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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to An addictive phone game about phone addiction

I recently prototyped a web game for a nonprofit to highlight the dangers of phone addiction, but unfortunately I ended up making a really addictive game instead. :-\ I'm sharing this here mainly to serve as an indicator of what can be achieved early-2026 by a senior dev working with Opus 4.7 over 2 days using genuinely collaborative prompting. (ie plan->feedback->iterate) Hope it provides some inspiration or entertainment - there's a level editor too - maybe Hacker Newsers could share their favourite creations here? PS: If there's enough demand I'm happy to Open Source this (or DM me) -…

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    Hey everyone, I'm Fabio, a very long time lurker here. Today I want to celebrate and share with you, again, a game that I conceived more than 8 years ago. I shared it last week with all its history (if you're curious) [1], but it just stayed in the "shownew" and never reached the main "show" page, hopefully this time it'll do better (:crossed_fingers:)! What changed since last week? Today I've also published the mobile apps for both iOS and Android (last week it was just web), which are also my first mobile apps ever. So I believe it's still a worthwhile post and something to show :) I'd…

    2024 · fiftygame.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2TP

    hey all! just in time for the friends&family gatherings, friend and collaborator Nolen from eieio[0] and I just launched Talk Paper Scissors i.e. rock paper scissors over the telephone! with strangers! Nolen goes into a lot of technical detail on his blog[1] ... including how we had to implement a weird "ping pong" hack to make Twilio behave less unpredictably around weird telephony states. turns out that phone/web/API games are cool little hard async problems! we had to mutex stuff! feel free to ask questions/leave comments here -- and wishing everyone happy holidays!!…

    2023 · talkpaperscissors.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    How to be more in control of your digital habits

    2016 · traffic.libsyn.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4
    Splice▲60

    An experimental and artistic puzzler

    2015 · cipherprime.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Well HN, I've finally produced something I think is worthy of sharing, but I didn't do it "in a weekend". Yeah, it's an iOS puzzle game. And yeah, it's a game I built because I wanted to play it rather than based on market research, so all this sort of makes it the antithesis of a popular HN post. But whatever. Still hoping for some of that patented (har har) expert HN feedback. Critique any part of it except the music. Also, PM me for upgrade codes, or I can post some here if there's any interest. Download (it's free):…

    2012 · itunes.apple.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    Hi everyone! First time posting. I built this mini memory game in an attempt to beat lazy memory syndrome. because when was the last time you remembered what you did the day before purely based on memory (or without being prompted) ? Super simple fun game for giving our brains a quick workout and actually reminding it on how to remember. If you had those old Nokia phones from the early 90s, the game will seem insanely familiar to you

    2025 · shraddhabuiltitwithai.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7WM

    Hi Hacker News! My friend and I [1] would like to share with you something we did this week-end. We really like the idea of game jams like the Ludum Dare, and we’d like to participate, but it’s often complicated for us, as we are often limited by the rules inherent to this kind of competition: we have to be available at specific dates, and the rules doesn’t always work for us. For example: if you want to participate as a team in a Ludum Dare compo, you have 72h instead of 48h, and you are not required to publish your code. We realized that what we really like is: - To work together. - The…

    2014 · its alternatives →

  8. 8MN

    This is an idea I’ve been kicking around for a long time, and I decided to finally code it up. In the same way that Scrabble decomposes words into letters, what if there was a game that decomposed letters into sub-shapes? There’s a lot of directions this could go, and I’m still exploring the possibility space. Enjoy. Suggestions welcome. It doesn’t have a real name yet.

    2024 · shovemedia.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    Howdy, long time HN'er. Spent ~20 years in FAANG and startups, got the pink slip during a big layoff wave in spring 2023. That's ok, I was about to quit anyway :) Finally got back to a lifelong goal of mine, making an "indie" game. (Indie is subjective, but you get the drift.) So, here it is: Ballionaire, a "fast-paced pachinko roguelike where strategy meets physics to create outrageous wealth!" My influences were: Plinko(TM), Luck Be A Landlord, and Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. I was really fortunate because localthunk, the dev behind Balatro, noticed my game during its first month of…

    2024 · store.steampowered.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Hi! Please try my first game, thank you!

    2017 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11MB

    My brother is trying to rewamp his career into that of an independent game developer. This is his first attempt at an Android game. Any critique or advice for improvements are highly welcome!

    2011 · its alternatives →

  12. 12IC

    Stack: WASM + Rust + Macroquad I saw that a company had posted a cool job ad where you had to apply directly via a REST API. That gave me the idea to gamify my resume as well. Since I was bored, I vibe coded a bit and voilà, the result was ready. I think it's something new and fun that might put a smile on people's faces. (Please don't spam my email address, but feel free to send me an email with your high score if you want!)

    Feb 2026 · breezko.dev · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    Hi Everyone, I created a mobile app called Accumoo, and I would appreciate it if y'all can have a look, download and give me a favorable review. Lots of blood, sweat, tears and love went into this app, and I hope you LOVE it as much as I do - it's the app I always needed and wanted. Anyhow, I've been a Rails developer and Software Engineer for a long time, and this is my first stab at a mobile app. It's a "habit tracker" app on steroids that's just fun to use - syncs across devices, local-first architecture - and an easter egg game for good measure. Help a disabled vet out and give it a go.…

    Jan 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    I got the chance to create a whimsical game about their latest Adaptive Pricing feature, despite Stripe being a very serious financial company. I'm in an interesting place being able to be paid to make games for a non-gaming tech company.

    2024 · priceadapter.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15IB

    I had an idea for this concept for a while and decided to build a little website around it. It's kind of a silly idea but I'm really curious to see how it plays out. If you're a particularly curious person, be warned. By submitting a payment to the game, you get to see how many other people were curious enough to play. You will be ranked based on your payment amount, and get to discover some interesting insights about the game's dynamics. Hope you like it

    2024 · thecuriositygame.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Start Socialising

    2017 · kickstarter.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Addictive 2d casual game

    2017 · youtube.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18
    Twenty▲1

    Addictive tile-based number game

    2015 · twenty.frenchguys.net · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Fully leaned into vibe coding this time around. Started on v0, at some point ejected into running locally (getting v0's exported folder to run locally was a challenge), then iterated with Cursor over the course of a few hours. Really neat how much can be accomplished just conversationally these days.

    2025 · macrodata-refinement.arjit.me · its alternatives →

  20. 20IM

    Hey there HN, I took a page from Wordle's mechanisms and made this game for fun for some friends and I. Check out Wheredle and let me know what you think of it! ↙ ↗ ↘ https://wheredle.xyz

    2022 · wheredle.xyz · its alternatives →

  21. 21TA

    I created a small typing game. Would love to get some feedback on it. What can I improve? Are there any features you're missing? Are you having fun playing it? I certainly did have fun :)

    Jul 2026 · typocalypse.florianrudaj.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Addictive hexagonal word game

    2015 · hexiledgame.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    I built a website for games that catch my eye or have something interesting going on. I made it for fun but then updating became a habit. Maybe you'll find your next "must-play" game here? GitHub repo: https://github.com/RaycatWhoDat/games-list

    Nov 2025 · alistof.games · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Hey HN! Halfway through moving to Canada and whilst my conversational French gets me by, I'm absolutely rubbish when someone rattles off phone numbers at full speed (quatre-vingt-dix-neuf anyone?). So I built a virtual pet that thrives on correctly answered number challenges. 20-second drills throughout the day: get them right and Lexie grows, get them wrong and it gets a bit sad (but never dies, this isn't the 90s). Speak, type, or tap your answers. Would love any feedback/bugreports. Or just rant about how the Belgians sensibly say "nonante-neuf" whilst we're stuck with…

    2025 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

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