# Gerrymandle

20 Hacker News commenters recommended Gerrymandle and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People enjoy this daily puzzle of redrawing electoral districts, calling it fun and satisfying. Critics note unclear controls, a confusing result screen, unrealistic ties and recent ads and popups.

## Why people recommend it

- Fun, satisfying puzzle to win (2 comments): "it does make for a more fun puzzle" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587948)) "This felt very satisfying to win!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587668))
- Genuinely unique idea (3 comments): "disappointing execution of an otherwise genuinely unique idea" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48593379)) "great idea to make Gerrymandle! congrats on the alpha" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48588705)) "I LOVE that people are creating things like this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48592903))
- Rewarding once you learn it (2 comments): "Lovely game! Takes a bit of fiddling to get the hang of it, but so do most puzzles worth doing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48588822)) "This is a fun way to learn." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587406))

## What people warn about

- Ads and popups recently added (2 comments): "although it's started the slow slide into ads and popups in the past month." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49988728)) "shows popup asking me to "Create profiles for personalised advertising" at 116 vendors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50306100))
- Unclear how to start new district (2 comments): "now I click on hexes and it doesn't want to start a new district" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589456)) "it's not clear to me how to start a new district, it just extends the old one" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587811))
- Unrealistic ties in winning strategy (2 comments): "This isn't realistic as ties don't happen in practice in elections" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587857)) "the winning solution is to make sure your party wins one district and the other parties tie in the other four" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48592106))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Outer Wilds](https://hackerapproved.com/p/outer-wilds.md): 65 recommend
- [enclose.horse](https://hackerapproved.com/p/enclose-horse.md): 64 recommend
- [The Witness](https://hackerapproved.com/p/witness.md): 60 recommend
- [Braid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/braid.md): 36 recommend
- [Blue Prince](https://hackerapproved.com/p/blue-prince.md): 30 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Gerrymandle", https://hackerapproved.com/p/gerrymandle/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).