Twenty Letters

Games

daily word puzzle

SHOW HN2022

52points
62comments
#951of 2,570 in 2022
Top 38%of 2022 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

4 positive, 22 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 11 critical, out of 40 comments about the project. Thread score -0.14.

Design: 3 for, 3 againstExecution: 0 for, 6 againstIdea: 1 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Clean interface and clear instructions

    From 2 comments
    • Thanks for sharing. Here's some feedback. 1. I found it distracting the instructions were an image instead of text. I sometimes drag my cursor along lines in bulleted lists and…
      ryan-duve on HN
    • This is pretty great, there's a lot of potential here. I find myself wanting a "clear" button (maybe one per line?), as I try different things it's annoying to have to drag them…
      onychomys on HN
  • Fun and quick to start

    From 2 comments
    • Very nice. Got started within 2 minutes of landing on the page, which is always a good sign.
      jaggs on HN
    • I enjoyed this and agree with many of the comments here - typing would be far easier and more fun! It might also be fun to add a "hint" where it gives you one of the words in the…
      kreeWall on HN

Objections

  • Drag and drop is finicky; typing input preferred

    From 4 comments
    • Looks fun, but drag and drop (at least on desktop) is just too finicky to play for any length without being frustrated. Any chance of just being able to type the letters and hit…
      worble on HN
    • Drag and drop is an Anti-Feature here. Please just make it type entry.
      junon on HN
    • Agreed, first thing I tried was to type, it's annoying very fast to click and drag
      Majestic121 on HN
    • Should tap a row and then tap letters, and tap to remove, not drag tiles around.
      Siecje on HN
  • Word list rejects valid words

    From 3 comments
    • I was dismayed to have two words rejected that I thought were by all accounts legitimate. What's the word list you are using? Since they got rejected, there is probably no issue…
      4bpp on HN
    • I don't know what dictionary is being used here, but rabbiter and looper were both rejected despite being in the UK and US Scrabble Words lists. That's immensely annoying.
      onion2k on HN
    • Those are both good (rejected words), as are pollock and bollock. The word list needs work.
      dsr_ on HN
  • Score formula unclear

    From 2 comments
    • Not clear what score is based on. Letters have values, but you can only use letter once, so???
      jonnycomputer on HN
    • RIP CHOCOLATE BALK BRED Using all letters giving a score of 227/380 There should be some hints on how to increase my score? Is this based on the word rarity?
      modernpink on HN
  • Does not fit on iPhone SE

    From 1 comment
    • Fun game. Works well on iPhone 13, but doesn’t work on iPhone SE (screen doesn’t fit and there is no way to scroll). Another thought, would be great to see how score compares to…
      granto on HN

Requests

  • Allow typing letters into rows

    From 3 comments
    • Looks fun, but drag and drop (at least on desktop) is just too finicky to play for any length without being frustrated. Any chance of just being able to type the letters and hit…
      worble on HN
    • Drag and drop is an Anti-Feature here. Please just make it type entry.
      junon on HN
    • I enjoyed this and agree with many of the comments here - typing would be far easier and more fun! It might also be fun to add a "hint" where it gives you one of the words in the…
      kreeWall on HN
  • Clear button

    From 2 comments
    • This is pretty great, there's a lot of potential here. I find myself wanting a "clear" button (maybe one per line?), as I try different things it's annoying to have to drag them…
      onychomys on HN
    • Looks fun, but drag and drop (at least on desktop) is just too finicky to play for any length without being frustrated. Any chance of just being able to type the letters and hit…
      worble on HN
  • Leaderboard and stats

    From 2 comments
    • You should make a leaderboard where you can see everyone else's words and scores!
      scottmsul on HN
    • Fun game. Works well on iPhone 13, but doesn’t work on iPhone SE (screen doesn’t fit and there is no way to scroll). Another thought, would be great to see how score compares to…
      granto on HN
  • Better share graphic with puzzle number

    From 2 comments
    • Very nice. Perhaps your Twitter-share-path-to-virality could be an image of green boxes (a-la Wordle) with the lengths of the words in decreasing order? [][][][][][][]…
      air7 on HN
    • The text you get when you click share should indicate which puzzle you solved, in some way (e.g. like the number in "Wordle 247 3/6"). Having some kind of graphic in this sharing…
      crispweed on HN
  • Show best solution after playing

    From 2 comments
    • Is there a way to see the “best” solution after you try yours?
      bombcar on HN
    • Yep this would be great. I was surprised that my two 10 letter words didn’t get the full score, so would be curious to see what the winning solution was.
      sings on HN

Questions

  • Why is score calculated this way

    From 2 comments
    • RIP CHOCOLATE BALK BRED Using all letters giving a score of 227/380 There should be some hints on how to increase my score? Is this based on the word rarity?
      modernpink on HN
    • Not clear what score is based on. Letters have values, but you can only use letter once, so???
      jonnycomputer on HN
  • Why are some words rejected

    From 2 comments
    • Oh, that's a much harder one than Wordle, this is interesting. I was surprised when "calc" wasn't accepted, I've heard Americans use it so often. Is it not really considered a…
      WilTimSon on HN
    • I was dismayed to have two words rejected that I thought were by all accounts legitimate. What's the word list you are using? Since they got rejected, there is probably no issue…
      4bpp on HN

Alternatives named

  • Wordle

    From 2 comments
    • Oh, that's a much harder one than Wordle, this is interesting. I was surprised when "calc" wasn't accepted, I've heard Americans use it so often. Is it not really considered a…
      WilTimSon on HN
    • Very nice. Perhaps your Twitter-share-path-to-virality could be an image of green boxes (a-la Wordle) with the lengths of the words in decreasing order? [][][][][][][]…
      air7 on HN
  • NYT Spelling Bee

    From 1 comment
    • This seems very similar to NYT Spelling Bee? Except the central letter constraint is missing and it lays out certain letters multiple times visually. Note that in Spelling bee…
      gigglesupstairs on HN
  • Boggle

    From 1 comment
    • Don’t worry, it’s nothing like Spelling Bee at all except that they’re both word games. Spelling Bee is more similar to Boggle than this. I think the other commenter…
      tgb on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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