King Thirteen

Games

puzzle game

SHOW HN2024

269points
80comments
#262of 3,515 in 2024
Top 8%of 2024 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

22 positive, 24 neutral or asking, 8 mixed, 11 critical, out of 65 comments about the project. Thread score +0.27.

Design: 6 for, 4 againstIdea: 9 for, 0 againstDocs: 1 for, 7 againstPerformance: 1 for, 0 againstExecution: 1 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

  • Fun and addictive, a clever twist on 2048

    From 5 comments
    • This is just incredibly fun, congratulations! It reminds me of "Really Bad Chess" which I also love: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noodlecake.reallybadchess…
      mdaniel on HN
    • Loved the little twist on the mechanics of 2048, instead of just mindlessly pushing down-left-down-left most of the time, you actually had to think about the proper moves of the…
      theideaofcoffee on HN
    • Scored 9876 and won it on first run but i did use the undo button! :) I stumbled the first half a bit but got the hang of it in the end and after finishing it I think i had more…
      ebfe1 on HN
    • Great idea for a game and very playable. As others have said, it is much more interesting than 2048 due to the reduced repetition. It still seems beneficial to stack high value…
      sahmeepee on HN
    • I had so much fun finishing this. Much more interesting than other 2048 variants I've tried. I got a score of 9341.
      carlsverre on HN
  • Small size and efficient design

    From 1 comment
    • This is how sustainable software development should work. Not a 100 MB iPhone app or a 60 MB Android app. Or 600 MB as in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41459629
      usr1106 on HN

Objections

  • Rules and how to play are unclear or missing in the game

    From 5 comments
    • Looks very nice, but definitely needs some explanation, not everyone is familiar with 2048. Not that the website even mentions 2048 :P
      pimlottc on HN
    • I didn't see any rules/explanation of how to play Is that intentional or maybe I'm missing it on mobile?
      mrgoldenbrown on HN
    • I also don't see any on desktop, neither on the linked page nor ingame.
      kapep on HN
    • > How to play: > Join forces > Claim the throne > Revel in glory It's on the page before you start the game. I also cannot find any instructions once the game is started. It…
      nosioptar on HN
    • Yeah I am very confused. This isn't like 2048 at all. The pieces move individually? And why are there multiple different colors of knights? What is the king doing? How do I mute…
      aftbit on HN
  • Combo selection mechanic is confusing and causes misclicks

    From 2 comments
    • Very nice work, congrats! The combo UI just doesn't work for me. I didn't understand what was happening until reading the blog post, the game just felt broken since it was…
      jsnell on HN
    • Thanks for sharing! I'm seconding the "incredibly fun" comment, but I would keep the occasional big numbers. It probably took me an hour to finish the game and I wouldn't want to…
      cjpearson on HN
  • Colours are hard to distinguish, poor for colourblind players

    From 2 comments
    • As a colorblind person I didn’t know there was multiple colours until very late
      pyrolistical on HN
    • I'm not colourblind, but found the colours weren't useful at all (compared to 2048). They're just too similar and you need to rely on the numbers, which takes more thinking
      askvictor on HN
  • Random piece spawns make planning difficult

    From 1 comment
    • This is just incredibly fun, congratulations! It reminds me of "Really Bad Chess" which I also love: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noodlecake.reallybadchess…
      mdaniel on HN
  • King capturing pieces is surprising and unexplained

    From 2 comments
    • Dang that king is bloodthirsty. I played for a while and it ate all the best blocks I ever made (a 512). Can my high score be the best I was doing before I lost it all?
      conartist6 on HN
    • Great idea for a game and very playable. As others have said, it is much more interesting than 2048 due to the reduced repetition. It still seems beneficial to stack high value…
      sahmeepee on HN

Requests

  • Add a sound mute option

    From 1 comment
    • It would be nice to disable sound completely. When the board is almost full, it's difficult to know which pieces can move. Perhaps add some green shade to the ones that can move.
      gus_massa on HN
  • Highlight pieces that can move

    From 1 comment
    • It would be nice to disable sound completely. When the board is almost full, it's difficult to know which pieces can move. Perhaps add some green shade to the ones that can move.
      gus_massa on HN
  • Show score during play

    From 2 comments
    • Really nice little game! I instantly got addicted to it, but managed to "beat" it already on the second of two very long tries, so maybe a tad bit too easy? Some observations: -…
      rob74 on HN
    • Great idea for a game and very playable. As others have said, it is much more interesting than 2048 due to the reduced repetition. It still seems beneficial to stack high value…
      sahmeepee on HN
  • Credit Threes as an ancestor

    From 1 comment
    • Please consider crediting Threes, not 2048 as the "ancestor". The designers of threes have a well-written blog post on how they feel 2048 ripped them off. It's a good discussion…
      zac256 on HN
  • Standalone or mobile version

    From 1 comment
    • This is fantastic I hope you post again when you've made a standalone page and/or mobile versions, this game deserves lots of success :)
      tln on HN

Questions

  • Are new pieces random?

    From 1 comment
    • Fun game! Won on my first try and it felt a satisfying playthrough. Still don't fully understand the rules. Eg. Are new pieces random? Since the king can eat clutter does that…
      rkagerer on HN
  • Can the game be lost, and how does the king behave?

    From 2 comments
    • Fun game! Won on my first try and it felt a satisfying playthrough. Still don't fully understand the rules. Eg. Are new pieces random? Since the king can eat clutter does that…
      rkagerer on HN
    • I thought I'd lose if the king was trapped—like some sort of stalemate—so I played through the game with that in mind. It might make for a fun variant. I should add I didn't…
      listeria on HN

Alternatives named

  • 2048

    From 2 comments
    • Every version of 2048 I've played spawns 2s and 4s. 4s are more rare.
      teolandon on HN
    • It's just like the game 2048, except with chess pieces. There's a 'play' link at the top of the page.
      QuercusMax on HN
  • Threes

    From 1 comment
    • Please consider crediting Threes, not 2048 as the "ancestor". The designers of threes have a well-written blog post on how they feel 2048 ripped them off. It's a good discussion…
      zac256 on HN
  • Really Bad Chess

    From 1 comment
    • This is just incredibly fun, congratulations! It reminds me of "Really Bad Chess" which I also love: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noodlecake.reallybadchess…
      mdaniel 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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