A game hub built on one premise: every game you play daily with ads deserves an ad-free alternative you actually own. Wanessa Labs Games is the answer to NYT Games, ad-bloated mobile apps, and every free-to-play game that charges you in attention.
The Problem
Daily games (Sudoku, Connections, Spelling Bee) are good. The ads wrapped around them are not. The New York Times charges a subscription. The free alternatives are ad-ridden. The mobile versions track you.
We wanted to play Sudoku at breakfast without an unskippable video. So we built the version we wanted.
What It Is
A curated hub of ad-free games at games.wanessalabs.com. Every game is either built from scratch or forked from an open-source project with full asset replacement and rebrand. No ads. No tracking. Offline-capable PWAs.
Live games:
- Honey, I Loaded the Dishwasher — Isometric drag-and-drop puzzle with a wife AI. First 10 levels free; chapter unlocks via Stripe.
- Sudoku — Ad-free daily puzzle, same seed for all players, streak tracking.
- Linked (Connections) — Daily word grouping game with 40+ curated puzzles. Sideloaded as Android APK via Capacitor.
- 2048 — Open-source port with score persistence and share card.
- Snack Pop — Casual arcade game.
- Anagram Daily — Spelling Bee variant with inline hints always visible on the board.
Games in the registry but not yet playable render as “Coming soon” on the hub home screen.
How It Works
Every game implements the same GameProps contract, which enforces consistent features across the catalog:
- Daily seed: Deterministic daily puzzles generated from a date-based seed, so every player gets the same puzzle each day.
- Streaks: Local streak tracking with no account required.
- Share grid: Emoji share output, same as the NYT format.
- Offline: Service worker on every game, works without a connection.
Revenue Model
The hub is free. Cosmetic upgrades and chapter unlocks are available via Stripe Payment Links: one-time purchases, no subscription. The unlock token is computed via HMAC and verified client-side. No backend required for the purchase flow.
| Upgrade | Game | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Dishwasher: Date Night Chapter | Dishwasher | $0.99 |
| Dishwasher: In-Laws Visit Chapter | Dishwasher | $0.99 |
Stack
| Tool | Role |
|---|---|
| Vite + React + TypeScript | SPA frontend, no server, no database |
| Tailwind | Utility-first styling |
| Cloudflare Pages | Hosting |
| localStorage | All game state, streaks, and unlock tokens via storage.ts |
| Capacitor | Android APK wrapper for Linked game |
| Stripe Payment Links | Cosmetic and chapter unlocks |