Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#1

Post by jsnell » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 7:01 AM UTC

This is a game I wrote over the last month and a bit.

The effort allocation was pretty different from what I've done in the past.

The game design snapped together very quickly: I had the initial idea, played a couple of games on a spreadsheet to get a feel for the idea, and made one change based on those plays. After that everything felt just right through multiple rounds of playtesting. Likewise the puzzle generation is nowhere near as elaborate as in my previous game, fairly simple methods worked well and provided good variety.

Instead I ended up spending silly amounts of time on curating the word list (including using LLMs to guide the curation) and on iterating on the UI. The basic UI concept never changed, but the details basically never survived for very long after starting a new playtest round.

Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle
huewords.snellman.net

Re: Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#2

Post by mock-possum » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 5:05 PM UTC

Oh this is fun - takes a second to wrap your head around, but the way the groups of letters fit into the grouped slots is a neat way to lead the player along into guessing the correct placement

Re: Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#3

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 5:18 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#4

Post by tantalor » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 5:30 PM UTC

Took re-reading the tutorial to realize TAB key was required to switch groups.

Re: Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#5

Post by jsnell » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 5:40 PM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #4

Took re-reading the tutorial to realize TAB key was required to switch groups.

Thanks. Is there something you tried doing instead for switching groups, or was it more that you didn't expect to need to do it?

Re: Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#6

Post by nilstycho » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 5:45 PM UTC

jsnell wrote: post #5

tantalor wrote: post #4

Took re-reading the tutorial to realize TAB key was required to switch groups.

Thanks. Is there something you tried doing instead for switching groups, or was it more that you didn't expect to need to do it?

Tripped me up too. I didn't expect the need. Then I thought maybe there was some restriction of which blocks could go where, or which blocks needed to be placed first. The first letters I placed, by coincidence, worked fine, so that contributed to my confusion.

I thought color would be assigned automatically as soon as possible. So if there was an ABCD block and a ABEF block, then you could place an uncolored B, and as soon as you placed an F in the same block that block would get ABEF color.

Re: Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#7

Post by rockostrich » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 5:47 PM UTC

Very fun. It definitely gives the crossword muscles a little workout once the logic for the given word is figured out. I guess I'll have to add it to the daily rotation of brain games to play daily...

Re: Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#8

Post by jsnell » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 6:18 PM UTC

nilstycho wrote: post #6

jsnell wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Is there something you tried doing instead for switching groups, or was it more that you didn't expect to need to do it?

Tripped me up too. I didn't expect the need. Then I thought maybe there was some restriction of which blocks could go where, or which blocks needed to be placed first. The first letters I placed, by coincidence, worked fine, so that contributed to my confusion. I thought color would be assigned automatically as soon as possible. So if there was an ABCD block and a ABEF block, then you could place an uncolored B, and…

Thanks for the explanation!

Wanting to just type and have the game do the right thing is a very reasonable expectation, and auto-assignment is an interesting idea. It might need to be a one-way street to avoid unpredictable cascades though, such that you can go from "any letter A" to a "concrete letter A in that specific group" automatically, but not from a "concrete A" to "any A".

Re: Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#9

Post by smeej » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 6:29 PM UTC

The biggest thing I need is the ability to delete a letter from a square without having to undo all the way back to when I thought the letter went there. Replacing the letter with a different one doesn't help. I need to be able to get it back to just listing the unused options for that color group, and I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Re: Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle

#10

Post by jsnell » Tue, Jun 04, 2024, 6:32 PM UTC

smeej wrote: post #9

The biggest thing I need is the ability to delete a letter from a square without having to undo all the way back to when I thought the letter went there. Replacing the letter with a different one doesn't help. I need to be able to get it back to just listing the unused options for that color group, and I couldn't figure out how to do that.

On keyboard, backspace or delete.

On mouse, right-click or drag it off the board.

On touch, drag it off the board.

(I've updated the instructions.)