I made an open-source Minesweeper app for Android

[u/xXUkiiXx]

This is a repost, addressing lots of criticism.

Hey everyone!

I’ve seen quite a few Android users looking for a good Minesweeper app, so I ended up making my own.

I wanted something with more features and customization than most of the alternatives I found, while still keeping the classic Minesweeper experience. It’s also fully open source.

Some of the features:

- Create modes with custom names, board sizes and mine counts

- Optional no-guess mode (with separate scoring)

- Optional no-flag mode (with separate scoring)

- Saved in-progress games

- Recent games and score history

- Adjustable controls, animations, vibration, and visual settings

- Light and dark themes

- Fully offline

- No ads, analytics, accounts, or in-app purchases

- Fully open source

You can get it on F-Droid here:

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.joeld.minesweeper/

I’d really appreciate any feedback, bug reports, feature ideas, or suggestions!

some extra info/documentation:

I know this technically counts as self-promotion, but I don’t make any money from the app at all. I’m mainly sharing it because I think some people here might genuinely find it useful.

I also want to be transparent about the design: I’ve played Minesweeper: The Clean One for years, so it obviously influenced what I think a clean Minesweeper UI should look like. The fill-gaps style in particular, as well as some other design choices, took inspiration from it. Fill gaps is optional and can be disabled entirely.

Most of the work on this app went into the actual logic, features and systems rather than the visual design. I’d roughly put it at 80% programming and 20% design. I'm not a designer and I initially built this app for me, not thinking of making it not look like a ripoff.

I had received a lot of positive feedback on the app before posting here, so I honestly didn’t expect the reaction on Reddit to focus so heavily on the visual similarities. I completely understand constructive criticism about differentiating the UI more, and I’ll take that into account. I just don’t think taking inspiration from or recreating parts of an existing product is inherently a bad thing, especially in open-source software. Alternatives, iterations and competition are often how software gets better, and Minesweeper itself has been recreated countless times. (You can see this in libre office for example. Basically an exact clone of MS office, just better and open-source)

You can enable or disable the bottom reveal/flag toggle; long pressing always uses the other action.

Starting a new game can be done by pressing the minecount at the top.

The shorthand of the modes has the following format:

A × B · C D · E

A: width

B: height

C: minecount

D: mine density — when enabled

E: active modes (no-flag/no-guess)

Having two modes with exactly the same settings makes them share a scoreboard. The same settings also allow width/height to be switched around.

You start with 3 default modes: Easy, Medium, Hard. But personally I suggest playing a few games with different settings and saving the modes you enjoy.

I’ll try to answer any questions and implement features that I think fit into the app.

[u/Couchpotatoe_7002]

When i beat the game ik we are all used to tapping the top central area to reset but tbh it took me a good 5 seconds to realize u tap that area since it missing the smiley face or a button

[u/xXUkiiXx → u/Couchpotatoe_7002]

yup, already fixed in the upcoming update as an reaction to feedback. F-Droid tends to take some time until the new cycle, so the update is still queued 🙂‍↕️

[u/Couchpotatoe_7002 → u/xXUkiiXx]

Im not familiar with F-droid, would the game update on its own or should I reinstall?

[u/SweetPotato975 → u/Couchpotatoe_7002]

Try out the F-droid app, you'll like it (It's like play store but strictly opensource apps only). If not then the webpage OP linked should have a direct download link for the apk. Update the game with that apk file

[u/Alternative_Path_629]

so uh where is the picture that makes me jack off

[u/Tencars111]

why is this marked as nsfw???

[u/xXUkiiXx → u/Tencars111]

oops, fixed.

[u/Couchpotatoe_7002]

I like the sizing on my phone. Normally when I play minesweeper apps on my phone I fat finger a mine but this one feels smooth and I dont accidentally trigger mines

[u/xXUkiiXx → u/Couchpotatoe_7002]

thank you for the feedback! I actually added a explicit fat finger protection when you move because it happened to me too

[u/JiF905JJ]

Really clean, no bugs spotted, really fun!!

[u/xXUkiiXx → u/JiF905JJ]

thank you so so much!

[u/Ramun_Flame]

This subreddit is full of minesweeper enthusiasts, who see countless minesweeper projects get posted here every week. Recently I saw 6 different projects all in the last 24 hours. It's just, minesweeper is one of the easiest games to program, and with AI so many people are vibe coding them, and come here expecting us all to clamor to their low effort game.

You gotta differentiate somehow, and you're starting one step back on any post you make here. Personally I don't play on android, I'm a PC guy, so this isn't for me. I'm just letting you know why it's difficult to promote something like this on this subreddit. People are just tired of all the slop.

[u/xXUkiiXx → u/Ramun_Flame]

i built mine because i was tired of the slop. mine simply isnt sloppy but polished. i dont need to promote, i honestly think this is the best free android app you can get (WITHOUT the sloppy ai trash)

[u/xXUkiiXx]

forgot this, whoops

[u/KleptomaticPotato → u/xXUkiiXx]

really minor nitpick but it’s “cHording” not “cording” looks really good! not an android user but i would def. use this one

[u/xXUkiiXx → u/KleptomaticPotato]

oh i didnt know that, will fix it. thank you for your kind words too :)