Show HN: A new daily word puzzle | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: A new daily word puzzle

twentyletters.com

52 pointsdanieltait62 comments

Thanks for sharing. Here's some feedback.

1. I found it distracting the instructions were an image instead of text. I sometimes drag my cursor along lines in bulleted lists and was surprised the image started moving.

2. Why can I drag the directions across the page? Is that a bug?

3. The instructions are very concise and clear.

4. Why is there a `*` after `values` in the fourth item?

5. Would you enable a "click to teleport letter to next position of 'active' word" so I don't have to drag the mouse across the screen so many times? Or some other way to get answers up faster?

6. It would be nice if I had an indicator that one of the words I got fits in the global solution. How do you feel about enabling an "easy mode" or something that allows instant feedback for this?

7. It is nice you have the top possible score in the header. Would it be more obvious if it was made to stand out somehow (maybe 43/380 points or something)?

8. The interface is super clean. Nice job!

Great feedback thanks!

  1. Will fix this! It's because I'm using jQuery draggable for moving the letters.
  2. Same as above.
  3. Thanks!
  4. The score is letter values multiplied by word length (will make this more clear).
  5. Yes this would be a great improvement.
  6. Yes this would be good.
  7. Will play around with this design.
  8. Thanks!

> instructions were an image instead of text

They are text. If you ctrl+A, your browser will highlight them. There just seems to be some weird js that moves the text when you drag it.

Looks fun, but drag and drop (at least on desktop) is just too finicky to play for any length without being frustrated. Any chance of just being able to type the letters and hit enter/up+down to change lines?

Thanks! Yes will add this asap

Single click to pick next/last from bottom would be my expectation

Agreed, first thing I tried was to type, it's annoying very fast to click and drag

Yes, or double click / single tap.

A clear button would be great too

This is pretty great, there's a lot of potential here. I find myself wanting a "clear" button (maybe one per line?), as I try different things it's annoying to have to drag them around to different lines. And when I see the score for a set of words and realize I still have quite a ways to go, it'd be nice to just bring them all back down and start over again.

Thanks! Yes thats a good idea will add something like that asap

I was dismayed to have two words rejected that I thought were by all accounts legitimate. What's the word list you are using? Since they got rejected, there is probably no issue with mentioning them here: "hoplite" and "caltrop".

For first version I'm just using http://aspell.net english dictionary, but I can easily switch to a custom word list. Will research best options.

Those are both good (rejected words), as are pollock and bollock. The word list needs work.

and "baller"

Drag and drop is an Anti-Feature here. Please just make it type entry.

Very nice.

Perhaps your Twitter-share-path-to-virality could be an image of green boxes (a-la Wordle) with the lengths of the words in decreasing order?

[][][][][][][]

[][][][][][]

[][][][]

Perhaps also with the score of each word if that's not too much of a giveaway.

Yep, definitely need a more visually compelling way to share results. I like this suggestion.

RIP CHOCOLATE BALK BRED

Using all letters giving a score of 227/380

There should be some hints on how to increase my score? Is this based on the word rarity?

Thanks for playing! Right now the score is calculated by letter value multiplied by word length so longer words score more points. Open to feedback on this as wasn't sure best scoring.

I think a mix of word length and rarity might be the way to go. Information entropy would be a helpful approach here (look up the 3Brown1Blue video on Wordle).

Also, CHOCOLATIER comes up as an invalid word.

Thanks! Will look into this. And sorry chocolatier should definitely be accepted! Great word

I disagree on the rarity piece, I think it will be more frustrating if you can't predict how to improve your score. Length is straightforward because you know your strategy should always be to make the fewest longest words.

Can you have this on the screen while solving? I think this might have been mentioned at the start but it goes away once I start trying words.

I got 261 points.

Spoiler: QkFCRUwgUEFETE9DSyBSSEVUT1JJQw==

Edit: 272 / QkxPQgpQQUNLRUQKUkhFVE9SSUNBTA==

Each letter is given a weight and it's multiplied by the length of the word it's part of to get its effective weight. Sum it up for all letters and you get the final score. Here, it seems like two 10 letter words can be formed using the given 20. Hint - blackboard is one such word.

Correct!

Oh, that's a much harder one than Wordle, this is interesting. I was surprised when "calc" wasn't accepted, I've heard Americans use it so often. Is it not really considered a full word?

Haha yes doesnt seem to be in dictionary

This seems very similar to NYT Spelling Bee? Except the central letter constraint is missing and it lays out certain letters multiple times visually. Note that in Spelling bee too letters can be used multiple times. At the least author should call this an inspiration from spelling bee. Anyways, will give it a go.

In full honesty I've never seen or played spelling bee haha, but yes definitely some similarities after looking now! The inspiration came more from scrabble than anything else

Don’t worry, it’s nothing like Spelling Bee at all except that they’re both word games. Spelling Bee is more similar to Boggle than this. I think the other commenter misunderstood your game.

I enjoyed this and agree with many of the comments here - typing would be far easier and more fun! It might also be fun to add a "hint" where it gives you one of the words in the top scoring solution - maybe just as is, or even jumbled up. Overall, great concept and I look forward to playing more often!

Not clear what score is based on. Letters have values, but you can only use letter once, so???

Score = (sum letter values) * (word length)

I like it. I wish there was a visual cue showing me on which line the tile would fall.

Fun game. Works well on iPhone 13, but doesn’t work on iPhone SE (screen doesn’t fit and there is no way to scroll). Another thought, would be great to see how score compares to others or the average, best score, fastest, etc).

Oooh thanks will fix this asap. Yes good idea to add some stats

Should be working on SE now I think. Safari responsive design mode not accurate :(

I don't know what dictionary is being used here, but rabbiter and looper were both rejected despite being in the UK and US Scrabble Words lists. That's immensely annoying.

Or coprolite - a killer with this set of letters.

I mean, maybe not immensely annoying in the general scheme of things... :-)

On the scale of how annoying things are, it's somewhere between the squeaking noise my office chair makes if I lean back too far and the threat of global thermonuclear war.

Also hackable and some other -able words were not accepted.

My new daily word puzzle idea! Would love some feedback.

The text you get when you click share should indicate which puzzle you solved, in some way (e.g. like the number in "Wordle 247 3/6").

Having some kind of graphic in this sharing text would feel nicer, I think, as well, somehow. (Could be just sequences of green blocks for each word, basically just showing how long the words you made are.)

Yeah thats a good idea thanks. It will help deal with timezones as well as the letters change at midnight your time.

Will have a think of the graphic I could add to sharing!

How much do you hope to sell this to NYT for?

For those looking for the solution, it is QkxBQ0tCT0FSRApIRUxJQ09QVEVS (inspired by the author who posted one of the words).

How do I use that to get the solution?

EDIT: Okay it was Base64 encoded.

Very nice. Got started within 2 minutes of landing on the page, which is always a good sign.

You should make a leaderboard where you can see everyone else's words and scores!

Good idea! Will develop stats/leaderboards over next few days

It's great but it's just its quite an incomplete game for its release.

Should tap a row and then tap letters, and tap to remove, not drag tiles around.

Got 279 across 2 words with 2 letters remaining... Fun game!

UkVQTElDQVRFRApST0FEQkxPQ0sKQgpI

308 points, 3 words, no letters remaining:

UE9DS0VUCkNIQVJCUk9JTEVECkxBQg==

Is there a way to see the “best” solution after you try yours?

My plan was to release it tomorrow as a small link at the top.

Yep this would be great. I was surprised that my two 10 letter words didn’t get the full score, so would be curious to see what the winning solution was.

I liked the game. Didn't like the drag and drop.

Oh! Yeah I came here when I gave up because typing didn't work and clicking didn't work. Didn't think of that!

Please consider removing the google tracking

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