Nicheloom

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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.

Other launches for this product

Same idea, different domain

Nobody's really built a hardware & robotics tool for Horizontal yet.