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

(bracket.city)
109 points brgross | 1 comments | 24 Feb 25 15:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source

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)

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showerst ◴[24 Feb 25 17:55 UTC] No.43162625[source]▶
Fun concept, but there are some really generation specific references here. Smurfs, Brady Bunch, Payphones...
replies(2): >>43162829 #>>43169306 #
1. ibejoeb ◴[25 Feb 25 07:50 UTC] No.43169306[source]▶
There's kind of a crossword language, especially if you do NYT where there are regular callbacks. Some of them are pretty weak, actually, but they're shibboleths of sort to regular solvers. We complain about weak fill, but they're like clues in themselves.