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Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle

(bracket.city)
109 points brgross | 8 comments | 24 Feb 25 15:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.444s | source | bottom

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)

1. johnfn ◴[24 Feb 25 18:16 UTC] No.43162865[source]▶
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.
replies(2): >>43162926 #>>43164399 #
2. brgross ◴[24 Feb 25 18:21 UTC] No.43162926[source]▶
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!

replies(5): >>43163045 #>>43165216 #>>43165713 #>>43166177 #>>43168405 #
3. e28eta ◴[24 Feb 25 18:31 UTC] No.43163045[source]▶
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.
4. wllknj ◴[24 Feb 25 20:13 UTC] No.43164399[source]▶
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.
5. mckn1ght ◴[24 Feb 25 21:36 UTC] No.43165216[source]▶
I used the context as part of the clue in that way. I like it that way and don’t think it should change.
6. binary132 ◴[24 Feb 25 22:29 UTC] No.43165713[source]▶
It would mean that if you can sort it out on your own you can reduce the minimum number of keystrokes by a lot
7. xg15 ◴[24 Feb 25 23:27 UTC] No.43166177[source]▶
Same here with the smurfs. I get the idea, but it becomes a bit awkward sometimes when the only reason you can't skip a clue is that the script won't let you.

I think it might be because this format puts the words into a strict hierarchy of clues, meta-clues, etc, while in a traditional crossword puzzle, the words form more sort of a network, where you can choose the order by yourself.

I wonder if you could restore that property somewhat by arranging the clues into a graph structure instead of a hierarchy. E.g.: (slightly nonsensical example)

[#1: Famous software company] Inc announced a revolutionary new implementation of binary search [#2: The #1 does not fall far from the ___]s today, as well as an improved type of cryptographic [#3: algorithm that needs a [#4: origin of #2, purpose of #1], 3 words]. The ideas are said to have originated from a recently discovered high school notebook of [#5: Co-founder of #1, 2 words] himself.

8. johnfn ◴[25 Feb 25 05:10 UTC] No.43168405[source]▶
Two more suggestions after playing one or two more:

- There should be an easier way to know which brackets match.

- This game would probably be more fun with a 2-dimensional visualization of the layers. It would be more fun to see you knock off layers and see the progress you've made.