Bubbles

Games

browser game

SHOW HN2025

201points
75comments
#321of 3,837 in 2025
Top 9%of 2025 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

14 positive, 19 neutral or asking, 7 mixed, 20 critical, out of 60 comments about the project. Thread score -0.06.

Design: 4 for, 11 againstExecution: 4 for, 6 againstPerformance: 1 for, 3 againstIdea: 2 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Clean, readable, dependency-free source code

    From 4 comments
    • Really cool stuff, ehmorris. Your work harkens back to the early days of the web when bundlers and minifiers were the exception, rather than the rule. Work like this can really…
      simpaticoder on HN
    • Your source is nice and clean[1]. No dependencies is a wonderful goal. Status quo is inherently always against innovation. I like the approach the Go team took of rethinking new…
      90s_dev on HN
    • Beautiful JS code, happy to see this after people started to create DOOM using TypeScript types. Edit: yay, beat all levels after learning I can use slingshot multiple times
      owebmaster on HN
    • Your code is such a fresh air after being subject to a decade of bloat. Thanks.
      hakaneskici on HN
  • Fun, addictive gameplay once learned

    From 3 comments
  • Good sound design

    From 1 comment

Objections

  • Too hard and too fast early on

    From 4 comments
    • Slick as silk! But too fast too quickly. Gimme some easy endorphin in the first few levels before I start struggling.
      megadata on HN
    • Really well built, and I love the tutorial... BUT Jeepers, it starts off so hard compared to the tutorial. 1. I was not expecting bubbles to move (since they are all static in…
      stevage on HN
    • Way too hard for me to be enjoyable.
      herczegzsolt on HN
    • Way too fast to start with. Is it design for phones? Because on desktop it is moving way too fast
      tobyhinloopen on HN
  • Tutorial does not match the actual gameplay

    From 3 comments
    • Really well built, and I love the tutorial... BUT Jeepers, it starts off so hard compared to the tutorial. 1. I was not expecting bubbles to move (since they are all static in…
      stevage on HN
    • The tutorial has zero in common with the actual gameplay. Why would you do that? It's not a good onboarding experience. It just creates frustration.
      blinding-streak on HN
    • Nice. It took me a few times to realize that I could do bombs or slingshots by clicking in empty space. The tutorial makes it look like you have to click on a bubble. Maybe the…
      SamBam on HN
  • Poor touchpad and desktop controls, drag often fails

    From 3 comments
    • A touchpad seems to really cripple the gameplay -- one idea could be to ask what device players are using and make slight adjustments. For touchpads, moving the cursor is slower,…
      mjburgess on HN
    • Looks neat... can't drag the ball in linux chrome (dragging works for me elsewhere), maybe I'll try later on my phone.
      boutell on HN
    • > and the drag-pull mechanism doesnt really work Doesn't work for me at all on both Firefox and Chrome (latest versions for both) on MacOS using the touch pad. I can't get past…
      flanbiscuit on HN
  • Lives system frustrating; cannot replay a level

    From 3 comments
    • Cool! Feedback: the concept of “lives” spoils the fun for me; I’d like to retry a level without having to replay earlier ones.
      thih9 on HN
    • Having to restart over and over kills it for me. I’d much rather be able to repeat a level until I got it perfect then move on.
      latexr on HN
    • I want to be able to replay a level, don't force me into the next level.
      fyrn_ on HN
  • Input lag on mobile

    From 2 comments

Requests

  • Let players replay a level without restarting the game

    From 3 comments
    • One more kibitz, each level should give you the option to replay at the end so you can hone your skills, and only your best score should carry over.
      BizarroLand on HN
    • I want to be able to replay a level, don't force me into the next level.
      fyrn_ on HN
    • Having to restart over and over kills it for me. I’d much rather be able to repeat a level until I got it perfect then move on.
      latexr on HN
  • Add a way to return to the tutorial

    From 1 comment
    • Really well built, and I love the tutorial... BUT Jeepers, it starts off so hard compared to the tutorial. 1. I was not expecting bubbles to move (since they are all static in…
      stevage on HN
  • Add more levels

    From 1 comment
    • Also please add more levels and I’ll enjoy even more! I do think this could easily make some decent money as a mobile app.
      gjohnhazel on HN
  • Save progress per level

    From 1 comment
    • it would be nice if i could save my progress at every level so i could just keep working on one level at a time.
      jsherwani on HN
  • Make the tutorial show empty-space tapping

    From 1 comment
    • This. The 'black circle' in the tutorial is no good, maybe a dotted circle instead to make it clear you're supposed to be tapping empty space and not a black bubble.
      a1r on HN

Questions

  • How are the bubbles implemented?

    From 1 comment
    • so what are those bubbles? divs with a border-radius of 50% that transform X and Y with random values? how is this implemented?
      vivzkestrel on HN
  • What do par and bogey mean?

    From 1 comment
    • Really nice interactions. A bit too fast paced for my iPhone Mini, and I have no idea what this “par” and “bogey” stuff means (is it golf lingo?), but looks promising!
      ricardobeat on HN

Alternatives named

  • Lander, the author's earlier game

    From 1 comment
  • Flappy Bird

    From 1 comment
    • I was on mobile and it felt like by the time I saw what was happening I was already losing. Very little reaction time available. I thought maybe it would be easier on a desktop,…
      al_borland on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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