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Growth · alternatives · 2026

IB

24 alternatives to I built my dream puzzle game Shapeuku

It's like a mix between Picross (Nonograms) and Polyominoes. It's a minimalist puzzler which has no text, no tutorials (none required) and no ads set in a relaxing environment. App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/shapeuku-shape-puzzle-game/i... Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dtbgames.s... I have a bulk load of Android promo codes to give away, so if you'd like one let me know! (Sorry iOS users, I have no free codes left!)

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. I built my dream puzzle game Shapeuku launched in 2018; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1IM

    This is the first iteration of a short game I’m making that tries to interactively explain some of my favorite math questions / ideas. My goal is mostly to get the player curious and not necessarily to explain absolutely everything. There were a lot of fun technical parts to building this: - For implementation reasons, it’s much easier if the lines all have integer intersection points with each other. To do this, when a new line is added I “cheat” by rounding intersections to integers and then splitting the old lines at the intersection into new linds (with potentially different slopes)…

    2024 · rahulilango.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    A simple open source puzzle game.

    2016 · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    A minimalist game of lollipops and logic

    2016 · laytonhawkes.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    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 →

  5. 5
    Niaki▲69

    A New Kind of Puzzle made by a bioinformatician

    2015 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    A minimalist, physics puzzle game

    2015 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7
    Az▲70

    Relaxing word puzzle game for iOS

    2021 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8
    none*2▲87

    A mysterious game of riddles, episode2

    2015 · whatisnone.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    I've been playing with this for quite some time and I think it's finally ready for public consumption. All feedback welcome.

    2025 · madmonk13.github.io · its alternatives →

  10. 10
    Splice▲60

    An experimental and artistic puzzler

    2015 · cipherprime.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11SW

    Hello HN, I've created a new Sudoku app for iOS and Android that prioritizes simplicity and privacy. It's free to download and use, and I'd be grateful for any feedback or suggestions. Features: > 4 difficulty levels, accessible at any time > No personal data collection of any kind > Clean, minimalistic design that focuses on the game > Takes up significantly less space than other popular apps (by a factor of about 10x) > Minimal use of advertisements I was frustrated by how many of the popular Sudoku apps feel excessively over-engineered, consume a lot of storage space and some that even…

    2023 · its alternatives →

  12. 12
    Oquonie▲75

    A weird cool puzzle game experience!

    2014 · wiki.xxiivv.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13MN

    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 →

  14. 14

    An abstract gravitational puzzler

    2015 · 0rbitalis.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Very simple yet engaging puzzle game

    2016 · its alternatives →

  16. 16
    LVL▲63

    New minimalistic puzzle that blends 3D into 2D with a twist

    2016 · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    2048 for the number 11

    2015 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18MF
  19. 19LV

    Hello All, I'm currently working on a very simple video game that I'm planning to release on the Android Play Store. The purpose of the game is to complete a labyrinth before time runs out. There will be around 50 labyrinths. The link [1] below has a video of the game play. As you can see it is still very rough but I think that the game mechanics are pretty much all set. It has taken me a lot longer than expected (9 months so far) to complete this because I decided to go the crazy route and create everything from scratch. I even created a level editor so that it would be easier to create…

    2017 · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Hi HN, I recently got the AnkiMobile app for iOS for Mandarin. It was buggy and feature-lacking in my opinion, so I made a nice looking Anki-compatible alternative app, with more features. It uses a tuned FSRS5 algorithm and supports image occlusion out of the box. You can import your existing Anki decks into it or create a new one. Pretty quick to add cards with the image feature. I'm using it right now and will add more to it so let me know what you think. FYI, it has a one-off purchase of $14.99 to unlock it for lifetime (no taksies backsies) after a test period of seven days.

    Dec 2025 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    A game about 2D puzzles in 3D space

    2021 · peterlavigne.itch.io · its alternatives →

  22. 22IB

    Hi, I built Equatile, a logic-based puzzle game where you arrange number tiles on a grid to make every row and column equal their target values. It's built using Expo and is available for free on iOS, Android, and the Web. It's a game I've had in mind for almost 10 years now but never got to actually develop, until I came across Expo which made the process incredibly easy. I might open source the code on GitHub. I hope you enjoy playing it!

    2025 · equatile.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Hi HN! In the last couple of weeks I've been working on Cranki: Cranki = Crosswords + Anki. (It's a stupid name tbh, haha) I like doing crosswords in Spanish (to learn vocab) but none of the apps out there allowed me to use my own list of words that I come across. So I built one instead. It's entirely client-side. No server, no database, no accounts, etc. Your words and stats are stored in local storage. I built this for myself but let me know if you like it!

    Apr 2026 · cranki.app · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Hey everyone, built another tiny thing. This time for a wider audience BUT i think it might appeal more to those with kids. The idea was this: no matter how much effort you put in to reduce screen time for kids or yourselves, it inevitably happens which leads to eye strain. So I built a Look puzzle game that is designed for people to have to look around their actual surroundings in order to finish the puzzle. You take a picture of your surroundings, that picture becomes a puzzle and then you complete it while looking at what you just clicked. There is no reference photo on your screen to…

    Jan 2026 · lookpuzzle.com · its alternatives →

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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 →