person across any craft.
What surprised me most was how universal the problem is. Music producers, writers, filmmakers, photographers, developers, chefs — every craft has a blank page and every creative person knows the feeling of sitting in front of it doing nothing. The constraint works the same way regardless of what you make.
A few things I’m proud of that didn’t make the description:
AI Chaos Chain — this is the one that gets people. Finish a music constraint, get a songwriting constraint that the Ai agent specifically designed to connect to what you just made. Finish that, show both in the share screen. People are finishing things in one session they’d been planning for months.
The share card — generates a 1080×1350 image optimised for Instagram Stories and TikTok with your constraint and craft. Every share is organic marketing for the app and it feels genuinely good to post.
The community feed — watching the feed fill up with things people actually made under constraints has been the most rewarding part of building this. Real work. Real constraints. Real proof.
The free tier is genuinely free — unlimited standard constraints forever. Pro is $4.99/month or $29.99/year for the Ai layer.
Would love to know which craft you’d try first and which constraint breaks your block. Drop it in the comments — I’ll be here all day.
🔗 Available now on the App Store for iPhone.