The Story Behind Limaky: Building a Platform to Empower Digital Illustrators
Thu, August 2025 14:46:03
Limaky is my personal learning journey toward creating a platform dedicated to improving the livelihoods of digital illustrators and creative artists. To make this vision a reality, I decided to start small — by developing a mobile application that could be released on the Google Play Store. My mentor, who has experience creating wallpaper apps for ad revenue, inspired me to take the idea further by enabling artists to sell their work directly to users.
However, the road hasn’t been easy. One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is dealing with plagiarism. Unfortunately, two of my previous projects were suspended due to alleged copyright infringement. I want to make it clear that plagiarism has never been my intention. Coming from a programming background, I initially used available assets as placeholders while building the system, with the plan to replace them with original content later. My philosophy is to "build first, refine later"—a method that comes with its own risks, but one I’m willing to take to push my ideas forward.
The name Limaky itself is inspired by my love for the series Money Heist. I decided to use a city name as part of the brand, and chose Lima, the capital of Peru. The word also resonates with the number five in Indonesian (lima), which opens up creative possibilities for marketing gimmicks like "Top 5 Popular Anime" or "Five Best-Selling Artworks."
At this stage, the biggest hurdle is implementing a flexible payment system. I’ve integrated Google’s in-app purchase feature, but the pricing isn’t dynamic—it has to be set in the Play Console beforehand. To work around this limitation, I plan to adopt a system similar to mobile games like Mobile Legends or reading platforms that use virtual currency. In Limaky, the currency is called Piti, inspired by the Minangkabau word for money.
The journey of Limaky is far from over. It’s a constant process of trial and error, learning, and adaptation. This project is the foundation for bigger ideas I hope to bring to life in the future. If you’re curious to try it out, I’ve included the link below.