Company
Date Published
June 26, 2011
Author
Matthew Prince
Word count
622
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

In June 2011, CloudFlare planned to release a new web app every business day but faced delays due to unprepared developer partners. One of their frontend developers suggested a game similar to Asteroids that could be played on websites. They discovered Erik Rothoff Andersson, an 18-year-old Swedish hacker who had created the game "Kick Ass" in just 24 hours. CloudFlare offered to distribute and handle billing for the game, with a nominal fee of $0.99 per installation. The game was renamed "Browser Blaster," allowing website owners to hide it behind a secret keystroke series. This collaboration aimed to provide talented web app hackers with distribution channels, infrastructure, and billing processes to realize their work's potential.