June 22, 2026
Puzzles, pride, and a diamond drag
Show HN: Got sick of ads, so I made my own logic puzzle site
A no-ad puzzle site wins cheers, copycat requests, and one brutally shady diamond rant
TLDR: A developer launched a puzzle site with no ads, free daily games, and one-time unlocks instead of subscriptions. Commenters loved the idea but quickly split into cheering, demanding LinkedIn-style clones, and roasting one puzzle so hard they accused it of being AI-made.
A puzzle fan rolled into Hacker News with a simple pitch: free daily brain games, no ads, no subscription, ever. The site offers Sudoku, Nonograms, Kakuro and more, with a one-time purchase to unlock full collections forever. In internet terms, that should have been an easy feel-good win. And at first, it was: one commenter called it "nice" and immediately started swapping favorite puzzle recommendations, even dropping Simon Tatham’s puzzle collection like a veteran book club member bringing receipts.
But this is the comments section, so the wholesome mood didn’t stay wholesome for long. The biggest question was the classic internet side-eye: how exactly does “no ads” stay no ads? One user pushed on the money issue, wondering how the site can stay clean and free if it uses accounts and isn’t fully self-contained. Another person skipped the business debate entirely and went full chaotic request mode: "Please copy the LinkedIn Games!" Because apparently every puzzle site now has to survive the “can you clone this other thing I’m obsessed with?” test.
Then came the funniest bit of drama: a commenter accused the Nonogram puzzles of looking AI-made, roasting a medium puzzle for being a boringly perfect diamond and the hard one for basically being “big diamond.” Ouch. Meanwhile, another builder popped in to say they made a similar site and plan to keep it free forever, turning the thread into a low-key puzzle-platform showdown. In other words: cute launch, immediate skepticism, surprise geometry scandal.
Key Points
- •The site is presented as an ad-free logic puzzle platform with a different featured game every day.
- •Users can play one puzzle at each difficulty in every puzzle type without creating an account.
- •A free account provides additional free puzzles and features such as saved progress, stats, achievements, leaderboards, and dark mode.
- •The platform includes puzzle types such as Sudoku, Killer Sudoku, Calcudoku, Kakuro, Ripple Effect, and Nonograms.
- •A one-time purchase unlocks the full catalog for an individual puzzle type permanently, with no subscription required.