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109 points brgross | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.202s | 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)

1. AnIrishDuck ◴[] No.43185432[source]
Hey! This is a lot of fun, thank you for putting it out into the world!

My wife is a public librarian that creates puzzles for a Summer Game that her library runs. She'd like to re-use this idea with book titles for their 2026 Games (too late for this year unfortunately).

How would you like to be credited if she's able to pull this off?