kyberias · 12 years ago

Simple and creative! I like it a lot.

grej · 12 years ago

Love this! Just when you think that a genre like tile puzzle games has been completely done, something like this comes along and shows a new way of thinking about it.

The most amazing thing about this game is how it manages to be so creative and different while being so simple.

peshkira · 12 years ago

I love it! Really great and well done.

I'd appreciate it, if someone can share a few more links with similar puzzlers on the web.

wmeredith · 12 years ago

No one has mentioned it yet, but this is an in browser version of the excellent iOS app Threes: http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/30/addictive-ios-puzzling-com... (no affiliation, just a fan)

vrikis · 12 years ago

I love this, fun to play :)

farslan · 12 years ago

Reminds me threes: http://asherv.com/threes/

benesch · 12 years ago

See also the original iPhone game: http://threesgame.com (Support the developers! It's a great game.)

Or a truer JS clone: http://threesjs.com

brickcap · 12 years ago

has anyone managed to beat it yet?

dergachev · 12 years ago

The source code's here, in case anyone is interested: https://github.com/gabrielecirulli/2048

xsace · 12 years ago

So I'm playing this since 10 minutes now and I have no idea what so ever I'm doing but it makes me feel like I'm performing well.

tillinghast · 12 years ago

Maybe Monday morning is finding me too pedantic, but this is similar to Threes (http://threesgame.com), not just like Threes. There are some pretty obvious differences, from the movement of the tiles to the requirements for tile mergers (multiples of 2 rather than 3). The comments thus far do not make that distinction.

terabytest · 12 years ago

Hey, author here! I'm pretty overwhelmed that this made it to the top of HN without me even thinking of posting it here :)

I made this game as a fun weekend project, inspired by another game called 1024 (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1024!/id823499224) and a spinoff called 2048 (http://saming.fr/p/2048/). I did mine to add animations to the latter, which was a bit hard to play without them.

I discovered Threes only today, and I had no idea it looked so similar. I searched a bit and it appears as if 1024 is also inspired by Threes, so my game is probably the last of a long chain of clones :P

The code is also open-source. You can find it here: https://github.com/gabrielecirulli/2048

Feel free to ask me anything, and thanks to everyone for the attention! :)

By the way, my highscore is somewhere around 6000. Admittedly, I'm quite bad at playing my own game :P

EDIT: Make sure not to get addicted!

EDIT 2: The game now has swipe gestures and vim keys support (added by @rayhaanj)!

Guillaume86 · 12 years ago

Nice, only thing I don't like in the game is that I do better scores just doing (repeat((left or right once) + (up till it doesn't work anymore))) than when I think about my moves...

selter01 · 12 years ago

I wonder if there's an optimal strategy. Hmm.

seventytwo · 12 years ago

Has anyone beaten this yet?

JoshTriplett · 12 years ago

Quite a lot of fun.

One minor nit: if the board is full, but you can make a move that will free up a space, you can make that move and the new tile will appear in the newly opened space, but then the game immediately ends afterward. EDIT: OK, apparently this only happens if there are actually no more moves; as long as moves remain the game continues.

Also, hitting "space" reset the entire game; I'd expected it to either do nothing or add a tile without moving.

themoonbus · 12 years ago

This is one of those games that I do best on my first try when I have no idea what I'm doing, and then do worse and worse the more I think I have a strategy.

Fun though!

GFunc · 12 years ago

This is going to get me in trouble....thanks

bromagosa · 12 years ago

Ship it as a mobile app, seriously!

dubcanada · 12 years ago

I found that smashing the arrow keys was the most effective way to play this game.

Ethan_Mick · 12 years ago

Great game! Love the simplicity!

I played a round, and got to 512. But toward the end I wasn't sure if I was actually playing with a strategy, or just pressing buttons randomly with some thinking involved.

So I built a script to randomly press the arrow keys[0]! I let it play a few games, and the highest it got to was 128 before consistently losing. So I guess you'll need some decent strategy to get to 2048.

0 - https://gist.github.com/Wayfarer247/9469272

veganarchocap · 12 years ago

God damn that's addictive, final score: 3040 about an hour wasted at work :P Great concept though, love it.

canistr · 12 years ago

Fascinating game. Would love to see how an AI would tackle this.

adnam · 12 years ago

Welp, there goes the rest of my day

rabino · 12 years ago

Interesting (somewhat unrelated) question came up at work:

What's the theoretical max tile value you can get on Three.

jheriko · 12 years ago

neat little game :)

littledot5566 · 12 years ago

Managers around the world grieve as they know millions of man hours will be lost.

breischl · 12 years ago

Fun game! Now if only you can manage to get 2048 upvotes for it... :)

richardlblair · 12 years ago

Fuck you.

okay, awesome game.

Still, fuck you.

throwaway_yy2Di · 12 years ago

For those "playing" in the javascript console, here's one way to get a handle on the (inaccessibly scoped) game objects:

    GameManager.prototype.__actuate = 
        GameManager.prototype.actuate;
    
    GameManager.prototype.actuate = function() { 
        window.gm = this; 
        this.__actuate();
    }

    gm.grid.eachCell(function(x,y,_) { 
        gm.grid.cells[x][y] = new Tile({x:x, y:y}, 1024); 
    });
    
    gm.actuate();

chanux · 12 years ago

Addictive!

I have a suggestion that is different from the common. Other than taking this finely open game in to a walled garden, bring flattr or gittip there :).

pedrocr · 12 years ago

I think I have the beginning of a solution. The end result should be 2048 on the top-right corner (for the explanation). Always keep the highest value there. To do that never do a down without the right column filled and never do a left without the top row filled. Within those restrictions keep the top row in ascending order by building numbers on the left of the second row, so that they will match above and cascade right in powers of two.

I did this successfully for a while and then had no other option but a down without the rightmost column filled and lost my placement.

EDIT: A variation of this that works well is to only do up, left and right if at all possible. This keeps the highest values on top making it easier to match top-down. I've been stuck on 512 though.

AshleysBrain · 12 years ago

Very cool. Spent a while trying to get a high score by thinking about it, but in the end managed to beat it just by pressing the arrow keys anticlockwise one after the other!

brickcap · 12 years ago

Are there any cheat codes?

aeiowu · 12 years ago

Beat it on my first try: http://cl.ly/image/023K3o2F3X2P

jobigoud · 12 years ago

Ok, I give up. I managed to get a 512 and a 256 but then there is so little place to build up…

gyom · 12 years ago

I never imagined that I would one day feel like I'm "downing in my own filth of useless powers of 2".

PaulJulius · 12 years ago

I managed to get 2048 on my first try. Different enough from Threes to stay interesting, but a lot of the same strategy applies. In Threes though, the number that appears has a higher chance of being a bigger number (24, 48, even higher later) the longer the game goes on. There were a few times I was almost stuck and was able to get out of it by continually moving in the same direction and sucking up 2s.

http://cl.ly/image/462B1P0Y250T

Ellipsis753 · 12 years ago

I got a single square with 256 in it and a score of 2016 before I got bored. It's addictive and fun but a single game is much too long. I would like to lose a few times and improve but with a game this long I get bored before I've even lost the first time.

daGrevis · 12 years ago

Really addictive and well done!

Wanted to add that the author also created HN Special, an extension for Chrome that makes HN look decent and adds some useful niceties. https://github.com/gabrielecirulli/hn-special

secondhandvape · 12 years ago

My entire agile team is now impeded because of this game.

jfc · 12 years ago

This is awesome.

adamwong246 · 12 years ago

Monday's productivity: obliterated.

tbenst · 12 years ago

Made it to 1024: http://imgur.com/QQUXzCN. Here's my routine:

1. "tumbler" until 128: up right down left, repeat

2. Get 128 on the top in the middle two slots. Really any edge works, but I'll say top for simplicity. Keep a semi-large value on the side with one open slot in top row to prevent sliding. The other side on top is used for staging

3. Only use left, right and up. Never let a smaller value get trapped. This rule can only be violated to avoid filling the top three rows with the fourth empty.

I lost this game because I mistakenly filled the top three rows, forcing me to use a down. I think this strategy is viable to win however

robocaptain · 12 years ago

Ugggg... why was this posted during the 7-Day Roguelike Competition week?? :)

tectonic · 12 years ago

Score of 5756 by hitting [left, right, up] repeatedly. Is there a pattern that always wins?

bduerst · 12 years ago

Edit: I have completely misunderstood this game.

Very fun though.

stanmancan · 12 years ago

I just repeat Left => Up => Left => Up until I can't move any further, then "Right => Up => Left" before going back to the left up combo. Keeps the largest values top left and the values decrease towards the bottom right. Stacks the values well for combining and you can easily get 512 => 1024 without even looking.

mikemai2awesome · 12 years ago

The first few times I tried to play, I kept thinking the objective was to get the number 2048 across the first row. Haha.

K0nserv · 12 years ago

I was horrible at this so I tried randomizing it instead. So far I am still beating random at 256, the randomized script has reached 128 at most

https://gist.github.com/k0nserv/9472334

EDIT: Script reached my score of 256

EDIT2: Script reached 512

jamesxwatkins · 12 years ago

Everything I had planned today has been put on hold until further notice. :)

jay-saint · 12 years ago

A seriously great way to spend 30 minutes on hold with Verizon.

camus2 · 12 years ago

nice!

JacksonGariety · 12 years ago

I have some interesting results.

The first time I played the game I scored around 3000 points. After that, I tried to slow down and focus on keep the same kinds of numbers together, but after that, I couldn't get past 2250.

So I wrote a script that used Math.random() to hit the array keys continually, and the score was much lower: 1000.

Then I tried the sequence RIGHT UP LEFT DOWN over and over instead of Math.random() I scored significantly higher than all of them, in the 4000s.

Does anyone know why this might be?

instakill · 12 years ago

This simple game really shows how amazing the human mind is. I've never played any variant of this game before and when I first started I was blind to the mechanics of how this worked. I was moving so slowly and would fill up the board quite quickly.

After playing this game for 2 hours now my fingers are moving faster than my conscious mind can really follow. In my last game I was doing combo moves taking "2" blocks to "64" blocks in mere keystrokes. I've been surprised several times when things work out.

summerdown2 · 12 years ago

Very addictive and lots of fun :)

Globz · 12 years ago

Very fun and good looking game! Somehow I find it easier than Threes, awesome game!!

dzink · 12 years ago

The game is super addictive and I figured out a way to get to 11000 in the first hour. It's actually an excellent analogy for social network-type products and any business really. If your users belong to different clusters and similar clusters don't meet, there is little value and the network doesn't become more valuable for anyone. By focusing on the same corner scenario you help similar clusters find each-other consistently and thus amplify value to each-other. I took over one corner and keep stacking on to it with blocks of increasing value, essentially never moving out of it. If you move out of your corder, a different cluster takes hold in it and then everyone in that corner will hesitate to buy into you, even if the other cluster is small - it becomes a thorn in your butt. Great job! I learned something new today (Plague has also been very educational for me so far, but for viral dynamics.)

jader201 · 12 years ago

First of all, kudos on a well designed game. It's obvious you've made something pretty addictive, as evident by the place on HN and the responses you're getting here.

One thing I've found out is that you can pretty easily get to at least 512 or higher just by repeating the following pattern:

  right + down + left + down

  right + down + right + up
  up + right + up + left
  left + down + left + up

Of course, it will only get you so far, because you will eventually run out of space to keep the pattern working. But it will get you past the first few thousand points (512 or higher).

jmnicolas · 12 years ago

I don't know if I should thank you, curse you or burn my computer.

I will choose the lesser evil : burn the computer !

Thanks ;-)

gulbrandr · 12 years ago

What an amazing game, I like it very much!

Kudos to the creator for the perfect execution and design.

visualR · 12 years ago

Touch support please!

Aardwolf · 12 years ago

Brilliant game, such simple concept but very addictive. Never seen this before. I love it.

thomasfoster96 · 12 years ago

The best thing about this game is that you can press the arrow keys randomly for about five minutes and anyone walking past thinks you're incredibly good at the game. Just make sure you lose after they walk past.

sekasi · 12 years ago

A little bit too similar to 'threes' on the app store.. I like it, but again, it's too much of a ripoff.

ISL · 12 years ago

2048! Took ~4-5 hr. Thank you!

just2n · 12 years ago

A simple strategy of building along one side will get you to a 1024 tile every time, but getting to 2048 seems largely dependent on RNG. If you get tiles spawning where you want them, it's very easy. If not, it can actually be impossible.

It's unfortunate that RNG plays a significant role.

josteink · 12 years ago

Animation doesn't seem to work in Firefox. Does nobody test in Firefox anymore?

This WebKit monoculture is getting quite anything. It's msie all over again...

tptacek · 12 years ago

Why do I feel like another good name for this game would be "8 years of running a startup"?

beshrkayali · 12 years ago

Just pure awesomeness! Been playing it for like an hour :)

chaoskid · 12 years ago

I didn't do anything at work today. Thanks.

fdej · 12 years ago

I got a score of 12640, not far off...

Very simple strategy: propagate large values upwards (never press down).

VonGuard · 12 years ago

I've found simply pushing up, left, down, right, I can routinely outdo the score I can attain by actually playing with thought.... Kind of disappointing, but then I lost hours to this already. Fabulous game!

srahsrahyoung · 12 years ago

By tapping the arrows in a clockwise pattern, left-up-right-down-left-etc I got 512 and a score of 6360.

hkbarton · 12 years ago

Stop me! I can't stop to play this! 45min passed!

taternuts · 12 years ago

This thing is evil - stop killing my time!!!!

Great work!

amjaeger · 12 years ago

this is driving me crazy

Link- · 12 years ago

Quick and dirty 'dumb' solver (might require manual intervention sometimes):

		var manager = new GameManager(4, KeyboardInputManager, HTMLActuator);

		// Pattern definition (0: Up, 1: Right, 2: Down, 3: Left)
		var pattern = [1, 2, 3, 2];

		// Pattern Repeater
		var i = 0;

		// Interval
		var solverInterval = window.setInterval(function() {

			// Check if game is over
			if (manager.over)
				clearInterval(solverInterval);

			// Repeat pattern
			if (i % pattern.length == 0)
				i = 0;

			// Execute the move
			manager.move(pattern[i]);

			i++;

		}, 200);

honksillet · 12 years ago

While we are throwing around clones of threes, here is my SEXY clone of titled Menage a Threes. Heh. http://www.kongregate.com/games/honkskillet/menage-a-threes

Also, protip: to get high score choose one direction that you will never push towards. You'll end up with a gradient of high value tiles on one side, lower on the other, which desirable.

userbinator · 12 years ago

I decided to take a look just because I saw this:

    2048 (gabrielecirulli.github.io) 
    1337 points by frederfred 8 hours ago

_eqet · 12 years ago

Complete time fuck

granttimmerman · 12 years ago

Hey guys! I made a multiplayer version of this game in about an hour or so. (Twitch plays pokemon style)

http://hnplays2048.herokuapp.com/

Check it out! Or clone it! https://github.com/grant/hnplays2048

mightybyte · 12 years ago

Oh, so close. Got a ways into the 1024 tile with a score of 12236.

http://imgur.com/09f1Oj6

tracyma · 12 years ago

what's the key to get high score?

mattholtom · 12 years ago

Dude, what a mechanic that is! Just spent 1/2 hour in no time. Expand featureset, apply to PSN, profit.

PButcher93 · 12 years ago

Depressing that my highest block so far after ~1hr play time is less than the number of upvotes this HN post has.

Great game by the way!

SmileyKeith · 12 years ago

This is a great game!

seanv · 12 years ago

booom 3688 http://awesomescreenshot.com/0db2gytp66 (is that good??)

adispen · 12 years ago

It was inevitable. Twitch Plays 2048(http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplays2048)

noonespecial · 12 years ago

Oh! My productivity! It's like the "great sudoku disaster of '02" all over again!

Dave_Rosenthal · 12 years ago

I wrote a version myself in python and have been playing with strategies. It seems fairly resistant to simple greedy strategies (maximize highest score/maximize empty squares/etc).

In terms of "blind" strategies [up, right, down, left]* works pretty well, but [up, right, up, left]* is by far the best I've found. It gets to 512 about 30% of the time (!), with about 0.2% hitting 1024. Still haven't seen a "win" using the blind strategy in several 10,000s of runs.

chavesn · 12 years ago

Not many posting winning scores, so here's mine: 2048 and 20368 points

http://imgur.com/c3aHuT4

I'm not going to claim it was first try. Probably my tenth. However, I got much better at avoiding the key mistakes:

- Always keep your highest number in a corner

- Use the rest of that edge as a "staging area" for the components that can next double the highest tile. Work the other tiles toward the opposite corner on that side and then double them upward into the highest corner.

- When you double the highest corner, you'll expose the "staging area" side. During this time, quickly work number back to fill that side so you avoid being forced to move the highest number out.

- NEVER let yourself fill a 3x4 grid. This will force you to move the highest column away from the edge and will probably end the game in a handful of turns.

hayksaakian · 12 years ago

5000 pts just doing up, down, left, right

I scored worse by actually thinking and applying strategy. this IS a difficult game.

giis · 12 years ago

First try scored 2908 Its a very addictive game! Good work!

platypii · 12 years ago

Totally nerd sniped on this one. Will never get those hours back :-)

Meta question: Would it be possible to get 4096?

xerophtye · 12 years ago

Why isn't this working for me?

Screenshot: http://imgur.com/9QzI3Z2

cordite · 12 years ago

After about 14 minutes, I got to 1024. It was enjoyable, but is hard when you can't swap values. http://puu.sh/7r2eH.png

daleco · 12 years ago

I finally won! 2048 with a score of 20556. This game is evil!

benkitty · 12 years ago

Here's my Processing.js clone in 42 lines: http://www.ktbyte.com/textbook/gamewalkthroughs

mightybyte · 12 years ago

Finally won with a score of 20548. At first I was using a strategy of getting the biggest number into a corner. This follows a pattern of mostly up-right-up-right-... with an occasional left or down thrown in to get unstuck. This approach can pretty reliably get you to 512 in the corner without much trouble. But eventually this method saturates the available "storage" space with an inefficient pattern of tiles up to the diagonal. Then you have to start changing things up and continuing becomes tricky.

Then I tried the approach mentioned here of left-down-right-down-left... in a very mechanical fashion. I believe that this is very likely the optimal mindless strategy. It works amazingly well. As long as you never hit up, it fills things very efficiently and the biggest numbers percolate down towards the middle of the bottom row.

The way I finally won was to take this second approach and augment it with some periods of trying to get the biggest number in the corner. Start with ldrd until you get some 64s or 128s, then slow down and play catch-up with a corner. Then go back to ldrd. Occasionally stopping at strategic places to consolidate things also seems to help quite a bit.

All in all, a very fun game with some interesting properties.

Pxtl · 12 years ago

Done it! I rule! And now my evening is wasted.

Good game.

scoofy · 12 years ago

I feel like a crazy person, but when i play this game for a while, screen text appears smaller. Like it's messing with my eyes or something. Does anyone else feel this happening?

janson0 · 12 years ago

First Try: 2068 pts. 256 highest block...

jigneshhk · 12 years ago

Awesome loving it!

reignsly · 12 years ago

I just scored 21748. Oh men It's Addictive :)

Morphling · 12 years ago

Why is there no win state if you get 2048?

mauricio-OH · 12 years ago

It took me 5 attempts: http://d.pr/i/vxBd

The key is big numbers at the bottom

mathgladiator · 12 years ago

BAM! 20880 points! Got to 2048

aeon10 · 12 years ago

Wrote a script which plays using a simple greedy approach. Chooses the current best option. Doesn't seem to get past 512 so far. It does however consistently get till 256. Just copy the code in the console and restart the game (space bar) to run.

Does anybody have a better approach? Other than randomize and trying your luck? Or maybe that is the best algorithm for this case..

https://gist.github.com/AeonAxan/9482114

intull · 12 years ago

Is this the most upvoted most in HN? Maybe HN wants the number of votes to be 2048 :)

ddanielou · 12 years ago

Won with 21056, after about one billion failed games. Man, that game is the ultimate procrastination machine: rids you of absolutely all of your time and gives you the feeling that you actually accomplished something.

MattBearman · 12 years ago

What a fucking game! Seriously, best game I've played in ages, and I only made it to 512. I don't think I'm gonna get much done today...

deevus · 12 years ago

2732 just by spamming keys for 10 seconds.

gavinpc · 12 years ago

The first step is admitting that you have 2^N problems.

pointernil · 12 years ago

And now we start the social experiment:

"Will 2048 ever reach 2048 points on HN? And how long will it stay at exact that number of points?"

Good luck everyone! ;)

frevd · 12 years ago

Couldn't figure out how to play it at first - because in IE11 it doesn't work as intended - check your code.

arijitraja · 12 years ago

I was searching on google and quora trying to know what are ideal posts for hackers on HN. Thanks - your post just just answered my question!

DrBazza · 12 years ago

This is annoyingly addictive.

jballanc · 12 years ago

I can't help but feel like there's a fairly simple heap invariant hiding in the solution here...

dblotsky · 12 years ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it takes a minimum of 1024 turns to win the game.

fractalb · 12 years ago

addictive

apunic · 12 years ago

'conceptually similar to Threes' should have been 'stolen from Threes'

duochrome · 12 years ago

I don't get it...

karanA · 12 years ago

When does game get over? I mean is there some threshold number of moves?

Link- · 12 years ago

This is so close to 2048 upvotes btw.. (1997 so far)

sdegutis · 12 years ago

Please add "undo" feature. Thank you.

jackgavigan · 12 years ago

Productivity approaching zero...

kaushikt · 12 years ago

There are minor differences between this and threes

stefek99 · 12 years ago

After reading some comments I finally understood... It's not about creating [2] [_] [4] [8] line of tiles, but summing them so there is a tile of value '2048' (silly me)

karangoeluw · 12 years ago

Ok maybe I'm missing it, but why is this game huge? I like this game, but I fail to see why it is THE top post on HN ever!

abiglan · 12 years ago

Egads this is excellent! As others have mentioned, would love to see a 5x5 variation and also be allowed to "keep going" after getting to 2048 to see how far you can go. I was disappointed that it ended and I had about half the squares empty and -might- have been able to get a 512 on the board as well. But just fantastic. Perfect balance of "speed when I want to blast through the easy levels" and "I need to think about the best next move" as well as try to construct an algorithm that helps get me to the endgame!

throwaway420 · 12 years ago

Last 3 hours nothing but this.

Fuck I think I'm addicted.

Congrats on the next flappy bird.

kamweti · 12 years ago

Don't play while cooking, I've learned my lesson

ekspreso · 12 years ago

Wow, after nearly 5 hours I managed to win it. Great game. :)

mavhc · 12 years ago

I feel like this game is a metaphor for buying SD cards.

Finally beat it, 20588.

AnitoKid · 12 years ago

Great game! Addicting! And I kid you not!

jliptzin · 12 years ago

This game is ridiculously addictive

reignsly · 12 years ago

Guys. I win :P I have created my own patterns and methods.

Tada! I got my 2048 tile :) So happy

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz9_OO8kXRkfY0RWdzZ6cDA4RDQ...

hammadfauz · 12 years ago

I won! Woohoo! https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/t1.0-9/p75x...

amjaeger · 12 years ago

finally beat it

tanushree · 12 years ago

This game feels like life. I plan and make a move. Some pieces move exactly as I had wanted. A bunch of other pieces that I wasn’t looking at, also move. Some of these unexpected results surprise me and make me happy, I even subconsciously take credit for them. Some others, I don’t even notice. It’s okay, there is too much going on.

Sometimes it feels too hard and pointless to plan, so I am pressing the arrows almost randomly. Need a break from thinking and taking responsibility. I just hope that I am going in the “right” direction. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. It’s also hard to tell. Ah well.

Now I’ve been doing pretty well at this for a while, I am getting pretty good I think, I have it all under control. A few moves later, before I even know it …. oops! suddenly it’s all a mess! :(

But there are miracles also. I’ve been in this mess for a bit now and it’s not much fun. It’s slowed down and my heart is not in the right place. Suddenly, a couple of moves later, I am totally back in the game! I don’t know if I know this, but it was barely my doing!

Of course, it’s this elusive goal (of 2048 or 42 or whatever else), it’s the reason why I keep going. I am pretty sure it’ll be really cool once I get there :)

lrem · 12 years ago

I finally won it!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4cmpwguulkbaktu/Screenshot%202014-...

Now, back to life...

keren778 · 12 years ago

I wanna my productivity back for me paper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

freefrancisco · 12 years ago

Finally solved the damn thing!

jozydapozy · 12 years ago

This script will give you a keyboard-shortcut to skip the 'boring beginning' of the game. Run it a few times to get a nice starting point:

function arrows(key) { var eventObj = document.createEvent("Events"); eventObj.initEvent("keydown", true, true); eventObj.which = key; document.dispatchEvent(eventObj); }

document.onkeypress = function (e) { e = e || window.event; if (e.charCode = 122) { for (y=0; y<=100; y++) { arrows(39); arrows(38); arrows(37); arrows(38); } } };

var divje = document.createElement('div'); divje.innerHTML = "Press 'z' to fast forward ;)"; divje.style.position = 'fixed'; divje.style.padding = '10px'; divje.style.top = '10px'; divje.style.left = '10px'; document.body.appendChild(divje);

(some js based on script from varyform)

chx · 12 years ago

http://i.imgur.com/LeGXQhA.png while I couldn't beat this, I believe this to be one of the highest score games possible :)

ssully · 12 years ago

Finally had a chance to play Three's since it came out on android today and it honestly just made me want to play this more. The games are very similar, but 2048 is just more enjoyable to me.

rhapsodyv · 12 years ago

It's the best of HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/best ... more than 2x of the second!!!!

ponytech · 12 years ago

After having beaten 2048 we thought "what's next?". And we made 4096 : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7386557 :)

johncoltrane · 12 years ago

Thank you, you effectively turned my 3 hours daily commute in instant teleportation.

Link- · 12 years ago

Has this game beaten the record for HN front-page time? It's been 4 days now!

insider03 · 12 years ago

awesome game! very addictive!

alxndr · 12 years ago

I forked the repo and removed the "win" at getting tile 2048, so the game continues: http://alxndr.github.io/2-n/

sebnukem2 · 12 years ago

I want my life back :(

whitecrow · 12 years ago

Is anybody trying for score run, avoiding to make 2048? 29436 is my best so far.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-...

bitswreck · 12 years ago

2048! Took ~2 hours. One evil game! Great job Gabriel.

rpwverheij · 12 years ago

still playing now and then -_- switched from stair tactics to snake tactics. http://i.imgur.com/KZtO7Es.jpg (try to keep the snake as short as possible)

arkad · 12 years ago

Ha! Finally there! Score 26968 http://imgur.com/1PdBaZy Time killer of the year! ;)

palanic · 12 years ago

Scored 21480 and won the game. It' nice.

acjohnson55 · 12 years ago

I eventually won and went on to score 32420, eventually losing after getting a second 1024 on the board. I'm fairly certain a 4096 is achievable.

The cardinal rule, as many have said, is to keep one side filled, in descending order, with your largest piece in one corner. Once you have that side filled, you have to make sure that any time you have a duplicate on that row that you:

(1) only ever shift toward your largest number

(2) ideally have a parallel row that will not shift before you do (1)

Until you can refill your last row, circumstances may lead you to have to move in the forbidden direction, which could wreck the whole game. Point (2) ensures that you can fill your back row with another piece immediately, restoring 3 directions of moves as quickly as possible.

If you end up with any 2's on your back row, you must build them up to higher numbers ASAP. Last thing you want is buried 2's.

Once your numbers start getting high, I think it makes sense to use the front two rows exclusively for 2's, 4's, and the occasional 8, but to shift 8's to the third row as soon as possible.

I've found that to actually finish once you have all the pieces you need, it may make sense to break script, but if you want to go on to try to make 4096, you may want to carefully stay on script.

I've found that in tricky situations when I want to combine large value pieces that are just not in alignment, it makes sense to try to slide lower value pieces under one to "boost" one of the others into alignment. The ability to do this makes it valuable to keep your combining pieces in the middle of the board.

Lastly, when you have multiple possible moves, make the move that takes most advantage of the piece that's about to appear, either because you can quickly combine the new piece or because it can "boost" another piece into alignment.

Follow this advice, and you will be a star!

vnagpal · 12 years ago

i discovered it while in office ...and now half of my office is addicted to it.

rpwverheij · 12 years ago

4096! Can I stop playing now? http://i.imgur.com/uFa88W5.jpg

marcosd · 12 years ago

I made my own version, Triads:

http://lojueguito.weebly.com/triads.html

ajvdmeij · 12 years ago

Check this out: a student of mine made an automatic solver: http://timvisee.com/2048/

dlhavema · 12 years ago

Gotta give this another bump, the current XKCD comic is paying tribute to this game:

http://xkcd.com/1344/

it really is an amazing addictive game :)

thanks again!

edwinyzh · 12 years ago

Thanks to the author, I've decided it's a game for my 7-year old boy :)

lerg · 12 years ago

I've made a version of 2048 on Hexagonal Board - check it out https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spiralcode... It's free and has no ads, so enjoy! I guarantee you will like it.

amyunus · 12 years ago

Great! Now I can play it from my mobile browser. LOL. Anyway I could win twice in a day, by using the same algorithm. But still challenging and fun though.

relampago · 12 years ago

Score: 30896, I quit

anjali16 · 12 years ago

Hi

I solved the puzzle

a5steve · 12 years ago

argh- wish i never started playing... :) came close to the 8192 block, messed up near the end. points? not sure if it matters - 71,000+...

like lining up the blocks descending sequentially starting in the top left hand corner, and then creating s serpentine pattern. try to keep the big numbers in top left corner for as long as possible!