Surprisingly fun!
Show HN: 18 Words
271–280 of 384 posts
Re: Show HN: 18 Words
#272Thanks everyone for the feedback! Two questions 1. For a version without the timer what would you like to happen if you are just completely stuck on a word? Hints to reveal letters or skip the word? 2. For those who like the timed version would you prefer to continue when you miss a word and then get a final score out of 18?
Those are all good options. Also a version in which your unused time is accumulated for future rounds would be interesting
Yeah, I'd like some kind of reward for having done the previous words in 4s each. Just when I get to a hard one (for me) it can take a really long time to spot it.
Also, maybe having a button (and also a key press) to randomly rearrange the letters, or allow me to drag them around to try to figure it out... like I'd do with scrabble tiles on my rack.
Re: Show HN: 18 Words
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please enlighten me on how they work. My understanding is that captchas usually either involve challenges for humans or require proof of work (some computation). I found the idea of this game along the lines of a human challenge.
Captchas are usually used to separate humans and bots, typically with something a human can solve but a bot cannot. A bot would have no trouble at all with this game.
I think humans don't behave the same as bots when playing this game.
Re: Show HN: 18 Words
#274Thanks everyone for the feedback! Two questions 1. For a version without the timer what would you like to happen if you are just completely stuck on a word? Hints to reveal letters or skip the word? 2. For those who like the timed version would you prefer to continue when you miss a word and then get a final score out of 18?
Nice work OP! Love this!
The timer adds more pressure and excitement.
Really simple and slick game - well done OP and congrats on the launch!
Re: Show HN: 18 Words
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who definitely gets worked up when there’s a timer (still got all 18; top 1% really? Might be good to show a rough number of total players), I don’t really get it without a timer. I am with the people asking for a scramble/ shuffle button. I have to do anagrams all the time in cryptic crosswords and sometimes it requires seeing things in a totally different order to unlock the answer.
According to my analytics only 32 people out of 12,145 got all 18 in todays puzzle so far!
That would be neat to include
Re: Show HN: 18 Words
#276Thanks everyone for the feedback! Two questions 1. For a version without the timer what would you like to happen if you are just completely stuck on a word? Hints to reveal letters or skip the word? 2. For those who like the timed version would you prefer to continue when you miss a word and then get a final score out of 18?
I'm timer-ambivalent--at the very least, I'd like to be able to continue through the sequence after getting stumped on one.
Maybe distinguish perfect/timely runs with the "trophy" you mention, or a "rank" from a scale (Bracket City's [0] "offices in a hypothetical city government" scale is cute). Or even a simple daily score. But I prefer to complete the daily puzzle even if I don't do it perfectly—and I find that "streak" oddly motivating despite myself. I dunno: "completed" and "completed perfectly" are two different flavors of reinforcement, both motivating.
As it is now, it feels like the game is punishing me for getting stuck on a single early puzzle, by withholding the other X puzzles in the set. And I feel like a consequence is that the game doesn't have a fixed "serving size" in my mind: it's either a 30-second single-clue game, or a 9-minute 18-clue game, and I don't know going in whether I'm getting the single cracker or the full afternoon tea today. I have to make 9 minutes of potential time for it, but I might only get 30 seconds of fun if I screw up.
As to your question 1), I'd like to see two things:
* A "shuffle" button. Often rearranging the letters helps me see it. I feel like I should be able to hit shuffle as much as I want with no cost in terms of the game mechanic--kind of analogous to playing with my (physical) Scrabble tiles.
* As far as a more helpful/"costly" chickening-out for when you're stumped and ready to give up... With Bracket City fresh on my mind, I like their approach with a single, progressive "help" mechanic. Hit it once, you get the first letter; hit it again, you reveal the full word and move right on (at some cost to your score, but blunting the disappointment by immediately giving you the fresh energy of the next clue).
[0] https://bracket.city , now at The Atlantic Magazine. Bonus feature I didn't know about until recently: they have a public-facing puzzle builder ("suburb builder") at https://builder.bracket.city . Thank you @brgross! [1]
[1] Bracket City's Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43160542
Re: Show HN: 18 Words
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess HABIT was the expected one here.
Baith was right. But I feel stupid that I couldnt see Habit.
> Baith was right.
My wife missed that word, and it said the correct word was “habit”.
I also did “baith” (for the same reason as OP), and ended up making it to 16, but I feel like I shouldn’t have, since I’ve never heard of “baith”. I was confused when it accepted it.
Re: Show HN: 18 Words
#278Thanks everyone for the feedback! Two questions 1. For a version without the timer what would you like to happen if you are just completely stuck on a word? Hints to reveal letters or skip the word? 2. For those who like the timed version would you prefer to continue when you miss a word and then get a final score out of 18?
Timer should be like in chess tournaments: an initial budget of X, increase by Y for each word you guess.
Re: Show HN: 18 Words
#279https://wordnerd.co/23words/ is similar (but 23 words instead of 18). Possibly the biggest difference is that 23 Words continues with the next word if you fail to get a word within 30 seconds. When you have attempted all 23 words it will present you with results like this. You found 21/23 words Top 7% of players today.
I like that better
As do i
Re: Show HN: 18 Words
#280hard and addictive