Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

Posted by david927 3/30/2025

What are you working on? Any new ideas that you're thinking about?

390 points | 997 commentspage 21

emehex 3/30/2025|

Dusting off the game I made during the pandemic and trying to actually grow the player base in earnest.

It's turn-based two-player game sorta like chess, but the pieces take up multiple spaces.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/kingbit/id1565583669

birdfood 3/30/2025||

I’m writing a journaling app, for myself first. It’s already usable and I’ve gone from not writing to writing each day.

The idea is the app should be very easy to submit entries (entries can be small) as a way to get thoughts and emotions out of your head.

I want to focus on an interesting search functionality that aggregates entires into a single document about similar subjects.

kelseyfrog 4/1/2025||

While reading AI Engineering[1], I was inspired to take a crack at an idea I've had for a while - diffusion-based LLM. The accessibility of shakespeare.txt[2] and the proliferation of tinyGPT implementations has made vibe-coding LLM research on the brink of possibility. It does help to have a familiarity in the datascience/ML/AI space in order to check and guide appropriately, but it's amazing how well the virtuous cycle is beginning to work.

1. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/ai-engineering/97810981...

2. https://gist.github.com/blakesanie/dde3a2b7e698f52f389532b4b...

phlipski 3/31/2025||

I'm building modular home audio speakers. Wireless, self-powered, upgradeable, repairable. Think Sonos meets the Framework laptop. Check out my prelaunch page here:

https://prelaunch.com/projects/audioblocs-audioblocs

gizmo 3/31/2025|

This seems cool, but I think many people have been burned by smart speakers of various types. If your system does Spotify and Pandora and such then it's going to have a phone app and then if the phone app enshittifies the entire investment in the 'ecosystem' goes to waste. Nobody wants to throw out their speakers because of software updates.

I think a better smart amplifier could be a good product -- and then people can bring their own speakers. Or you can make great wireless speakers and then people can bring their own amplifier. But the moment the speakers and amp become an 'integrated solution' I hear the e-waste bells toll in the distance.

People have been burned by sonos and don't expect their framework laptop to last more than a couple of years. Meanwhile my 25 year old dumb speakers are still going strong.

phlipski 3/31/2025||

I would respectfully disagree with your assertion regarding Framework laptops. Their entire business model is predicated on building computers that DO last more than a few years....

There are plenty of streaming audio amp solutions currently on the market - Wiim builds a nice one. But some of us don't want to run speaker wires through the walls for a home theater.

I've given a lot of thought to building a system that will work without a dedicated internet connection and this system won't require a central server to check-in to. I too have 25+ year old speakers that work just fine (Paradigm Titan's from 1998) and that's partly my inspiration. I wanted more sound from them but there's no way to upgrade traditional passive speakers. I don't want these speakers to be bricked if my company fails. They also don't need an app to work. The TV can control it through the eARC connection.

I appreciate your thoughts!

shepherdjerred 3/31/2025||

I've been polishing up an old project that allows people to play games on Discord, e.g. Pokemon, via text chat

I'd love to make this a free/break-even service at some point!

https://github.com/shepherdjerred/discord-plays-pokemon

Summerbud 3/31/2025||

I am working a SaaS document asset management services called Doccie

At the same time I am exploring the boundary of my ability to think deeper

Thus writing a monthly newsletter that will span for 10 years. Right now it has a open rate over 70%

https://connectingdotsessay.substack.com/

Here are the essays

## Eight Grade syndrome - why grand narrative vision is killing your startup

If you think crafting a grand narratives of your idea is the crucial first step of building a startup, this essay is for you.

## Explorer Mindset - In a world where algorithms decide what we see, how can we rediscover the joy of unexpected discoveries?

If you feel trapped in a narrow view point, surrounded by the veil, and lack of creation muse, this article is for you.

## Why I show up everyday. The peddle, podium, creators and us.

If you are interested in why I started this newsletter and what I learned from it so far, this essay is for you.

Any feedback is appreciated!

jzig 3/31/2025||

For anyone interested in the tabletop Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight Games / Edge Studio - a friend and I have been working on some small typescript libraries starting with dice rolling and monte carlo simulations that we can eventually use with web apps.

Open source tools and art assets: https://github.com/swrpg-online

A quick repl.it one-shot UI using the monte carlo library: https://dice-pool-simulator-chrispan5.replit.app/

SWRPG Combat Simulator: https://swrpg-combat-sim.com/

Working on a frontend dice roller that utilizes the open source dice SVG files and rolling utility.

We could also stand to fill a slot in our online play group if you want to reach out! :)

benwilber0 3/30/2025||

Continuing to build on my programmable server for Server-Sent Events. Built in Rust/Tokio, programmable with Lua.

https://tinysse.com/

https://github.com/benwilber/tinysse

4887d30omd8 3/31/2025||

I've been thinking about the natural handicaps certain sports teams have. Things like weather, elevation, travel distance in a season, etc.

I think it's interesting to think about how much something like that might affect the career of an athlete, especially early in their career or someone who is on the margin of getting into professional sports. Would choosing to play at a university that has a lot of natural handicaps be the difference between making it into pro sports? I wonder.

Anyway, I ended up making a page showing how much baseball teams in MLB have to travel this season: https://calcubest.com/sports/mlb2025 which I think does an OK job of highlighting how much less time athletes playing on central division teams have to travel.

andrewray 3/30/2025|

Taking shader programs (they have a main() functions), hacking up their source code / AST to turn the into modularized code packages, and then enabling composition of shaders by injecting the output of one module into another (essentially calling the main function of one shader in another). This enables arbitrary shader composition. One application is Photoshop-style stacking of shaders as layers, like https://shaderfrog.com/2/editor/cm6y90vai002mpaxio3zjhfvq

Or getting real freaky with it by composing many effects deep https://shaderfrog.com/2/editor/cm1s7w23w000apar738s9d1x0

More comments...