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Show HN: I made a web game that makes practicing basic arithmetic fun
Hey, maker here.
After launching a daily word search game, I randomly thought of this math game while driving. Finally got around to making it and I think it turned out pretty cool.
It’s a math search game that’s meant to help you practice your quick addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills.
I’m hoping it’ll help people (even those like me who aren’t big on math) learn and increase their speeds.
(There are also some settings you can enable to make the game harder)
If you try it out, please let me know if you found it fun, if you have anything you’d like me to add, or if you have any other feedback.
And if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer.
Much appreciated.
- boringg 2y agoGreat app! We were playing with the two little ones though we needed more time. I saw a comment in the thread with a combo of zen mode, lives (eg mistakes) and maybe a level up mechanism? Rainbow at the end is great!
- dylanhouli 2y agoHey, thank you! Just added lives and zen game mode, as well as a timer+ game mode that's a bit more forgiving. Let me know if you notice any issues. What did you have in mind for a leveling up mechanic? Might be a cool idea.
- leke 2y agoThat's a fantastic concept. I did pretty badly so it looks like I need to practice more.
- dylanhouli 2y agoThanks for trying it out!
- upheaval7276 2y agoThis is pretty cool. My 6 year old is into word searches and math, so this seems like it will be a fun game for him.
- dylanhouli 2y agoAwesome, if he tries it out, let me know his thoughts! Hoping to make this fun for all ages.
- doublerabbit 2y agoFun, great concept. Getting an error for pressing the addition button "2+" is a bit confusing.
- gigglesupstairs 2y agoYeah it was confusing. Idea is to press first and the last number of the equation as far as I have understood. UX is wonky but I love such math challenges so it’s all cool.
- dylanhouli 2y agoHey yeah so you need a full expression (at the least, a start number, operator, and end number) for it to be a valid highlight. Will try to make the instructions more clear for this
- GordonS 2y agoCould you change it so pressing the operator is a no op then? That way, press it or not, the result is the same. Even knowing the instructions, I'm finding it very difficult not to press the operator tiles, as it just feels like a natural thing to do. Love the game BTW, I'm getting my son on this tomorrow too, he'll love it :)
- dylanhouli 2y agoYup added this to the todos. Thanks for playing and appreciate the feedback!
- denton-scratch 2y agoNice. I encountered a couple of screens where there was no correct answer available; MN=2, and there were no 1s on the grid. I suspect my 6-year-old granddaughter would protest.
- martinflack 2y agoOh, interesting. I just assumed a MN was selected by randomly selecting a path on the board and presenting the answer; that removes the possibility of being impossible. I wonder how it does work.
- dylanhouli 2y agoThat's exactly how it works so this is quite interesting...looking into it
- dylanhouli 2y agoHmm that is odd, shouldn't be possible. Just to be sure, you were playing with just addition operators right?
- denton-scratch 2y agoOK, so: 1. I think I only got one grid that was unsolveable. 2. That was my first grid. 3. I was only playing with addition. 4. I completed exactly one round. Because the "unsolveable" grid was my very first, I may well have pressed on without investigating too much, because perhaps things would become clearer; and indeed, all subsequent grids were easy to solve. So please don't treat my comment as a bug report! If you've taken trouble to avoid that outcome, then almost certainly the error is me.
- dylanhouli 2y agoThanks for the additional info! Glad to hear you at least didn't run into it again. I'll definitely do some more testing just incase
- rahimnathwani 2y agoThis is cool. When it's in 'all operators' mode it's challenging! One thing that I noticed is that there's a timer. Depending on your target audience, you might want to make that optional. My son is 7 and finds the timer on Zetamac creates unnecessary stress. So I made something simpler for him that just shows a fixed number of problems (with no time limit), and uses a cookie to track the streak length: https://math.twilam.com/ https://math.twilam.com/
- dylanhouli 2y agoIf you want another tough challenge, try division operators with longer equations and advanced division enabled. Quite evil at times. Thanks for feedback on the timer, that seems to be common so I'm going to work on getting an alternative option out soon.
- mysterydip 2y agoI want to share this with my daughter who needs some practice with these, but the timer just causes anxiety. Could you add a mode with unlimited time but three "lives"?
- dylanhouli 2y agoHey, just wanted to let you know I just launched an update that includes a lives game mode, as well as some other game modes and features. Thanks for your suggestion again!
- faitswulff 2y agoExactly what I came to the comments to request.
- dylanhouli 2y agoHey, thanks again for your feedback. Just wanted to let you know "lives" mode is now live, along with some other modes.
- dylanhouli 2y agoThanks for feedback! Same question for you as well: would you want separate statistics for this type of mode?
- faitswulff 2y agoI can’t think of any use case for statistics, personally or for my kids.
- nacs 2y agoI'd want separate. Check out monkeytype (free typing practice thing) that has a nice stats-over-time/personal-best scores.
- dylanhouli 2y agoThanks will check that out!
- acl 2y agoNeat! I played for a while with my 10yo son. The timer is a bit of a drag. My suggestion is to either implement a lives mechanism like the other poster suggested, or to make the timer reset after each success.
- dylanhouli 2y agoThanks for playing and for the feedback! Definitely going to work on getting out an calmer alternative mode.
- Sandworm5639 2y agoYou can choose a diagonal segment but it doesn't count even if the concatenated digits give the M.N.
- squarefoot 2y agoYou need to have an operator in the middle, that is, 12 would be satisfied by a string of "5+7", not just by adjacent 5 and 7.
- CaptainOfCoit 2y agoWhat about if there is a `1` next to a `2`, shouldn't you be able to click `1` and then `2` and it concatenates to `12`? I think that's what parent meant.
- squarefoot 2y agoI didn't think of that, but wouldn't that be more about string operations than math?
- dylanhouli 2y agoYa so as others have mentioned the M.N. needs to be made with a full expression (at the least, a starting number, operator, ending number). Going to try making this more clear on the instructions. Thanks for your feedback!
- ModernMech 2y agoReminds me of Number Munchers: https://classicreload.com/number-munchers.html# https://classicreload.com/number-munchers.html# You could add in some elements that game uses to make it more appealing to kids.
- dylanhouli 2y agoNumber Munchers is neat. Thanks for sharing!
- zi_ 2y agoLove this! I also made a math game 3 years ago. https://github.com/zineanteoh/clean-the-river https://github.com/zineanteoh/clean-the-river I called it “Clean the river”. It is a web-based game that lets children practice forming and solving basic mathematical expressions by "cleaning the river".
- dylanhouli 2y agoThanks for checking it out! Clean the River looks great
- fuzzythinker 2y agoYou have to account for fat fingers on mobile. Twice have I pressed the 4th square instead of the 3rd, and I don't even have "fat" fingers. Just remove the ending squares if they are operators.
- dylanhouli 2y agoHey so the ending squares can still be used vertically which is why they're there. Example: 1 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 9 Here you could use the left side to do 1 + 3 vertically. For a larger grid to prevent misclicks, try going to settings and changing the "grid size" setting to a larger option. Hope this helps! Thanks for playing.
- fuzzythinker 2y agoI don't think you understood the issue I'm pointing. I'm saying I pressed "3 + 1 +" due to fat finger. When the input has starting and/or ending operators, remove them before evaluating.
- dylanhouli 2y agoAh my bad, I see what you're saying now. Adding this to my todos Only potential problem I can see is if the grid line is for example: 3 + 4 + 3 And they accidentally press "3 + 4 +" Hard to tell if they meant to press 3+4 or 3+4+3 If they meant to press 3+4+3 and the program auto removes the ending operator and submits it as 3+4, and it's incorrect, that might be more upsetting than having to quickly re-tap the equation they meant to submit
- mariocesar 2y agoI have a premonition that within three months, someone (a newspaper) will purchase this beautiful game to add ads or offer subscriptions. Then, thousands of copycats will appear, and finally, there will be an open-source version. What a beautiful game, congrats!
- dylanhouli 2y agoThat would be absolutely wild, really appreciate the words!
- abbadadda 2y agoCool game. “7 +” is the start of a valid equation so making it error out can be confusing for 7 year olds that you need to “jump” over the operator. Great otherwise!
- panxyh 2y ago7 year olds are fast learners ;)
- dylanhouli 2y agoGoing to try making this more clear in the instructions, thanks!
- upmostly 2y agoI tapped a number, then an operator and was told it wasn't valid. Wordle and other games let you tap each tile to build up your answer.
- panxyh 2y agoThe walkthrough tells you to only tap the start and the end of the equation.
- GordonS 2y agoShouldn't it just ignore clicks on the "plus" squares then? I found it quite annoying.
- dylanhouli 2y agoGood point. Added to my todos. Thanks for your feedback!
- dylanhouli 2y agoGoing to work on implementing this, thanks for playing and commenting!
- LeChuck 2y agoVery nice, love it. I play the chess version of this pretty often. You might like to take a look at Lichess’ Puzzle Storm (and Puzzle Streak/Puzzle Race) for some inspiration on other game modes. https://lichess.org/storm https://lichess.org/storm
- dylanhouli 2y agoThanks for playing and sharing! Will check those out
- Mathnerd314 2y agoReminds me of the venerable https://arithmetic.zetamac.com/ https://arithmetic.zetamac.com/ (disclosure: I know the author)
- dylanhouli 2y agoSaw this game when looking at other fast math games. Definitely a good one for more precise intentional practice!
- le-mark 2y agoFeature request; my third grader needed to work on certain numbers like 3’s and 9’s, also the random number generation seemed limited when I played. Also agree zen mode is needed. Also how about adding n seconds when a correct answer is entered?
- dylanhouli 2y agoHey, just wanted to let you know I took your suggestion and added a "focus number" setting. Feel free to check it out and let me know if that's the kind of thing you were looking for. Multiple game modes have been added as well. If you notice any problems, please let me know!
- le-mark 2y agoVery nice! Thank you! Kids like it in zen mode, it holds their interest for a while at least (seems like a good sign).
- dylanhouli 2y agoThat is fantastic to hear :)
- dylanhouli 2y agoAdding options for practicing specific numbers is a neat idea, will brainstorm some ideas for this. Sorry the random generation seemed limited, I'll see what I can do. Right now it generates the grid numbers randomly just picking from 1-9, and the magic number is selected based on what's available on the grid. Zen mode + lives mode are on the todos! Adding some seconds to the clock for a correct answer is a cool idea. Will experiment with this one. Thanks for your feedback!
- Rebellos 2y agoAmazing little game, thank you! Being able to swipe over the equation instead of tapping would improve playability a lot! Also I sometimes feel like the first tap is not registered right after the new MN appears.
- dylanhouli 2y agoThanks :D Will add swipe controls to my todos, I decided against adding it because the other word search games on the site will occasionally overflow off-screen (so swiping is required to move around the grid) but might add it as a toggle for this game. Will look into the tap problem, thanks for reporting!
- rsfern 2y agoFollow-up on this feedback - it would be nice if the UI supported tapping individual blocks sequentially like the game strands does. Currently (on safari on iOS at least) if you go to highlight e.g. 6+4 one at a time the UI reports “invalid equation” if you highlight 6 and + instead of highlighting the start and end of the range in one go Otherwise, cool game!
- dylanhouli 2y agoYa thinking of adding this. For the moment I just made it so operators can't be highlighted at all, making it more clear that it's the numbers that need to be tapped (since equations can't start or end with an operator)
- ximeng 2y agoSlightly confusing rounding to 2dp. E.g. 1/8 displays as 0.13. Maybe show another decimal or display target as fraction.
- dylanhouli 2y agoGood point thank you! I'll add another decimal point
- EPmoL 2y agoOn iOS the “Add to Home Screen” strips the /mathic/ so the link ends up opening the word game instead. Would you consider hosting this as mathic.worchle.com?
- dylanhouli 2y agoHey, thanks for reporting. I could fix this by giving Mathic its own manifest.json file, but I'm a bit hesitant. I'm hoping to build Worchle into a home for a variety of search-style games, so having the PWA open to the home page (which displays navigation links for all the puzzles currently on the site) has the benefit of helping those other puzzles (and the overall brand) get discovered. It's a hard decision though as I do see the benefit of players being able to add specific games to their homescreen. Another problem with separate manifests for games: since I'm using local storage for stats, multiple installs of different games on the site would also split up those stats. One install ensures all stats are kept together in a single homescreen bookmark. Honestly though, I've been thinking about your comment for the past couple of days and I still don't know what the best decision is. It's a tough one.
- jayaprabhakar 2y agoThis looks cool. The UI animation is good. Looking forward for more such games. A few minor feedbacks. 1. Even on phones, it leaves a lot of margin/padding, and the boxes are a bit too small. Can you make it a bit more responsive and use up the whole width of the screen (up to a max width of course) 2. Only the first and the last needs to be selected, and so slide doesn't work. 3. A minor confusion in the UI, that I'm not sure if the equation can span across multiple lines?
- dylanhouli 2y agoHey, thanks for the feedback! For the sizing, try the grid size and counter text size options in the game settings. You can also change the grid dimensions to better fit your screen (or add some difficulty)! Adding slide gestures is on the todos. Also just shipped a fix to make multi-row selections impossible to make that more clear. Thanks again
- leeeeeepw 2y ago[dead]