grow teta's little stand into a hummus empire

The Hummus World app icon, a smiling pixel chickpea coming soonto the app store look inside

catch the golden gull

v

chapter one

it starts with teta's stand

a street corner in gemmayzeh, a pot of teta's hummus and a line of hungry neighbors. tap the serve button to hand out a bowl, or hold it to keep the bowls coming. teta's tips show you the way, habibi.

soon the corner grows into a city. kiosks and restaurants open down the street. farms grow chickpeas, sesame, garlic and lemons, and mills, kitchens and a megaplant turn them into hummus. warehouses and cold stores fill up, and ships wait at the port.

the rest of the city waits under the clouds. buy a district and the clouds drift apart as its streets fade in, ready for your next shop.

The game on an iPhone: a busy pixel hummus city seen from above
your city
the clouds part

chapter two

machines you can see

every machine you buy shows up on the building. silos rise beside the hall, kettles crowd the kitchen yard, a gantry crane straddles the quay, and a giant tub of hummus lands on the megaplant's roof.

  • speed, yield and quality: three paths for every plant
  • builders work faster while you cheer them on
Every industrial building at four stages, from bare to fully equipped

thirteen grand buildings

the further the tour goes, the bolder the skyline. cairo gets a neon hummus bar, and athens a gold-domed hummus palace. in london a sky restaurant wears a giant bowl for a crown, zeppelins dock in new york, and tokyo sends rockets up from its space port.

The grand buildings of the world tour side by side, from the neon hummus bar to the space port

teta's stand dresses up too, with seven grand upgrades: a marble counter, a hummus fountain, a neon sign, a golden ladle, a robot arm, drone waiters and a celebrity chef.

chapter three

take it on a world tour

when your empire is big enough, investors come to buy it. they pay in cedars, and every cedar adds 10% to your income, forever.

then the family packs up for the next city. byblos, tripoli, cairo, dubai, and on around the world to tokyo. every city has its own look and landmarks, and everything there is worth 5x more.

the coins roll up with you, from thousands to octillions by tokyo. a world map keeps the route, and you can walk around every city you sold, just as you left it.

24 stops, beirut to tokyo

  1. 1beirutteta's stand
  2. 2byblos
  3. 3tripoli
  4. 4caironeon hummus bar
  5. 5dubaigreenhouses
  6. 6istanbuldrone hub
  7. 7athenshummus palace
  8. 8rome
  9. 9barcelonarobot kitchen
  10. 10paris
  11. 11amsterdamvertical farm
  12. 12berlin
  13. 13londonsky restaurant
  14. 14montreal
  15. 15new yorkairship dock
  16. 16mexico city
  17. 17riohummus refinery
  18. 18los angeles
  19. 19sydneythe hummusphere
  20. 20melbourne
  21. 21singaporebiodome
  22. 22hong kong
  23. 23seoulhummus reactor
  24. 24tokyospace port

a grand building opens in this city

chapter four

reasons to come back

  • lunch and dinner rushes: tap fast and the tips add up
  • golden gulls carrying golden pitas
  • teta's daily gift, seven days in a row
  • cold stores keep the empire working while you're away
  • teta's notebook: 22 skills in 8 tiers, and helpers who upgrade, ship and catch gulls for you
  • ranks from street vendor to hummus mogul
  • golden chickpeas for 2x and 3x boosts and time warps, earned as you play

free to play, at your own pace. the shop has golden chickpeas too, and hummus+ is a monthly membership with daily chickpeas and a few perks.

chapter five

visit your friends

walk around your friends' villages, every building and machine in place. leave a heart on your way out, then see where your empire ranks.

  • villages

    visit friends and players from around the world

  • hearts

    leave one on every village you love

  • rankings

    among friends and the whole world, on game center

from the game

a look around

crisp pixels, big readable text and smooth motion everywhere.

The city at night: a busy pixel hummus empire with lit windows and a tower
the city by night
The world tour map with the route from Beirut to Tokyo
the world map
Tokyo, the last stop, full of grand buildings
tokyo
The build sheet open over the city
the build sheet
A lunch rush at a hummus kiosk, tapped through for tips
lunch rush
Visiting a friend's village and leaving a heart
friends
Joseph Zakher, smiling, in a white tee
Teta, the grandmother who runs the first hummus stand in the game, as a pixel portrait
joseph zakherdesigner, founder, author · tokyo

the story

made between beirut and tokyo

hi, i'm joseph. i grew up in lebanon, and today i design calm software from tokyo. i run startup ui, a small design studio for health-tech and AI founders, and i'm a founding partner at zunou AI. my first app, tabilog, has been on the app store since august, and my first book, designing sleep, comes out in late october 2026.

hummus world starts where a lebanese table starts: a bowl of hummus in the middle and everyone reaching in. teta's stand on a street corner in gemmayzeh is that welcome, turned into a game.

the world tour follows the road i took, from beirut through dubai all the way to tokyo. every city on the way adds something of its own, and teta's recipes travel with the family, the way the taste of home travels with you.

i made it the way i make everything now: design first, built AI-first. claude code works on an always-on mac mini, every building, car and cloud is drawn pixel by pixel in code, and i review each build from my phone. teta's stand grew into 24 cities in under a week.

it's a calm game, made with care: free to play at your own pace, ad-free and private, with an empire that keeps working while you're away. craft over volume, calm over noise.

onward, joyfully.
joseph