Every Friday before the shift ends, our team at the office has a small game night hangout. Recently, everyone wanted to play the classic Pudge Wars — the old Dota Warcraft 3 custom map where you hook enemies into the pit. There was just one problem: we don’t allow installing games like Steam on company laptops.
So instead of installing a game… we built one.
Five Days, Two Hours a Day
We treated it as a focused side project: a full weekend plus a few weeknight sessions, with about two hours of commitment per day. In five days we had something playable. We leaned heavily on AI-assisted development and a lot of experimentation — vibe coding, but with a clear deadline. The result was Hook Wars, a simple web-based IO-style game that runs in the browser. No installs, no Steam, no IT tickets.
"Cast your hook, drag enemies into the pit, and outlast the other team."
Company-Wide Game Night
We deployed it in time for our actual company-wide game night. We had 8v8 matches — the most we’ve had in a single session — with people joining from the same link. No installs, no friction. Just open the browser and play.
Try It
Hook Wars is live and free to play. It’s a small reminder of what’s possible with modern web tech and a bit of AI help: a casual Friday idea turned into a real game in one week.
Note: A mobile-friendly version is currently in development. For now, the best experience is on desktop.