Show HN: WordBreak – A daily word puzzle game
wordbreak.io
wordbreak.io
1. Let users “unselect” a fragment by clicking it again after it was already selected. It was annoying to have to clear the whole word just because one fragment was wrong.
2. Figure out a way to show all of the puzzles on the same screen(on mobile) as the fragments/word. I shouldn’t have to scroll down and back up to see the puzzles at the bottom. It takes away from the gameplay. Possible solution would be to move the solved words down to the bottom so that only the words that you’re working on are shown closer to the fragment/word “area”.
Study what the creators of the Mini crosswords on the New York Times website do with their clues. Your clues seem to be all straight dictionary definitions, which will get boring after a while. The Minis balance straight definitions with puns, cryptic clues, fill-in-the-blanks, etc.
For example, today’s Mini has the following clues and answers:
Palidromic AP subject: STATS
Palindromic carpentry tool: LEVEL
Pleasant smell: AROMA
Experiences on acid: TRIPS
You are here: EARTH
Rock used as a roofing material: SLATE
______ firma: TERRA
French "to have": AVOIR
Entice: TEMPT
One of two in 7/29/22: SLASH
I’m sure it takes time and creativity to come up with such clues. But the clues are one of the things that keep me, at least, returning to the puzzle each day.
The other is the level of difficulty. I am able to complete maybe 70 percent of the Minis in under a minute, 20 percent in over a minute, and 10 percent not at all. That yields a good balance between satisfaction and frustration.
Good luck!
I admit was little confused at first until I realized that the word fragments have to include the first letter of the word you're guessing, even though the first letter is already shown in front of the letter blanks on the left side. But it wasn't terribly hard to figure this out.
Looking forward to playing more, thanks for sharing your work.
- spell it out directly in text on the page - pop up a modal on first visit explaining how to play (with a “?” icon that re-opens it) - add a color to the starting letter of each answer, and color the first letter of the tiles to match…though that would reduce the difficulty a lot, unless all the words started with the same letter
Pretty fun game, I’m going to add it to my morning “quick hit” rotation!