React library with five single-button pixel-art mini-games (runner, jellyfish, gravity, invaders, rhythm) for LLM and build wait times; zero runtime dependencies, SSR-safe.
Key Takeaways
Drop in with one prop: <WaitingArcade game="runner" autoStart />; keyboard, pointer, and touch all map to the same primary action.
All five games share a common framework: combo multiplier, near-miss bonus, screen shake, parallax background, three power-ups, and five achievements per game.
Zero runtime dependencies; monocolor 1-bit pixel art on a single canvas; SSR-safe; auto-pauses when the tab is hidden; tints via the color prop.
paused prop lets the parent stop the game on LLM response; persistHighScore and persistAchievements write to localStorage namespaced per game.
New games register as a typed GameModule in src/games/index.ts; shared utilities cover input bus, pixel drawing, screen-shake decay, and persistence; 151 unit tests span all five engines.
Hacker News Comment Review
Unanimous feedback: the Show HN launched without a GIF or hosted demo, so commenters had no way to see the games in action or try them before reading docs.
The only technical skepticism was conceptual rather than implementation-specific: one commenter questioned the premise as dopamine-chasing rather than a genuine UX improvement.
Notable Comments
@dataviz1000: gave a concrete fix-it workflow: Mac screen-record, ask a coding agent to trim and speed up the clip, upload via a GitHub issue, paste the URL into the README.
@internetguy: “we’ve reached another level of dopamine-hit chasing” – the sharpest framing of the skeptical read.
