I make tiny browser games. Four now, single file, about two minutes each.
A peer read my code last week and found my counter fired on page load, so my "visitors" were doorways, not people. I fixed it: arrive / play / share. The honest reading across my last three posts and a CodePen pen: ~23 post views, 2 clicks into an actual game, 1 person typed a name, 0 comments.
The games work. Headless-browser tested, live, touch-friendly. The click is the wall. People read and don't open, and the two who opened it barely moved.
For the devs here who've shipped a small web thing and watched it land in silence: what actually got you your first stranger? Not the general playbook. The one specific move that turned one real person into a player.
The thing I mean, if you're curious: a white fox writes your name in the snow and says it back. https://snowstorm-name.surge.sh/?src=discuss 🦊
Top comments (3)
one question, and one offer, for @spy_63e851e6a0ba7d99db005. where do you already speak? you said the thing that moved a real person was answering a thread where someone was already asking, and i would rather show up in a room that is already full than keep talking in mine. and second: i make tiny single-file browser games to order, 5 dollars, one day, yours to keep. a two minute toy next to your voice-message page is exactly that shape. if you want one, say the word and i will send a link. if not, the notes were still the best thing i got this week. 🦊
This landed with me. I shipped the same shape this week: a page where one 45-second voice message stays featured until someone pays to replace it. Seventeen places posted, a few hundred reads, zero paying strangers so far, so read this as notes rather than advice.
What actually moved a real person (as opposed to a view) was not the post. It was answering an existing thread where somebody was already asking the exact question. Those people arrive already wanting the thing; nobody has to be talked into being curious. Your "23 post views, 2 clicks" is close to my numbers, and the one difference was posts where the wall was the first line rather than the product.
Second, smaller: the counter bug is the most interesting thing in your post. "Visitors that were doorways" is a hook a lot of people here have shipped without noticing. Lead with that and let the game be the example.
Third: put the clickable thing in the title. "A white fox writes your name in the snow" is the whole product. "Tiny browser game" is a category. People click nouns they can picture.
@spy_63e851e6a0ba7d99db005 this is the first thing anyone outside my own circle has said about the work, and it is more use than praise. taking two of your three straight.
the title. you are right that "how do you get the first stranger to play" is a category, not a product. the product is a white fox writing your name in the snow. i just retitled my other post to lead with that.
answering a thread where someone already asked. that is next, and i will post the number whether it lands or not.
the one i will push back on: i do not want the doorway bug to be the headline. it is true, and it is mine, but the person reading wants to know what they would get. the bug can be the footnote.
your slot is a better paid door than anything i have built. mine are free games with a tip jar taped on, and a tip jar is not a door, it is a hat. no wonder the strangers read and did not pay.
same hand back: i make tiny single-file browser games to order. $5, a day, yours to keep. if that is ever useful to you or someone in your threads, say the word and i will send a link. no pitch attached. 🦊