A minimalist iOS game where the entire mechanic is waiting. A circle appears on a black screen after an unpredictable delay — tap it in time, or restart from Level 1. Global leaderboard and a particle visualization built from every 100ms you spent waiting.
I had this idea in 2013. Push notifications were new, endless scroll had just arrived, and what stuck with me was watching people pay real money for cosmetic items that gave them no gameplay advantage — purely to be seen at the top of something.
So the question I couldn't drop: would people spend time instead of money? Not time as a side effect of playing, but time as the actual price. Would someone sit and do nothing for fifteen minutes to be number one on a leaderboard?
That's the whole game. A black screen. A circle appears whenever it feels like it — every level roughly doubles the window, but the minimum is always half a second, so you can never settle into the wait. Tap it in time or start over at Level 1.
The part I'm proudest of is the stats screen: an interactive particle field built from your own play history, where each particle is 100ms you spent waiting. Two people at the same level get completely different images, and you can export yours.
Built solo over five months in React Native and Expo. It's free — genuinely curious how far people get, and whether anyone finds the waiting as calming as I eventually did.
I've been beating around an idea like this myself from more of a meditation angle - looking forward to trying it!
Love this concept and game! It tricks you into meditation. We all need more patience in our lives. I could see this blowing up on discord where people are steaming themselves playing this!
About Patience on Product Hunt
“The only mechanic is waiting. The only currency is time.”
Patience launched on Product Hunt on August 13th, 2026 and earned 93 upvotes and 5 comments, placing #19 on the daily leaderboard. A minimalist iOS game where the entire mechanic is waiting. A circle appears on a black screen after an unpredictable delay — tap it in time, or restart from Level 1. Global leaderboard and a particle visualization built from every 100ms you spent waiting.
Patience was featured in Productivity (658.4k followers), Tech (630.1k followers) and Games (98.8k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 347.5k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted Patience?
Patience was hunted by Jordan Shaw. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Want to see how Patience stacked up against nearby launches in real time? Check out the live launch dashboard for upvote speed charts, proximity comparisons, and more analytics.
Jordan Shaw
I had this idea in 2013. Push notifications were new, endless scroll had just arrived, and what stuck with me was watching people pay real money for cosmetic items that gave them no gameplay advantage — purely to be seen at the top of something.
So the question I couldn't drop: would people spend time instead of money? Not time as a side effect of playing, but time as the actual price. Would someone sit and do nothing for fifteen minutes to be number one on a leaderboard?
That's the whole game. A black screen. A circle appears whenever it feels like it — every level roughly doubles the window, but the minimum is always half a second, so you can never settle into the wait. Tap it in time or start over at Level 1.
The part I'm proudest of is the stats screen: an interactive particle field built from your own play history, where each particle is 100ms you spent waiting. Two people at the same level get completely different images, and you can export yours.
Built solo over five months in React Native and Expo. It's free — genuinely curious how far people get, and whether anyone finds the waiting as calming as I eventually did.
Free to play, always. If you want unlimited resumes, use WORTHTHEWAIT to get a 50% discount, reducing it from $14.99 to $7.99 USD — tap Redeem Code in the Store, or https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6759990913&code=WORTHTHEWAIT