Alternatives
Products that do what Phive, a Gomoku-like game to play with friends or solo does
In 2025, my family and I had a long streak of playing a Gomoku / Go Bang / five-in-a-row based game called OK Play. I built a web version so that we could play any time we wanted (i.e. on our phones after kiddos went to sleep). The first player to get five-in-a-row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) wins. In the first phase of play, players take turns placing their pieces next to existing pieces (always edge-to-edge; you can't place a piece with only a corner-to-corner connection). After players exhaust their pieces, play moves into the movement phase: you pick up an…
- 1IG
I was at FB/Meta from late 2013 to early 2023, mostly working in the compiler/runtime spaces. I got hit in the spring 2023 layoff wave. I immediately started making games in my newfound free time (a lifelong interest, and I even worked in AA(A?) back ca. ~2000), and in October 2023 I stumbled upon the idea of a roguelike pachinko/plinko game inspired by Luck Be A Landlord. Things snowballed quickly, I started talking to publishers, then worked like crazy through all of 2024, almost the hardest I've ever worked in my career, and launched the game in December 2024. It's sold…
2025
- 2AM
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
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Voronoi Go▲155I posted once before but wanted to share again because a lot has changed. There's now a fairly strong bot to play against (contributed by a community member) and also correspondence games. The combination of these things helps a bit in finding people to play against.
10d ago · voronoigo.com
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Thought I would post in celebration of 1 year of my website being online. I've been working on it on and off and currently the website allows users to play Hex, Tumbleweed, Amazons, and Connect 6 against friends or against practice bots. I've been a long time player of some of these games and I felt for a long time that the world could use a few more popular abstract strategy games compared to Chess or Go. If you try it, let me know what you think. I'm always looking for new games or new features to add :)
Oct 2025 · abstractboardgames.com
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Hi HN, I built this digital version of Tiao, a two-player turn based strategy board game. Think Checkers meets Go. It's free, runs in the browser, has multiplayer, AI, over the board mode and a lot of other neat things. The source is on GitHub (AGPL). The game was originally designed by my friend Andreas Edmeier. He created the rules and has been playtesting and refining the game design for years. I built the website for it. The core in about 2 weeks using TypeScript, Next.js, Express, Websockets, and MongoDB. Fully dockerized, deployed on a Hetzner VPS with Coolify. Authentication with…
Apr 2026 · playtiao.com
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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
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Hey there! I just finished a youtube video explaining our donut chess in detail: https://youtu.be/iRcfHCPFgkM So I thought it'd be cool to show it off here too- it can be played around with at mchess.io/donut - you can also set up an AI or online game on the site. This is all indie dev work from a couple friends and myself.
Nov 2025 · mchess.io
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This is a game I wish I had as a kid learning programming. The concept of it is fairly similar to other coding games like Screeps, but instead of a complex world with intricate mechanics, Yare is a lot more minimal and approachable with quick 1v1 <3 min matches. It's purely a passion project with no monetization aspirations. And it's open source: https://github.com/riesvile/yare The first version 'launched' several years ago and I got some good feedback here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27365961 that I iterated on. The latest overhaul is a result…
Mar 2026 · yare.io
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Hi HN, I've built Skub, a sliding puzzle game for the browser, based on a classic boardgame: Ricochet Robots. It started as a challenge of trying to simplify the boardgame mechanics to fit on a mobile browser, which led to an 8x8 grid. Since, it has evolved to a bit more of an experimentation with Deno, and a way for me to truly try out AI-assisted development. Claude Code has been especially helpful in building the BFS solver and setting up CI, less so in UI and logic. I hope you enjoy it, all questions / feedback welcome.
Mar 2026 · skub.app
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We are working on this side side project since few weeks. Our goal is to design a fully email based game, with graphics and everything. The main concept is a battle between two sorcerers. It’s turn-based, and you send commands by replying to emails you receive. At the moment, you can move your sorcerer, and attack your opponent. New and exciting things are coming soon! To launch a game, you only need to send an email to [email protected] and a friend of yours. The game is fully open-source, including artworks. What are your thoughts? Game: http://cursend.us/ GitHub:…
2012
- 15RP
I've been having fun building out a really simple chess learning app for my daughter (7). It started with just "maze like" puzzles [1] and I've added a few more. This "radioactive pooping knights" idea came from an Irish primary school chess website [2]. Really simple idea, two knights moving around the board leaving poo behind... Don't be the one forced to step on it. * best played with sound on. [1]. https://minichessgames.com/#/movement/knight [2]. https://ficheall.ie/ *highly subjective, may not be better for you to play with sound at all ;) p.s.…
Dec 2025 · minichessgames.com
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Hello HN! I built Kurdle (https://japanesecomplete.com/kurdle.html), a Wordle variant that teaches Japanese kanji through English word patterns. Each day features a new kanji that replaces a vowel in a 5-letter English word. For example, the kanji 人 (meaning "person") might replace the "U" in "HUMAN", showing as "H人MAN". Players learn kanji meanings while solving familiar word puzzles. Features: - Daily puzzles using common kanji from the essential 777 list - Streak tracking to encourage regular practice - "Hacker mode" UI theme (toggle in top right) - Progressive learning -…
2024
- 20PM
A "marbles-based" puzzle game, feels a little bit like pool, and a little bit like breakout, but it has its own flavor. Three worlds of linear gameplay in single-player mode, with a total of 36 levels, which the player can solve either by a few quick trick shots, or with a patient step-by-step approach. Shared screen mode to play against a friend. Our first title, feedback appreciated. This is the "lite" version, completely free, no ads. The full version has 5 worlds and 200+ levels. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apsisware.pinchoomarbleslite
2014
- 21IB
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!)
2018
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Hey, it's been a long time in the making, but we're finally ready with our public BETA version of our Android application. We're anxiously (and nervously) awaiting your feedback, so please lay it on us. Our biggest fear is hearing nothing. The game is called Super Tic Tac Toe. It's a new take on the old, boring tic tac toe that more often than not ended in a cat's game. The game board is a large tic tac toe board with each square comprised of a smaller tic tac toe board. You and an opponent place your marks on the smaller boards, each move dictating where your opponent may move next (and…
2012
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