Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle
bracket.cityHi 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]
[___ <=== you ===> hard place]
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)
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.
Perhaps the number of letters should be another hint in addition to the first letter. However, I think it's quite obvious that the answer is a TLA when the clue is in the TLA format.
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
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?
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
It would mean that if you can sort it out on your own you can reduce the minimum number of keystrokes by a lot
I used the context as part of the clue in that way. I like it that way and don’t think it should change.
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.
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.
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!
Fun concept, but there are some really generation specific references here. Smurfs, Brady Bunch, Payphones...
fair! I do think today's puzzle betrays my elder millennial status more than most...
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Really fun and a fresh format. Well done!
This is a really fun game. Well done.
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!
Was really fun, quite enjoyed it, did think some of the references were a bit too nuanced for me
Love this and play daily! Needs to have a submit button for better tracking your guesses and grading you each day.
Delightful! Longtime NYT crossword solver here (when I'm in the mood).
Love this game, I’m addicted. It’s the new Wordle
cool idea, especially the newsletter so i don't need to visit the website every day
Tons of fun