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Show HN: I wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle

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Re: Show HN: I wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle

#61

Post by marcandre »

tacitusarc wrote: post #54

The tutorial puzzles were absolutely trivial, but I spent a decent amount of time trying to understand the mechanics of the main puzzle and frequently actions produce unexpected results. I do not understand why sometimes only a piece is mirrored, and then sometimes the whole puzzle is, or why tapping can prevent some pieces from being flipped, etc. I do not know if it is buggy or just confusing. EDIT: I see. Drawing…

Same. Tutorial having only contiguous cases made things quite unclear. I thought the starting point / endpoint where important to define the reflection axis and where it was, but no, only the axis gets defined

Re: Show HN: I wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle

#62

Post by robertlagrant »

marcandre wrote: post #61
tacitusarc wrote: post #54

The tutorial puzzles were absolutely trivial, but I spent a decent amount of time trying to understand the mechanics of the main puzzle and frequently actions produce unexpected results. I do not understand why sometimes only a piece is mirrored, and then sometimes the whole puzzle is, or why tapping can prevent some pieces from being flipped, etc. I do not know if it is buggy or just confusing. EDIT: I see. Drawing…

Same. Tutorial having only contiguous cases made things quite unclear. I thought the starting point / endpoint where important to define the reflection axis and where it was, but no, only the axis gets defined

Yes - having a slightly more advanced tutorial puzzle, where you have to tap, swipe, tap, swipe, would be helpful.

Took me a few goes, but I did puzzle out today's. Very cool.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle

#63

Post by dave333 »

james_marks wrote: post #50
dave333 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bumping my thread since it got hijacked by the downward swipe vs scroll business.

That first diagonal flip is a virtually guaranteed stumbling point, I’m open to ideas on a better way to introduce it. Until then- I’ll add a way to reset the tutorial when I go back for the accidentally-fake Settings link.

Thank you. Maybe have a solution graphic that user can get by clicking on a solution button or that pops up after X failed swipes.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle

#64

Post by cyode »

Today’s puzzle took me awhile to get, and I enjoyed the challenge!

I’m curious how much difficulty falls off over time after regular play. I’ve only played one puzzle, but without expanding the rules of the game, I feel like the following approach is all I’d need to solve any other puzzle pretty easily:

1. Build local early to save taps. Two squares touching can be painted with 1 tap and 1 flip. 2. Use taps in the middle of the game to create “pivots” for flips. 3. Big and “obvious” symmetries are solved with flips towards the end, taking advantage of “off the edge” squares getting ignored. 4. Fill “islands” (white squares without a corresponding white square for any axis of symmetry + pivot + valid flip) last with taps.

Did you ever try it with hexagons and 12 flip directions? >:)

Re: Show HN: I wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle

#65

Post by james_marks »

cyode wrote: post #64

Today’s puzzle took me awhile to get, and I enjoyed the challenge! I’m curious how much difficulty falls off over time after regular play. I’ve only played one puzzle, but without expanding the rules of the game, I feel like the following approach is all I’d need to solve any other puzzle pretty easily: 1. Build local early to save taps. Two squares touching can be painted with 1 tap and 1 flip. 2. Use taps in the mi…

Your strategy is sound, but the steps become non-obvious on harder puzzles.

Today’s and yesterday’s were easy for people that play a lot.

There was one last week that took me a shocking number of tries, I was getting victory texts from friends at 11:50, people who’ve played for years never solved, etc.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle

#66

Post by james_marks »

RandomWorker wrote: post #60

This was really cool. Challenging for sure on the first try I got one star. It challenges your ability to play around with it. I think the tutorial clicked for me when I saw the black shaded areas appear and they were mirror images of the red, then I got the game. With a small tutorial that this is the operation triggered by swiping would be useful. Though I did enjoy the aha moment when I got it. When do the puzzels…

Midnight EST.

Looking over the general response to the tutorial, I wonder if a sandbox with no goal might be helpful at first.

Let people experiment until the mechanic clicks for them, and then move onto a board with a goal.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle

#68

Post by james_marks »

Just pushed some changes based on the feedback from this thread.

- No more "Scroll Down", which fixes a large group of bugs

- All-new interactive training

- Can be saved as a PWA without re-opening in Safari

- Tweaks to the puzzle generator algorithm (better, but still too easy)

Thank you for playing and reporting bugs!

Re: Show HN: I wrote a symmetry game with a daily puzzle

#69

Post by james_marks »

zem wrote: post #57
james_marks wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reflection is always the edge of the filled tiles, like a hinge in the direction of the flip. You control where it is by choosing which tiles to fill.

having that explained with an animation in the beginning would help immensely

There's a brand-new tutorial, which includes this. Thanks for the nudge.
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