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Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle

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Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle

#21

Post by tarentel »

jasonpeacock wrote: post #19

An 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 let…

At least in this case, by crossword conventions, the answer has to match the tense of the clue. At least all the ones I did followed this convention including the one you're talking about.

I did not see the one angry_moose is talking about but in a normal crossword, even without seeing the number of letters, if the clue was like, "Most populous city in the US" -> NYC vs "Most populous city in the United States" -> New York City. Again, not sure if that was the case here since I didn't see it. (edit: I went and saw it, the clue had MSG vs Madison Square Garden hence, NYC, not New York City)

Cool puzzle though.

Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle

#22

Post by wllknj »

johnfn wrote: post #9

This 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.

I heartily agree with this. Multiple times I have had to slog through multiple levels to get to where I already knew I was headed.

Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle

#24

Post by mckn1ght »

brgross wrote: post #10
johnfn wrote: post #9

This 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!

I used the context as part of the clue in that way. I like it that way and don’t think it should change.

Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle

#25

Post by mckn1ght »

brgross wrote: post #8
showerst wrote: post #5

Fun concept, but there are some really generation specific references here. Smurfs, Brady Bunch, Payphones...

fair! I do think today's puzzle betrays my elder millennial status more than most...

As someone that does lots of crosswords, this doesn’t seem at all out of the ordinary. I guess the difference is that in a regular crossword, these cultural unknowns can be worked around if you can get the crosswords, but that’s no guarantee either.

Re: Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle

#29

Post by binary132 »

brgross wrote: post #10
johnfn wrote: post #9

This 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!

It would mean that if you can sort it out on your own you can reduce the minimum number of keystrokes by a lot
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