TinyCity
A tiny city SIM for MicroPython (Thumby micro console)
Details
- External ID
- 46632768
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- TinyCity
- Website domain
- github.com
- Launched
- Jan. 15, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 142
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.9367588932806324
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
Enrichment
- Theme
- systems tools and desktop utilities
- Vertical
- Media & entertainment
- Function
- Hardware & robotics
- Audience
- B2C
- AI stance
- Not AI
- Project type
- Hobby / open-source project
- Normalized one-liner
- city simulation game for micropython
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
Yes It is a retro 2D city simulation game written in MicroPython targeting the tiny Thumby microcontroller, achievable with basic game loop programming.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: MakeCode-compatible devices (Micro:bit, MaplePad), PicoVision (dual RP2040 with HDMI), PicoVGA Library, MicroCity (by jhhoward)
Concerns raised: Residential population tax calculation appears to double-count in simulation, Economy skewed toward residential/away from industrial-commercial impact, Budget feels inconsistent with total population, Difficulty tuning harder due to extra money injection masking balance issues, Unplayable on most devices due to 72×40 display constraint
Feature requests: Support for additional MakeCode-compatible devices beyond Thumby, Online/playable version of the game, Reduce code repetition for better MicroPython performance, Map generation improvements for next release
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 973 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #74 of 974 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 78 days after the earliest competitor.
- Otty · hn · 2026-06-17 · 16 upvotes · similarity 0.55
- Mu · hn · 2025-11-24 · 65 upvotes · similarity 0.53
- Yames · hn · 2026-05-04 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- tinycue · github · 2026-09-19 · 12 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- Jarvey · hn · 2026-03-07 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- Microcrad · hn · 2026-06-17 · 79 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- TinyOS · hn · 2026-04-03 · 102 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- TiGrIS, a tiling compiler that fits ML models onto embedded devices · hn · 2026-04-29 · 20 upvotes · similarity 0.50
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.
Same idea, different domain
Nobody's really built a hardware & robotics tool for Horizontal yet.