Piece Out!

Solve a Piece of Chaos!

Comment

Inspiration

My inspiration for Piece Out! came from how people can always find ways to fix something—like solving a jigsaw puzzle piece by piece. I also noticed that jigsaw puzzles are usually casual and non-competitive. I wanted to change that by adding a ranking system to make the experience more engaging and fun.

Another inspiration was my limited PC specs. I challenged myself to build something enjoyable and optimized despite hardware limitations. Since this was my first hackathon, I also wanted to push myself, learn, and simply enjoy the competition.

What It Does

Piece Out! is a jigsaw puzzle game with a competitive twist. Players can:

  • Solve jigsaw puzzles
  • Compete through a ranking system
  • Upload their own images to turn into puzzles
  • Share custom puzzles with others

The goal is to make jigsaw puzzles more interactive and community-driven rather than just a solo casual experience.

How We Built It

I built Piece Out! using pure TypeScript along with Phaser.js for the game framework.

Special thanks to @Dillo from CodePen, whose efficient algorithm approach helped me structure the puzzle logic more effectively.

Challenges We Ran Into

One of the biggest challenges was integrating the GIF API. My initial plan was to create a daily game mode where players would receive a random meme GIF each day as their puzzle. However, integrating the GIF API was more difficult than expected.

Another challenge was time management. Since this was my first hackathon, I didn’t manage my time as well as I could have, and some important features had to be left out.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

  • Successfully finishing the project despite having no prior experience in game development or Phaser
  • Building a functional puzzle system with competitive elements
  • Completing the project within the hackathon deadline
  • Learning and applying new technical concepts under pressure

I’m especially proud that I managed to build and complete a working game despite being new to game development.

What We Learned

  • Time management is extremely important in hackathons
  • Deadlines can significantly boost productivity
  • Building games requires balancing logic, performance, and user experience
  • Even with limited hardware, it’s possible to build something meaningful

This hackathon taught me how to be more efficient, focused, and resilient when solving technical problems.

What’s Next for Piece Out!

I’m interested in continuing development for the jigsaw puzzle community. Future plans include:

  • Adding more puzzle variations
  • Creating a levels gallery
  • Adding a player count system to encourage competition
  • Implementing sound effects for a more satisfying gameplay experience
  • Improving and completing missing core features
  • Potentially revisiting the daily GIF puzzle idea

Piece Out! is just the beginning, and I’m excited to keep improving it.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates