I’ve been working on a weird little passion project: Flourish & Decay, a board-/digital hybrid game inspired by slime-mold and Conway’s Game of Life. It's completely decentralized and 100% free to play.
What is it?: A tactical deck-builder where you play action cards / spend resources to place “cells” onto a game board; they live, die, or mutate based on local rules. Compete with other players to grow the largest over 100 generations!
Why I’m sharing: I want feedback from the HN community on:
- The game mechanics – are you able to effectively use Conway's Game of Life to gain a strategic advantage?
- Performance – the app uses instanced meshes and ~many other performance tricks; curious if it runs smoothly on your hardware.
- The computer engine - are computers sufficiently "smart" as to enable fun gameplay?
- General design/UX thoughts.
Try it: flourishanddecay.com (demo link) – works in browser, no install.
The project is open to iteration; rules, balance, and art are all evolving. Would love your thoughts on gameplay, tech stack (React 19 + R3F v9), or just whether the concept makes sense.
Built with React Three Fiber, DREI, NextJS, Trystero and GSAP.
Happy to answer any questions about the anti-entropy gossip networking layer (future online multiplayer), the art pipeline (GLTF-JSX, Draco, WebP), or an eventual physical version.
BONUS:
- Have an idea that would benefit from an Open Source, decentralized, p2p lobby / matchmaking? Hit me up. That is completely decoupled from my core game and I'm trying to carve out time to make it OS.
In regards to the computers (bots) gameplay, they are interesting early game but seem to fizzle out late game. Also, they never buy cards so it's more static in terms of how they interact with the game.
Hi HN,
I’ve been working on a weird little passion project: Flourish & Decay, a board-/digital hybrid game inspired by slime-mold and Conway’s Game of Life. It's completely decentralized and 100% free to play.
What is it?: A tactical deck-builder where you play action cards / spend resources to place “cells” onto a game board; they live, die, or mutate based on local rules. Compete with other players to grow the largest over 100 generations!
Why I’m sharing: I want feedback from the HN community on:
- The game mechanics – are you able to effectively use Conway's Game of Life to gain a strategic advantage?
- Performance – the app uses instanced meshes and ~many other performance tricks; curious if it runs smoothly on your hardware.
- The computer engine - are computers sufficiently "smart" as to enable fun gameplay?
- General design/UX thoughts.
Try it: flourishanddecay.com (demo link) – works in browser, no install.
The project is open to iteration; rules, balance, and art are all evolving. Would love your thoughts on gameplay, tech stack (React 19 + R3F v9), or just whether the concept makes sense.
Built with React Three Fiber, DREI, NextJS, Trystero and GSAP.
Happy to answer any questions about the anti-entropy gossip networking layer (future online multiplayer), the art pipeline (GLTF-JSX, Draco, WebP), or an eventual physical version.
BONUS:
- Have an idea that would benefit from an Open Source, decentralized, p2p lobby / matchmaking? Hit me up. That is completely decoupled from my core game and I'm trying to carve out time to make it OS.
Thanks for checking it out!
In regards to the computers (bots) gameplay, they are interesting early game but seem to fizzle out late game. Also, they never buy cards so it's more static in terms of how they interact with the game.