TinyCity on HackerShow

Games

city builder simulation

SHOW HN2026

A tiny city SIM for MicroPython (Thumby micro console)

How HN reacted

TinyCity

Loved

Most comments that take a side are positive

7 positive, 2 neutral or mixed, 1 critical. Score +0.48

LikedSmall, cool project on tiny hardware

ObjectedSmall bug: residential population double counted for taxes, industrial ignored

Summaries made by AI from the thread.

Shown by inflam52 on Jan 15, 2026. Click the card to turn it over.

142points

26comments

#456of 4,366 in 2026

Top 11%of 2026 by points

How HN took it

LovedMost comments that take a side are positive

7 positive, 2 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 1 critical, out of 10 comments about the project. Thread score +0.48.

Idea: 1 for, 0 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against

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

Small, cool project on tiny hardware
From 5 comments
- I literally JUST bought a Thumby out of a vending machine this past weekend, so this post feels a bit serendipitous for me. Thanks for sharing, and I'll have to check this out!
  gaudystead on HN
- Looks super cool, nice job!
  coldcity_again on HN
- Really cool!
  hei-lima on HN
- Looks neat! Great job!
  tinfoilhatter on HN
- very cool!
  mcsolid on HN
Impressive how tiny the Thumby is
From 1 comment
- Congrats! Unplayable by most means but absolutely incredible how tiny it is so I love it.
  inflam52 on HN

Small bug: residential population double counted for taxes, industrial ignored
From 1 comment
- Small bug: the sim seems to double count residential population for taxes, industrial pop gets ignored. The duplicate logic seems to exist in UI but it's correct there. Also I…
  Tiberium on HN

Support other devices beyond Thumby
From 2 comments
- There are a number of MakeCode-compatible devices with and without Microbit https://arcade.makecode.com/arcade-devices bbcmicrobit/micropython:…
  westurner on HN
- This is for 72×40 display right now but I was also working on an interface layer to abstract Thumby specific functionality in order to play on potentially other platforms running…
  inflam52 on HN
Browser or online version
From 1 comment
- looks awesome! can't wait to try the online version :)
  bowlcutWiz on HN

Does it use the Arduboy OLED or the Thumby 72x40 display?
From 1 comment
- Is it using the 1.3-inch monochrome OLED display of the Arduboy or something smaller? (Guessing the 72 × 40 display of the Thumby?)
  JKCalhoun on HN

MicroCity by jhhoward, which inspired the mechanics
From 1 comment
- Yeah great catch. So I mentioned this in the README but much of the mechanics were heavily inspired by jhhoward's MicroCity. This is the same way he calculated taxes and I…
  inflam52 on HN