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Show HN: I've built a words game based on binary search

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Re: Show HN: I've built a words game based on binary search

#51

Post by ludovicianul »

troyvit wrote: post #26

I see a lot of people saying 7 letters is too long, but I feel like the additional hints about where to go when you guess wrong helps make up for that. It took me a minute to get what was going on and I wasted a few guesses but I like that it requires a new strategy. I was able to adapt my first go-to wordle words to 7 letters and realized that they should be different because of what you learn from guess to guess. I…

For now, the plan it's to keep it on the site. But might extend in the future depending if people find it interesting to play regularly.

Re: Show HN: I've built a words game based on binary search

#52

Post by ludovicianul »

rbrodie wrote: post #25

I love word games and this was pretty fun. One recommendation I have is to have the most recently typed word at the top rather than the bottom, so that it's easy to reference when typing your next word. There could be plenty of reasons against that and I'm no game designer but that's what popped into mind. I'll definitely try more, this is a fun idea!

This is not something I intentionally design that way. I'll consider switching the position. Thanks!

Re: Show HN: I've built a words game based on binary search

#53

Post by ludovicianul »

vibcdingenjoyer wrote: post #14

I agree with everyone else who’s commented up to this point. But I’ll say what they’re saying more clearly: it’s a bit too difficult. I love the idea though.

I've tried with 5 letters and 6. It seemed too easy to guess though.

Re: Show HN: I've built a words game based on binary search

#54

Post by ludovicianul »

GordonS wrote: post #24

I really like this, it kind of reminds me of "Hangman"! A few ideas, if you don't mind: 1. Have a "normal" mode and "master" mode, where the normal mode has words with maybe 5 letters and the master mode uses 7 letters 2. Have an archive of previous games - kinda sucks that I can't play the old ones! 3. Contrast on the up/down arrows on letters isn't clear enough, at least not for me (colour blind)

Thanks! Archive is in progress. As for the length of the words, I initially though a 5-6-7/esy-medium-hard, but It seemed very easy to guess the 5 letters once you play some games. I'll reconsider.

Re: Show HN: I've built a words game based on binary search

#55

Post by ludovicianul »

pimlottc wrote: post #31

The "up/down" arrows are a bit confusing, I don't think it's self-evident whether "later in the alphabet" would be considered "higher" or "lower". "left" or "right" might be clearer, at least for English, and it would map directly to the range bar visualizations beneath each letter.

Higher = right = after, Lower = left = before. Once you play some games, it will become more natural. At least this was the feedback from friends playing the game.

Re: Show HN: I've built a words game based on binary search

#56

Post by ludovicianul »

albinn wrote: post #39

I'm very interested to know why 7 letters was deemed most appropriate, I could not come up with more than 2 words and had to get a dictionary to find. Maybe I've played wordle too much...

I've tried with 5 letters. After playing some games it was too easy, as it gives you more hints than Wordle on the positioning of the letters. I've also tried 6, but settled on 7 with 5 guesses as it seemed the most balanced.

Re: Show HN: I've built a words game based on binary search

#60

Post by asalahli »

ludovicianul wrote: post #49
4chandaily wrote: post #9

I loaded the puzzle and was presented with an empty 7 character prompt. I tried typing in three different seven-letter words, and each time I hit "GO", I was told the word was "Not in the word list". With no further guidance given, I closed the tab.

Thanks for the feedback. I've taken all the 7 letter words from the dictionary and filtered based on different criteria. I'm still thinking what's the easiest automated way to have all valid words, while avoiding offensive, inappropriate ones.

I'm genuinely curious, what's the reason for filtering out words based on offensive-ness?

I'd imagine it'd be easier to screen the chosen word every day for your criteria and, beyond that, let people type whatever they want as long as what they type is in the dictionary

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