Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to PlayWell – Polish, Essentiality, and Execution with Soren Johnson (Offworld Trading Company)
Soren Johnson on designing a non-combat competitive RTS
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. PlayWell – Polish, Essentiality, and Execution with Soren Johnson (Offworld Trading Company) launched in 2016; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 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 · its alternatives →
- 2AF
I've seen some interests in (simulation) video games here on HN so I thought I'd share a short version of our story. More than 6 years ago, me and my friend from university were playing around with an idea of making a game we always wanted to play. We worked on it on weekends but the progress was quite slow, especially due to so many dead ends and wasted effort. Eventually however, we solidified our direction and decided to take the risk to resign from our well paid SWE jobs and work on it full time. It took more than a year but yesterday we have finally released it on Steam:…
2022 · its alternatives →
- 36M
2013 · playadrift.com · its alternatives →
- 4OR
2014 · openra.res0l.net · its alternatives →
- 5IM
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 →
- 6
- 7WF
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8
Made Stardew Valley a huge success by himself. Here's how.
2016 · its alternatives →
- 9
- 10OA
2016 · overthrown.io · its alternatives →
- 11
- 12
Comparing video game development and PR to board games
2016 · its alternatives →
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
Reflections on an epic Kickstarter campaign for a tiny game
2016 · its alternatives →
- 17
w/ Riot Games Pres. Marc Merrill
2016 · its alternatives →
- 18G
2013 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
Interview with Pitchford at DICE 2016
2016 · its alternatives →
- 23
Ryan Hoover's fave book on The Twenty Minute VC
2015 · its alternatives →
- 24
Interviews and play testing with designers and publishers
2016 · its alternatives →
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- Boid alternatives
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 →