One technical detail as an example: Pyramid's editor (one of the five games) uses a ~350KB precomputed dataset of valid frameworks — grids where a single vowel, dropped into every slot, produces valid English words across all rows. Building the dataset was the actual work (combinatorial search over a 60k-word dictionary with constraint checks) but I did that in one session. Runtime is trivial: pick a framework, pick a vowel, render. Works offline. Don't think I could spend the time on it before LLMs.
The other four:
- Fourbe — Connections-style, but the connections are spelled out in crossword-style clues across four rounds
- Spying Bee — Word find flipped on it's head where players must reveal letters before they can select
- Invertle — word guesser with higher/lower hints
- Totum — letter-tile spelling game with a 16-letter pool
Built solo, evenings and weekends. Vite + React + TypeScript, Supabase, Vercel. iOS app is a Capacitor wrapper. Daily puzzles are free.
Genuinely curious what HN thinks. What's confusing about the games? What would you build differently?
What are you storing in Supabase? I've also AI coded a couple of small word games but I explicitly stayed away from any back-end requirements so I could deploy easily to CloudFlare pages.