Case study · 1minutecodes
From scan to code
in under a minute.
1minutecodes turns any shop counter into a digital code store. Customers scan a QR, pay at the till and get their code on their phone — the shop holds no stock and integrates nothing. We designed and built it for Playasia: the product, the web app and its landing page.
Built for a counter, not an app store.
- Client
- Playasia
- Our role
- Product design, web app and landing page
- Product
- 1minutecodes — live in beta
- Type
- Web app: storefronts, shop counter and customer checkout
- Stack
- Node.js, real-time updates, passkey sign-in
- Languages
- English, 한국어, 日本語, Español, 简体中文, हिन्दी, Deutsch
Digital game codes are an easy sale with an awkward back office. Buying codes in advance ties up cash, and wiring a supplier's API into a shop's till is more project than most shops want. 1minutecodes removes both: a shop lists games from the Playasia catalogue, and each code is bought from the shop's own Playasia wallet only once the customer has paid.
At the counter it works like this. The shop shows a product's QR code — on a screen or printed on the shelf. The customer scans it, sees the price on their own phone and pays at the till, however the shop already takes payment. The cashier marks the order paid with one tap, and the code unlocks on the customer's phone, ready to redeem before they leave.
Why a web app and not a native one? Nobody standing at a counter will install an app to buy one code. So everything on the customer's side runs in the phone's browser — no app, no account — and they can reopen their codes later from their order history. The shop's counter runs in the browser too, on the phone behind the till.
Behind the counter it's a small multi-tenant platform. Shop owners sign up, brand their storefront, pick games from Playasia's live catalogue and set their own margins. Cashiers join by invite, with access to orders only. Every product gets a QR code for the shelf and a barcode for the shop's existing POS, and a sandbox lets a new shop rehearse the whole flow with test codes.
1minutecodes is live in beta at 1minutecodes.com, powered by Playasia. Visit 1minutecodes.com
The landing page
A landing page you can play with.
The product explains itself best in use, so the page lets visitors be the cashier: tap Mark paid on a live counter and watch the code land on the customer's phone. A margin calculator then answers the real question — can my counter make money with this? — with the visitor's own numbers, labelled as an illustration, not a forecast.
Highlights
What we engineered.
Passkey sign-in
Owners and cashiers sign in with a passkey — Face ID, Touch ID or a fingerprint. No passwords to phish or forget.
A live counter
New orders reach the till the instant they're placed, on any phone. One tap marks them paid.
Zero inventory
A code is sourced from Playasia only once the customer has paid at the counter, so the shop never holds stock.
Codes sealed at rest
Every code is encrypted before it's stored, and unlocks only on the customer's phone once they've paid.
Built for many stores
Run one brand across many outlets: each gets its own till and staff, with one shared catalogue.
Seven languages
English, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Hindi and German, in light and dark themes.
Want the technical detail? We'll walk you through the architecture on a call. Book a 20-min call
Have a web app
in mind?
Send a rough brief. You'll get a one-page proposal back with the scope, the timeline and one number.