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Dev tools · May 9, 2023

Card game where players write their own cards that get parsed into code

Wordbots is a long-running side project I've been working on on-and-off for the past ~7 years that I finally feel comfortable enough with to share with the HN community. It's an online tactical card game (inspired by games like Hearthstone and Magic: the Gathering), where players write their own cards in natural language, that gets parsed down to JavaScript. The English-to-JavaScript translation is handled by a semantic parser operating on a hand-crafted CCG grammar – kind of an “old-school” approach in this age of LLMs but one that performs quite well on the very constrained language of…

Card game where players write their own cards that get parsed into code launched on May 9, 2023 with 114 votes, #402 of 4,910 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 3 years on.

Visit app.wordbots.io ↗Alternativestop 8% of May 2023

In plain words

Wordbots is an online tactical card game where players write custom cards in natural language that are automatically translated into executable code. Inspired by games like Hearthstone and Magic: the Gathering, it uses a semantic parser with a hand-crafted grammar to convert English card descriptions to JavaScript. Players can create unique cards that produce unpredictable gameplay, with various formats available including balanced modes and draft options.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Wordbots is a customizable hex-based card game with a twist – you, the player, get to create the cards!

In the maker’s words, at launch

Wordbots is a long-running side project I've been working on on-and-off for the past ~7 years that I finally feel comfortable enough with to share with the HN community. It's an online tactical card game (inspired by games like Hearthstone and Magic: the Gathering), where players write their own cards in natural…

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