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Show HN: Nine Letter Word – Daily Puzzle

62 points by mahin 5y ago

I've been playing Wordle and remembered this puzzle game I used to play with my grandfather. It's inspired by the block puzzles in many newspapers but made to be shorter: just guess the nine letter word. So I made a quick thing to play with my family like we used to. I thought you guys might enjoy it.

greenyoda 5y ago
I liked the "shuffle" feature. Shuffling a few times helped me figure out what the word was.
- mahin 5y ago
  I need to change it so it doesn't shuffle letters in an order too close to the solution. Maybe 3 letters in the same order is too similar?
  - redlohr 5y ago
    Any of the eight tuples should probably not be in order ( or just let one of them through ). An easier method might be to limit shuffling to once every minute. Neat concept! edit: burningfrog's suggestion is an alternative to shuffle that would be even better https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30221479 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30221479
  - webmaven 5y ago
    I wouldn't bother, far too many people are capable of 'reading' the letters in arbitrary directions as in games such as Boggle. If you eliminate all orderings that include adjacent vertical, diagonal, zigzag, crossing, and reverse directions, you aren't going to be left with much.
gulabjamuns 5y ago
Are there archives of this game so i can play earlier days? I have been playing this daily since this thread was created and love it.
flazor 5y ago
First thing I tried was was tapping the letters to fill the answer input. Might be a nice feature to add.
- mahin 5y ago
  Definitely. Would tapping a selected letter deselect it? I thought it might be a bit confusing if you deselect a letter that's not the latest one. Maybe a 'Clear' button would help.
  - montroser 5y ago
    I think a 'Delete' button which would delete the latest in order. So tapping the letters would act like typing on a keyboard, and 'Delete' would like Backspace. NYT Spelling Bee works like this and it's a pretty similar interface.
    - smeej 5y ago
      You just need a 4th row with a back button to delete, a refresh button to reset, and an OK or check button to submit.
  - flazor 5y ago
    I’d say tapping an unused letter would disable it and grey it out. Then have a backspace button to remove latest letter, re-enabling it in the grid.
  - huhtenberg 5y ago
    No need for deselecting. Just add Undo and Reset buttons and that'll do it nicely. For a minimalist version of the same, add just the Undo button and do a full board reset on long-press.
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  Even better if you can rearrange them within the square. Much like you would on a Scrabble rack.
Max_Ehrlich 5y ago
This is really cool. First thing I looked for was a Wordle-type "share" button. Maybe add a Wordle-style share button? Then everyone can play this with their friends.
- krallja 5y ago
  It’s at the top, now.
  - neogodless 5y ago
    "Share" seems to just use the built in device sharing, and shares the URL. It's much more interesting if you can copy your personal results (how long it took, if you got hints) to your keyboard and then share it however you like!
    - krallja 5y ago
      On iOS it shares: Nine Letter Word #5 29 seconds 0 hints
      - pbhjpbhj 5y ago
        On FF on quite-old Android 7.0 I chose share (within the web page), then "copy to clipboard" and the text is: https://www.nineletterwordgame.com/ Not quite what I was expecting! If I send to notepad then the first line is "null" and the second is the address as above. I did 23s but I think the grid form makes it much slower, I prefer it Countdown (a UK television quiz) style, just in a row.
      - neogodless 5y ago
        I'm on Oxygen OS 10.3.8 (based on Android 10) and I got the mediocre "share to app" menu. I chose Gmail to see the text, and it was just the URL. I'll blame about 50% on this share menu, since it doesn't even include "clipboard" (which is weird, I've had that in the past on Android, but maybe OxygenOS removed it for some inane reason), but I'd still prefer the "copy to clipboard" default behavior that Wordle/Dordle/Nerdle have.
pxeger1 5y ago
Really nice puzzle design. Just a few UI/UX things: I was confused by the fact it lets you enter a letter more times than appear in the box. It would be nice to have the same limit that prevents you entering more than 9 letters, for when you enter too many letters. It would also be good to have a transitory popup explaining why you can't enter more letters. The "incorrect" popup should go away after a while, or be manually dismissible. I think the enter button should be a more stand-out colour. Because the word "ANSWER" is in all-capitals, it looks like it's an example guess, but it's only 6 letters, which is a little bit confusing. I'd suggest making it Titlecase and left-aligned.
pharmakom 5y ago
I dislike how you cannot make incremental progress in this game (compared to wordle, hangman, etc)
jmull 5y ago
That’s quite nicely done. Since it’s timed, I suggest to show the timer.
- smeej 5y ago
  I didn't realize it was timed until I finished reading the directions. I'd have liked an option where it didn't show the letters until I chose to reveal them, and started the timer at that point. I knew the word right away, but tapping the letters didn't enter them, so I went to read what I thought would be the directions, which didn't help me with that specific question, and then finally figured out I just had to type the answer in the box and submit, so I wound up 25 seconds in instead of <5. Obviously these are first-use-only problems, but they'd be nice improvements for first-timers!
xigoi 5y ago
I found it unclear whether the letters can be placed in any order, or it has something to do with the grad. You might want to clarify that it's just an anagram.
hnlmorg 5y ago
The presentation of this is nice but if you're hoping this might blow up like Wordle then you'd need a few more gimmicks because what you've built there is basically just a Countdown Conundrum (https://wiki.apterous.org/Conundrum https://wiki.apterous.org/Conundrum) laid out as a square; and there's already lots of these puzzles online (plus literally decades of TV footage from Countdown too, eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n9aILIF_ms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n9aILIF_ms).
- boudin 5y ago
  At the same time Wordle is just the game Lingo, no?
  - culi 5y ago
    Yeah I don't the fact that it already technically exists plays much of a factor in how likely it is to blow up. Every now and then a new game/app comes out that renames some Japanese puzzle game and blows up. E.g. "hashiwokakero/fences/hashi/chopsticks" or "slitherlink/fences" or anyone of Conceptis' (underrated) apps
  - culi 5y ago
    Wow you weren't kidding. I just looked it up and the rules for Lingo are virtually exactly the same! 5 letters, 6 guesses, and everything
phyzix5761 5y ago
Cool idea. I would suggest verifying the solution server side. It took me just a few minutes to figure out how to get the answer in the browser's console because the solution is given on the client side.
- snowman-yelling 5y ago
  Why can’t you just play the game without cheating? Same thing can be done with Wordle…
  - phyzix5761 5y ago
    Just giving some feedback friend.
ppetty 5y ago
So I the input element is missing an attribute to turn off autocorrect or autocomplete. I typed LIFE for one challenge & iOS’s keyboard gave the rest away.

62 points by mahin 5y ago

greenyoda 5y ago

I liked the "shuffle" feature. Shuffling a few times helped me figure out what the word was.

mahin 5y ago
I need to change it so it doesn't shuffle letters in an order too close to the solution. Maybe 3 letters in the same order is too similar?
- redlohr 5y ago
  Any of the eight tuples should probably not be in order ( or just let one of them through ). An easier method might be to limit shuffling to once every minute. Neat concept! edit: burningfrog's suggestion is an alternative to shuffle that would be even better https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30221479 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30221479
- webmaven 5y ago
  I wouldn't bother, far too many people are capable of 'reading' the letters in arbitrary directions as in games such as Boggle. If you eliminate all orderings that include adjacent vertical, diagonal, zigzag, crossing, and reverse directions, you aren't going to be left with much.

gulabjamuns 5y ago

Are there archives of this game so i can play earlier days? I have been playing this daily since this thread was created and love it.

flazor 5y ago

First thing I tried was was tapping the letters to fill the answer input. Might be a nice feature to add.

mahin 5y ago
Definitely. Would tapping a selected letter deselect it? I thought it might be a bit confusing if you deselect a letter that's not the latest one. Maybe a 'Clear' button would help.
- montroser 5y ago
  I think a 'Delete' button which would delete the latest in order. So tapping the letters would act like typing on a keyboard, and 'Delete' would like Backspace. NYT Spelling Bee works like this and it's a pretty similar interface.
  - smeej 5y ago
    You just need a 4th row with a back button to delete, a refresh button to reset, and an OK or check button to submit.
- flazor 5y ago
  I’d say tapping an unused letter would disable it and grey it out. Then have a backspace button to remove latest letter, re-enabling it in the grid.
- huhtenberg 5y ago
  No need for deselecting. Just add Undo and Reset buttons and that'll do it nicely. For a minimalist version of the same, add just the Undo button and do a full board reset on long-press.
BurningFrog 5y ago
Even better if you can rearrange them within the square. Much like you would on a Scrabble rack.

Max_Ehrlich 5y ago

This is really cool. First thing I looked for was a Wordle-type "share" button. Maybe add a Wordle-style share button? Then everyone can play this with their friends.

krallja 5y ago
It’s at the top, now.
- neogodless 5y ago
  "Share" seems to just use the built in device sharing, and shares the URL. It's much more interesting if you can copy your personal results (how long it took, if you got hints) to your keyboard and then share it however you like!
  - krallja 5y ago
    On iOS it shares: Nine Letter Word #5 29 seconds 0 hints
    - pbhjpbhj 5y ago
      On FF on quite-old Android 7.0 I chose share (within the web page), then "copy to clipboard" and the text is: https://www.nineletterwordgame.com/ Not quite what I was expecting! If I send to notepad then the first line is "null" and the second is the address as above. I did 23s but I think the grid form makes it much slower, I prefer it Countdown (a UK television quiz) style, just in a row.
    - neogodless 5y ago
      I'm on Oxygen OS 10.3.8 (based on Android 10) and I got the mediocre "share to app" menu. I chose Gmail to see the text, and it was just the URL. I'll blame about 50% on this share menu, since it doesn't even include "clipboard" (which is weird, I've had that in the past on Android, but maybe OxygenOS removed it for some inane reason), but I'd still prefer the "copy to clipboard" default behavior that Wordle/Dordle/Nerdle have.

pxeger1 5y ago

Really nice puzzle design. Just a few UI/UX things: I was confused by the fact it lets you enter a letter more times than appear in the box. It would be nice to have the same limit that prevents you entering more than 9 letters, for when you enter too many letters. It would also be good to have a transitory popup explaining why you can't enter more letters. The "incorrect" popup should go away after a while, or be manually dismissible. I think the enter button should be a more stand-out colour. Because the word "ANSWER" is in all-capitals, it looks like it's an example guess, but it's only 6 letters, which is a little bit confusing. I'd suggest making it Titlecase and left-aligned.

pharmakom 5y ago

I dislike how you cannot make incremental progress in this game (compared to wordle, hangman, etc)

jmull 5y ago

That’s quite nicely done. Since it’s timed, I suggest to show the timer.

smeej 5y ago
I didn't realize it was timed until I finished reading the directions. I'd have liked an option where it didn't show the letters until I chose to reveal them, and started the timer at that point. I knew the word right away, but tapping the letters didn't enter them, so I went to read what I thought would be the directions, which didn't help me with that specific question, and then finally figured out I just had to type the answer in the box and submit, so I wound up 25 seconds in instead of <5. Obviously these are first-use-only problems, but they'd be nice improvements for first-timers!

xigoi 5y ago

I found it unclear whether the letters can be placed in any order, or it has something to do with the grad. You might want to clarify that it's just an anagram.

hnlmorg 5y ago

The presentation of this is nice but if you're hoping this might blow up like Wordle then you'd need a few more gimmicks because what you've built there is basically just a Countdown Conundrum (https://wiki.apterous.org/Conundrum https://wiki.apterous.org/Conundrum) laid out as a square; and there's already lots of these puzzles online (plus literally decades of TV footage from Countdown too, eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n9aILIF_ms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n9aILIF_ms).

boudin 5y ago
At the same time Wordle is just the game Lingo, no?
- culi 5y ago
  Yeah I don't the fact that it already technically exists plays much of a factor in how likely it is to blow up. Every now and then a new game/app comes out that renames some Japanese puzzle game and blows up. E.g. "hashiwokakero/fences/hashi/chopsticks" or "slitherlink/fences" or anyone of Conceptis' (underrated) apps
- culi 5y ago
  Wow you weren't kidding. I just looked it up and the rules for Lingo are virtually exactly the same! 5 letters, 6 guesses, and everything

phyzix5761 5y ago

Cool idea. I would suggest verifying the solution server side. It took me just a few minutes to figure out how to get the answer in the browser's console because the solution is given on the client side.

snowman-yelling 5y ago
Why can’t you just play the game without cheating? Same thing can be done with Wordle…
- phyzix5761 5y ago
  Just giving some feedback friend.

ppetty 5y ago

So I the input element is missing an attribute to turn off autocorrect or autocomplete. I typed LIFE for one challenge & iOS’s keyboard gave the rest away.