TapToyPia
A short tap-to-explore settlement game on a new planet, built mostly with Codex; zoom out from the 2D map to a 3D globe.
Official site memalign.github.io, verified Nov 3, 2026. Linked from the developer's own blog post introducing the game and from the developer's Show HN post; hosted on the developer's own site.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- Play free — official siteBrowserReleasedFree
Runs in a desktop or mobile browser. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About TapToyPia
In TapToyPia you are an explorer sent on a one-way mission to a new planet, with the task of building a settlement that can become a new home for humanity. You tap your way across a grid map, clearing and working tiles, gathering resources such as wood and ore, following missions and discovering flora and fauna that help you, while a story log comments on your progress; zooming out turns the 2D map into an interactive view of the 3D planet. The developer, memalign, calls it a simple demake inspired by Pokémon Pokopia, aiming for that game's mood of restoring a world, combined with the build-up of clicker games such as Universal Paperclips; the setting, story and pixel art are the developer's own. It is meant to be finished in about 30 minutes. The developer says it was built with OpenAI's Codex for most of the project, possibly started in Gemini CLI. Free in the browser and installable as a progressive web app; the developer says they played it only on touch devices, and after one early player found the mouse controls awkward, the developer said the mouse and trackpad experience needed fixing. Part of the developer's Tap Toy series.
How it was built
VerifiedThe developer's blog post says the project began in either Gemini CLI or OpenAI's Codex (the developer cannot remember which came first) and ended up using Codex for most of it, after Gemini's free tier lost its pro models and was then shut down by Google; a quick prototype worked right away. The developer writes that, as usual with generative AI, the project grew more ambitious, the main example being the seamless zoom from the 2D map to an interactive 3D planet, which the developer says they would not have had time to build alone. Tests run both in the browser and with node on the command line so that the AI tools could run them. How much of the code was AI-written is not stated, and no model is named.
Possibly used at the very start: the blog post says the developer fired up Gemini CLI or Codex but cannot remember which came first, and moved to Codex because Gemini's free tier lost its pro models.
A browser game in plain JavaScript split into small modules (grid, camera, map projection, globe renderer, game state, UI), with a three.js renderer for the 3D planet view (observed in the page's files). The developer stresses unit-test coverage, runnable in the browser and with node, as the key to moving fast with AI tools. Assets are not AI-made by the developer's account: every image was drawn by hand in the developer's PCEImage Editor, the music is a royalty-free loop (Alien Forest by free-stock-music.com), sound effects use Frank Force's ZzFX library and Chequered Ink's 400 Sounds Pack. The developer says the game took several weeks' worth of nights.
- Engine / framework
- No engine (JavaScript; three.js for the 3D planet view)
- Languages
- JavaScript
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Initial build time
- Several weeks' worth of nights (developer's words)Developer ReportedHacker News (memalign)
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“Without genAI, I wouldn't have the time to figure out how to build this myself for a side project like this.”Verification notes: Tools, the Pokopia inspiration, the asset credits and the 30-minute length come from the developer's blog post dated 24 May 2026, repeated in the Show HN post the same day (08:17 UTC); the development time (several weeks' worth of nights) and the note that the game was played only on touch devices come from the developer's replies in that thread. The developer does not say how much of the code Codex wrote, so the game is listed as AI-assisted rather than vibe-coded. Gemini CLI is recorded as a possible secondary tool only because the developer names it as one of two possible starting points. Resource names, the story log and the three.js files were observed in the game's source files; no Pokémon names were found in them, though the page's search keywords include “pokopia”. A debug menu reachable through a URL parameter is a developer tool and is not listed as a feature. Team size and location are not stated. The game was not played through.
Development history
The developer releases the game with a blog post and posts it on Hacker News as a Show HN.
Game performance
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Browser (official site)
Free in the browser; can be added to the home screen as a progressive web app.
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: Concurrent players (site), Monthly revenue, Gross revenue.
Sales & revenue (all platforms)
Browser game — there are no downloads to count.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
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Not currently ranked.
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Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| TapToyPia memalign (memalign.github.io) | Devlog | May 24, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Show HN: TapToyPia Hacker News (memalign) | Social post | May 24, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| TapToyPia (game page and source files) memalign (memalign.github.io) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) memalign | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
