nowfound

Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Boardzilla, a framework for making web-based board games

Show HN: Boardzilla, a framework for making web-based board games Tldr: We’ve made a framework for web-based board games. You can try out some games over at https://boardzilla.io, or you can take a look at https://docs.boardzilla.io to learn more about how to develop your own game. Source is available at https://github.com/boardzilla Hey y’all. My brother and I have made a framework for board games. During the pandemic we started to look at BGA but got discouraged by how old-fashioned the tools were and how cumbersome the development process was. We set out…

Boardzilla is a framework for building web-based board games using TypeScript and CSS. Developers can write client and server code together while the framework handles state management, persistence, and networking. The… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Boardzilla, a framework for making web-based board games launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    I'm making a platform for simple open source games you can play anywhere. Games are all just JavaScript classes and you can read the source of every game on the platform. I started working on initial "games" (mostly rendering tests) in 2018 and eventually built all of the platform stuff around it to make it easy to share games. There's also an in-browser editor available for you to make and publish games all from the browser. Would love some feedback on the games and studio features as well as the platform overall. All of the code is available at https://github.com/homegamesio

    Jul 2026 · homegames.io · its alternatives →

  2. 2IM

    Hi HN! I made many small web games in the past with Unity or Phaser. But this time I wanted to make something completely on my own. So I coded a basic game framework in plain JavaScript, and used it to make Almost Pong. This was a really fun project that taught me a lot about JavaScript, and I plan to make more minimalist games with this framework. Interesting fact: Almost Pong doesn't load any assets, all sprites and sounds are generated with code. Happy to answer questions, and please let me know if you have any feedback on the game. Thanks!

    2022 · lessmilk.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3IS
  4. 4

    Hello HN! We’re a small creative studio specializing in real-time 3D experiences. Netlify approached us to design and build an interactive experience to celebrate reaching 5 million developers. Inspired by the classic game Marble Madness, we created a gamified experience where users control a ball through playful, interactive levels. The goal was to blend marketing content with the look and feel of a game to engage users. The app is built with Three.js [1], using our custom render pipeline and shaders, and uses Rapier for physics simulation [2]. The 2D content is overlaid on the WebGL view…

    2024 · 5-million-devs.netlify.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5IB

    I've been working on an MMORPG that is now in alpha as a solo developer. Here are the major open source technologies that I use: Blender - 3D modeling software for creating the overall environment and every game object. I've gotten a lot of CC and Public Domain assets from https://poly.pizza GLTF - I export assets from blender to the GLTF asset format JSON - I write a JSON config for every game object that describes things like its name, its interactions, its collisions, etc. Node.js exporter - I iterate over the environment and every asset to create a scene hierarchy. I use…

    2024 · alpha.reconquer.online · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    🍃 Learn to code by making games in a JavaScript web-based game editor. - hackclub/sprig

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 79D
  8. 8MP

    I have been working on this game somewhat sparsely for the past three years or so. However, it is still in a very early stage, and there is a lot of work to do. One of my friends encouraged me to post about it here, since he felt people might find interesting how I don’t use any libraries for it. The game can be played on a browser by virtue of WebAssembly. There are native ports using either MiniFB or SDL2, but you have to build those yourself. I decided to write the game in C because I feel like it is a simple language that a lot of people can understand well enough, and I didn’t think I…

    2023 · zamfofex.neocities.org · its alternatives →

  9. 9WM
  10. 10AI
  11. 11NP

    This is a long-running personal project I've had to write an optimizing compiler from scratch. Everything was done by me, including the lexer/parser, SSA-based IR, high-performance data structures, and code generator. Originally I wasn't targeting the NES. It started as a scripting language, then it morphed into a C++ replacement, and then finally I turned it into what it is today. The large scope of the project and colorful history means it's still a little rough around the edges, but it's now working well enough to post.

    2023 · pubby.games · its alternatives →

  12. 12IM

    Hi, I've been developing an HTML5 MMORPG game where people can submit code to play a game, like collect items, destroy defense towers or kill monsters, etc.. I've been working on this for over 1.5 yrs (all my spare time) and now it's ready for preview, does anyone want to try it out? It's mostly opensource (and the rest will be opensource sooner or later) Please access it with PC, it's an HTML5 game: https://bytelegend.com/ I really want it to expand to more languages, but right now I've only finished Java part. I wonder if anyone can help me with other languages. Besides, I'm…

    2022 · bytelegend.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    💰 A Javascript framework for creating idle games . Contribute to Flaque/merchant.js development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    I've been working on Athena Crisis for about two years, and full time for the past 9 months. The game is entirely built from scratch using React and CSS without a game engine. It runs anywhere, including the Steam Deck. You can even use a gamepad on the landing page to play! Previously the landing page had a video of the game but my goal was to always just put the actual game on the website. I merged the landing page into the game's monorepo, added the game's React components, and boom – the video was replaced with a playable version of Athena Crisis. Of course, the real game has tons more…

    2024 · athenacrisis.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15IM

    I've posted this game here before, hopefully a repost is fine as the game has changed quite a bit (improved AI, improved mapeditor, much quicker gameplay, etc). Game is based on JavaScript/Canvas and WebSockets. On the browser side the map is pre-rendered (as a background image), just the mobile units/buildings and animations are dynamically rendered. The lobby server is made in node.js, but the game server is C++ for performance reasons (mainly the pathfinding). I found the C++ WebSocket libraries out there to be too difficult to use so I made my own based on the rfc. Overall I…

    2022 · battle-of-flags.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16MA

    hi all, I've always wanted to make my own game, but couldn't afford a thousand-dollar adobe (flash+photoshop) license. I'm not a talented programmer, have no degree in CS. But I understand some elements of design. So I got me a copy of ImpactJS, and after about 5 months of steep learning curve (at least for me), I managed to come up with a game. I also integrated it with a highscore and badge system, similar to what you get at Kongregate. You need to login with Google/OpenID to earn badges/scores. link is: http://www.hotbazooka.com/privatejoe hope to hear some feedback/questions from you guys!

    2011 · hotbazooka.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17UG

    Hi all, I'm currently working on my hobby project, and one of the fun constraints I put in was to build using as less dependencies as possible. I chose Go as it has a really good standard library, and all went well for building backend. But for frontend, I was wondering whether I should break the constraint and go for React. I tried options like Web Components, but I really didn't like the ergonomics and I didn't want to use jQuery either. Out of curiosity, I was exploring Go's html/template package to see if I can write UIs in a React-like manner. I found most of the online docs using…

    2024 · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    With all the turmoil in the game engine world recently, I thought I'd quickly post to show progress on our game platform dotbigbang.com. It's a fully integrated game platform where the multiplayer game editor and games all run on the web. You can make multiplayer games and share them with just a link with no setup at all. Breakdown of major features here: https://twitter.com/bobbydigitales/status/152647067103481856... We have comprehensive docs at http://docs.dotbigbang.com and a cosy Discord server at https://dotbigbang.com/discord All…

    2023 · dotbigbang.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19EG

    I made an animation programming language that you can type into a textarea. I make little games with it. Now other people can customize the games I make with it. I've been working on canvas language for 15 years now. Not very successful, but editable gifs turned out okay. Since it's my passion, I keep trying, and my latest is editable games - I'm not officially calling it that though. I've had some interest in advergames and this would allow designers to easily customize games for their clients - the hidden objects game being the best example for this, and the only one made specifically for…

    2025 · playscl.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Hi HN, I wanted to share a web game I’ve been building in HTML, JavaScript, MySQL, and PHP called LINEX. It is primarily designed and optimized to be played in the mobile browser. The idea is simple: you have an 8x8 board where you must place pieces (Tetris-style and some custom shapes) to clear horizontal and vertical lines. Yes, someone might think this has already been done, but let me explain. You choose where to place the piece and how to rotate it. The core interaction consists of "drawing" the piece tap-by-tap on the grid, which provides a very satisfying tactile sense of control and…

    Feb 2026 · playlinex.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21MF
  22. 22

    Friendly web-based IDE for making HTML5 games

    2021 · phasereditor2d.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    An demo app for lattice-core. Contribute to jasonl99/card_game development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24AS

Also compare

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →