Draw a fish
Creative
interactive drawing toy
SHOW HN2025
How HN took it
33 positive, 76 neutral or asking, 6 mixed, 37 critical, out of 152 comments about the project. Thread score +0.03.
Execution: 0 for, 22 againstIdea: 14 for, 0 againstPerformance: 0 for, 10 againstDesign: 2 for, 3 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
Fun, whimsical and wholesome
From 4 comments
This is the most wholesome thing I saw on the internet for a long time. Thanks for the effort!
productme on HNWhat a fun, whimsical idea. I love this. Also: When you release something like this to the public, I'm amazed at how quickly humans race to the bottom. That bit can be awful to…
danesparza on HNThis is too much fun! If anyone missed it, you can also rank the fish here: https://drawafish.com/rank.html
justusthane on HNomg best shit that happened in 2025 yet, well done
fHr on HN
Reminds people of museum fish-drawing exhibits
From 3 comments
I did this on a trip to Japan but can't remember for the life of me where. Some museum. My wife and I drew fishes and then they were uploaded and we went to a room and watched…
volkk on HNLocally we have the National Museum of Play. One of the exhibits right near the entrance is a virtual aquarium where you can color in a picture of a fish. Then you take it to a…
michaelmior on HNThere’s a museum in Tokyo that has this but for physically drawn fish and is then projected on a large wall. Cool to see a digital version
rl_for_energy on HN
Objections
Bugs: fish not appearing, model not loaded errors
From 4 comments
I keep getting this error on both Safari and Firefox: Uncaught (in promise) Error: Fish model not loaded verifyFishDoodle https://drawafish.com/src/js/app.js:514 <anonymous>…
sometimes_all on HNFun, but really frustrating to spend a ton of time making a detailed fish, get a fish probability of 67.2%, submit it successfully with no note about it needing moderation, and…
MikeHartman on HNDoes not work for me on desktop Firefox. When I press the "make it swim!" button, there's an error in console: "Uncaught (in promise) Error: Fish model not loaded"
veidelis on HNI waited for my fish. But it never came. Made me sad.
cancerboi on HN
Voting can be repeated and gamed
From 3 comments
The major problem is that I could up-vote and down-vote as many times as I want. It is rate-limited, however[1]. I know, because I wrote a script. :D Seems like someone else did,…
johnisgood on HNyou can also upvote your favorite however many times you want!
herval on HNyou can upvote your own fish as much as you want
parpfish on HN
Requests
Fix voting so it cannot be repeated
From 1 comment
The major problem is that I could up-vote and down-vote as many times as I want. It is rate-limited, however[1]. I know, because I wrote a script. :D Seems like someone else did,…
johnisgood on HN
Mobile support
From 2 comments
No mobile support?
Feathercrown on HNThere is mobile support... but it currently loads a 40mb model which doesn't work so great in a lot of places where you will use a phone. I meant to allow you to submit anyway,…
hallak on HN
Highlight the user's own fish
From 2 comments
I drew a fish but I couldn't find it anywhere when it switched to the tank. Perhaps you could highlight the user's own fish, at least initially? EDIT: Tried again and now I see…
pimlottc on HNVery fun. My only suggestion would be a small highlight when you submit your fish so you can easily see which fish is yours - at least for a few seconds.
dgrin91 on HN
Questions
How the vibe-coded app was built
From 1 comment
Would love to hear more info on how you actually vibe coded this as the fishbowl seems incredibly cool
hajrice on HN
Whether drawings are traced from images
From 2 comments
I could dedicate a month, or a year, and never come up with something like those. Are they really using the site tool, or is there a trick to draw them elsewhere and import them?…
davidcollantes on HN``` const input = document.createElement("input"); document.body.append(input); input.type = "file"; input.accept = "image/*"; input.onchange = e => { if (input.files &&…
creata on HN
Alternatives named
Museum fish-drawing exhibits such as teamLab Borderless
From 2 comments
This is the same thing I did when going to teamLab Borderless in Japan, very cool.
satvikpendem on HNReminds me of Team Lab Borderless in Tokyo, Japan
constantinum on HN
Paper Planes
From 1 comment
This is fantastic, the leaderboard is really nice! It reminds me of Paper Planes. https://paperplanes.world/
distalx on HN
Jian Yang's hotdog app from Silicon Valley
From 1 comment
Shocking no one has mentioned Jian Yang's hotdog app :) [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwCK95X6go&ab_channel=Felix Love the simplicity of this.
parsabg on HN