Delightful! Longtime NYT crossword solver here (when I'm in the mood).
Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
11–20 of 55 posts
Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
#12Hey! I was at the last puzzle night (lot's of fun) and everyone at my table loved the game when you came around and showed us the website. I've been playing it a few times a week since!
Congrats!
Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
#13This is very cool. My only complaint is I should be able to go up a level. e.g. I saw "unwelcome in a China shop" and instantly knew it was "bull" but still had to work through a few more clues before I got there.
have gone back and forth on this point -- so far I've decided that outer brackets should be a hint that guides on you inner brackets, but that you can't skip any clues but I hear you!
Same frustration, exacerbated by the mobile keyboard. I played on an iPad with large attached keyboard, but had to hunt & peck at the on screen buttons.
Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
#14Cool game, some references made it a bit hard for me like the Brady Bunch one or the cost to call someone who cares, but I don't know to what extent there's a culture barrier vs a generational one
Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
#15Tons of fun
Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
#16Cool game, some references made it a bit hard for me like the Brady Bunch one or the cost to call someone who cares, but I don't know to what extent there's a culture barrier vs a generational one
I think the format here is pretty brilliant, because you can look at what's outside of the brackets to try to fill in a reasonable answer. The Brady Bunch one was followed by ]orian, which made for a useful hint.
Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
#17Pretty fun overall.
I really think it at least needs to give you the number of letters though. Some of the clues get really tough since you don't get any information - either number of letters or a few "given" letters from other clues like you get in crosswords.
Especially if you get "penalized" for keystrokes - there are some clues that end up as a lot of random guessing because so many things can solve them.
A good example - on Feb 19; I was guessing "New York" and "New York City" over and over because I was pretty convinced that's what it was. When I finally had to reveal it, finding out it wanted "NYC" was pretty frustrating.
Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
#18Cool game, some references made it a bit hard for me like the Brady Bunch one or the cost to call someone who cares, but I don't know to what extent there's a culture barrier vs a generational one
For me too. It's both cultural and generational, I guess. It's pretty hard to find references that are widely understood. One usually writes from one's own frame of reference; knowing what others know isn't easy. Just like I don't know the names of Saturday Night Live hosts (something that slowed me down in an NYT puzzle recently), a puzzle maker in New York has a hard time imagining the things I do know about (in this case) US culture.
Across ages might be a bit easier, because there's more material at hand in your own language, but I do notice a considerable distance between me and my daughter in all kinds of knowledge. E.g., I haven't keep up with pop since ages.
But it's a nice, and nerdy, game format.
Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
#19An annoyance is not accepting "close enough" answers, I was working an older puzzle from a few days ago and the answer was `pulls` and I was trying `pull`. I tried a few other things, clicked for the clue (first letter was `P`), tried `pull` again (does that count against my characters when I repeat failed answers?), tried `pulled`, then finally got `pulls`.
Echoing angry_moose's suggestion, a hint about the # of letters (on mouseover?) would help a lot. Or maybe that would make it too easy?
Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
#20Cool game, some references made it a bit hard for me like the Brady Bunch one or the cost to call someone who cares, but I don't know to what extent there's a culture barrier vs a generational one
I think the format here is pretty brilliant, because you can look at what's outside of the brackets to try to fill in a reasonable answer. The Brady Bunch one was followed by ]orian, which made for a useful hint.
But there are few of those that are so cleanly nested. I know where it’s going, but the requirement to solve every individual step slows you down.
Of course, I’ve been a steady cruciverbalist for 35+ years, so learning a new puzzle style will always take a while. Do agree that until OP settles into a smoother rhythm, adding the length of the solvable answers would help.