Show HN: I made a math puzzle game. Hope you like it

I've been playing with this for quite some time and I think it's finally ready for public consumption. All feedback welcome.

madmonk13.github.io

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35 points

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madmonk

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8 days ago

19 comments

wes1350 ・ 6 days ago

I'd prefer the rows, columns and diagonals to have their current sums visible next to the desired totals. Right now, it's tedious to have to add all the numbers up for each one.

  • prawn ・ 6 days ago

    Tried a couple and didn't mind the concept, but agree that summing things gets tedious enough that I wouldn't continue, return or recommend it.

    If the interface doesn't present an obvious way to add the current totals, it could be colour-coded in a way that experienced players possibly learn how far off they are. Use cool colours for under, and warm colours for over?

  • voisin ・ 6 days ago

    This, 100%. I enjoyed it but as soon as I moved up to more challenging levels and found myself just repeating addition I got frustrated by the tedium.

  • koiueo ・ 6 days ago

    To me that was the point of the puzzle.

    Your suggestion would kill the challenge, turning the game into a casual dopamine inducer.

  • madmonk ・ 5 days ago

    Good suggestion!

wes1350 ・ 6 days ago

A nice feature would be "locking" black squares, or otherwise marking them somehow, to distinguish them from squares you may still switch in the future.

  • snarf21 ・ 6 days ago

    Agreed. The black squares should turn white once a row AND column are correct. Otherwise, you just spend you time scanning right and down checking if that row/col is right again. It is tedium and not enjoyable.

  • ajjenkins ・ 6 days ago

    Yeah, you should be able to manually lock or they should lock automatically once it’s guaranteed a tile is in the right place. Like if there’s only one black tile in a row and that row is correct.

poopsmithe ・ 6 days ago

It's frustrating how sometimes my clicks on the black tiles go unhandled.

  • ajjenkins ・ 6 days ago

    Yeah, it feels like there’s a slight delay when you tap on a tile. I’m playing on an iPhone.

chabska ・ 6 days ago

The HTML structure is very problematic. You use a <table>, even though semantically the game grid is not a table of data. I would have used a <div> with display:grid , though this is not a big deal. The active cell is a <div> with onclick, which means the cursor doesn't show it as clickable and I can't even tab to it so keyboard play is impossible. There are ways to make a <div> look clickable, but it's easiest to just use <button> .

  • madmonk ・ 5 days ago

    Good point.

koiueo ・ 6 days ago

I liked the game as it is in terms of hints and assistance.

The only thing I at one point missed was the undo action. I accidentally fat-fingered two correctly placed squares, and although it was frustrating at first, in the end I appreciated the additional challenge.

throwaway675309 ・ 6 days ago

It's a fun little game - the minimalistic UI/UX suits it well. I'd consider lowering the volume on the music. It doesn't really feel like it suits a casual puzzle game either.

geuis ・ 6 days ago

The audio stops my audio that's already playing.

anenefan ・ 8 days ago

Nice educational puzzle - I think possibly good for kids teaching them to add up in their own head.

galuggus ・ 6 days ago

Great music. Did you make it?

  • madmonk ・ 5 days ago

    Thanks! Yes, I made it with Auxy.