[HN Gopher] Show HN: Bracket City - A daily, exploded (?) crossw...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: Bracket City - A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
Hi hn - I co-own a diner where I co-host a puzzle night that is
kind of like a diner-themed escape room. At the last one, I made a
puzzle that was crossword-like clues nested in brackets. People at
the diner seemed to like it, so I resolved to make it a real game
and Bracket City was born: https://bracket.city. I love
crosswords, so it's been fun to write crossword-like clues:
[it contains MSG] as well as clues that would not make it
into a crossword: [___ <=== you ===> hard place]
I write all the puzzles and post a new one at midnight ET every day
of the week. Still working on a lot of features/fixes. I'm aware
that scoring based on keystrokes is pretty unfair, especially given
not-ideal custom keyboard on mobile! Still thinking through the
best solution there. Also fun fact: if you sign up for the email
list, you get a special "Word of the Day" email written by James
Somers (of https://jsomers.net). The only way to sign up for the
email list is to finish a puzzle! ** (answer key: NYC, ROCK)
Author : brgross
Score : 62 points
Date : 2025-02-24 15:20 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (bracket.city)
(TXT) w3m dump (bracket.city)
| rbergs wrote:
| Love this and play daily! Needs to have a submit button for
| better tracking your guesses and grading you each day.
| dhberger wrote:
| Love this game, I'm addicted. It's the new Wordle
| tsunego wrote:
| cool idea, especially the newsletter so i don't need to visit the
| website every day
| showerst wrote:
| Fun concept, but there are some really generation specific
| references here. Smurfs, Brady Bunch, Payphones...
| brgross wrote:
| fair! I do think today's puzzle betrays my elder millennial
| status more than most...
| mckn1ght wrote:
| 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.
| m_ppp wrote:
| Was really fun, quite enjoyed it, did think some of the
| references were a bit too nuanced for me
| dnel wrote:
| I could really get into a UK version of this. As it is I'm at a
| handicap with most of these clues. Great puzzle though!
| johnfn wrote:
| 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.
| brgross wrote:
| 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!
| e28eta wrote:
| Same frustration, exacerbated by the mobile keyboard. I
| played on an iPad with large attached keyboard, but had to
| hunt & peck at the on screen buttons.
| mckn1ght wrote:
| I used the context as part of the clue in that way. I like it
| that way and don't think it should change.
| binary132 wrote:
| It would mean that if you can sort it out on your own you can
| reduce the minimum number of keystrokes by a lot
| wllknj wrote:
| 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.
| 1-more wrote:
| Delightful! Longtime NYT crossword solver here (when I'm in the
| mood).
| flick wrote:
| Hey! I was at the last puzzle night (lot's of fun) and everyone
| at my table loved the game when you came around and showed us the
| website. I've been playing it a few times a week since!
|
| Congrats!
| joseda-hg wrote:
| Cool game, some references made it a bit hard for me like the
| Brady Bunch one or the cost to call someone who cares, but I
| don't know to what extent there's a culture barrier vs a
| generational one
| wbobeirne wrote:
| I think the format here is pretty brilliant, because you can
| look at what's outside of the brackets to try to fill in a
| reasonable answer. The Brady Bunch one was followed by ]orian,
| which made for a useful hint.
| devilbunny wrote:
| But there are few of those that are so cleanly nested. I know
| where it's going, but the requirement to solve every
| individual step slows you down.
|
| Of course, I've been a steady cruciverbalist for 35+ years,
| so learning a new puzzle style will always take a while. Do
| agree that until OP settles into a smoother rhythm, adding
| the length of the solvable answers would help.
| tgv wrote:
| For me too. It's both cultural and generational, I guess. It's
| pretty hard to find references that are widely understood. One
| usually writes from one's own frame of reference; knowing what
| others know isn't easy. Just like I don't know the names of
| Saturday Night Live hosts (something that slowed me down in an
| NYT puzzle recently), a puzzle maker in New York has a hard
| time imagining the things I do know about (in this case) US
| culture.
|
| Across ages might be a bit easier, because there's more
| material at hand in your own language, but I do notice a
| considerable distance between me and my daughter in all kinds
| of knowledge. E.g., I haven't keep up with pop since ages.
|
| But it's a nice, and nerdy, game format.
| _diyar wrote:
| Tons of fun
| angry_moose wrote:
| Pretty fun overall.
|
| I really think it at least needs to give you the number of
| letters though. Some of the clues get really tough since you
| don't get any information - either number of letters or a few
| "given" letters from other clues like you get in crosswords.
|
| Especially if you get "penalized" for keystrokes - there are some
| clues that end up as a lot of random guessing because so many
| things can solve them.
|
| A good example - on Feb 19; I was guessing "New York" and "New
| York City" over and over because I was pretty convinced that's
| what it was. When I finally had to reveal it, finding out it
| wanted "NYC" was pretty frustrating.
| jasonpeacock wrote:
| 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 letters
| (on mouseover?) would help a lot. Or maybe that would make it too
| easy?
| tarentel wrote:
| 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.
| carlos-menezes wrote:
| This is a really fun game. Well done.
| tsieling wrote:
| Really fun and a fresh format. Well done!
| annjose wrote:
| This was super fun! The bracket format is brilliant. It's like
| going on a treasure hunt, you solve one clue and the next one
| reveals itself. Well done!
| binary132 wrote:
| This is very nice but it would be lovely if I could just skip to
| the higher level solutions once I figure them out instead of
| having to go through the whole tree of solutions
| palsecam wrote:
| That's a fun variation of crosswords! I like it.
|
| Btw, a self-plug, for the polyglots out-there:
| https://paul.fragara.com/cw.html Poly _-alphabets_ crosswords,
| mixing Latin and Cyrillic letters!
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-02-24 23:01 UTC)