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Show HN: 18 Words

https://18words.com/
118•pompomsheep•1h ago

Comments

semiquaver•49m ago
iPhone bug: double tapping on a letter zooms in the viewport with no way to zoom back out, permanently breaking the page.
pompomsheep•47m ago
Oof yeah thanks! Fixed now
Vinnl•47m ago
This is fun! Could use a short "how it works" blurb on the landing page though :)
pompomsheep•45m ago
Thanks! I thought it was fun to throw people straight into the game without instructions but you think it too unclear?
Vinnl•38m ago
I did get the first one straight away, so it's not too unclear, but it did induce a short moment of panic, which I'm not sure I'd categorise as fun :P
asaix•45m ago
Pretty cool idea. I think a calendar based UI to go through the archives would be more user friendly than what you have right now.
pompomsheep•44m ago
Yeah for sure I agree just kept it simple for now but will improve if people like it
throwaway_ocr•42m ago
Pretty frustrating when you find a word, but it's not THE. Pretty fun otherwise.
functionmouse•38m ago
tbh this should accept all dictionary matches
pompomsheep•35m ago
Did you find a word that wasn't accepted you thought should be?

I do have another version where it accepts ANY word but I found it quite unsatisfying when I survived by randomly spamming combinations and finding a really obscure word.

So am currently running it against a 20,000 word wordlist instead of my larger 300,000 wordlist

happytoexplain•32m ago
The third one in the archive wouldn't accept "tase" or "sate" for "seat".
IAmGraydon•29m ago
300,000? The Oxford dictionary only contains 171,000!
echoangle•7m ago
I guess the wordlist with 300k contains all the different forms a word can have while the 171k count is only the base words.
pompomsheep
pmarreck•40m ago
I didn’t realize the word “crowd“ only had one vowel until I saw it scrambled!
maaaaattttt•28m ago
And I didn't realize "audio" had only one consonant!
stavros•38m ago
I lost on the third word because I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was, and then I restarted and got to the 18th. I'd look at the letters and just know which word it was, it was pretty odd how hard I found it the first time around versus how easy it was the second.

I'm normally terrible at anagrams.

maaaaattttt•30m ago
This was harder than I thought it would be. It's pretty fun to play! May I suggest displaying the final result and/or ongoing progress as 18 circles/shapes that fill up depending on how far you made it?
jmkni•28m ago
Ha fun little game :)
quasiperfectus•27m ago
Embarrassed of where I failed (#8). Very cool game though!
al_borland•26m ago
If it makes you feel better, I failed on #3. In my defense, I'm running on 2 hours of sleep.
mritchie712•27m ago
great game, what do you think of adding shuffle?
upmind•27m ago
what made you go with 18?
drcongo•23m ago
14 was taken.
Static2280•26m ago
Something about not being able to shuffle the tiles makes this hard for me.
Waterluvian•26m ago
The timer makes it not enjoyable for me. It seems necessary to the game design and I’m not being negatively critical. Just sharing an additional perspective. I’ve been playing Zanagrams and the ability to hide the clock really improved my enjoyment of that game.

If I could magically get a feature by request, it would be to give me infinite time even if that meant my score came with an asterisk. Maybe just call it Relax Mode vs. Challenge Mode.

By the way: I really like the overall design of Zanagrams and 18 Words. These are small puzzle games with very simple, clean UIs. They work crisply and I've noticed you've been tidying up Zanagrams, adding minor features and settings. They have a very Classic Web feel to them. It's not like you're trying to get me to watch ads or subscribe to your newsletter or are just breadcrumbs to some for-profit thing. I like having a handful of very easy to pick up puzzles/toys when I need to fidget. They help keep me away from TikToks and Shorts.

paisawalla•22m ago
I would appreciate the timer not turning red. It's better to be surprised that time's up, rather than be surprised to know it's running out.
tech-historian•22m ago
100% agree. Casual mode would be a winner.
sensecall•17m ago
Yep, instead of feeling like a fun puzzle the timer just adds unnecessary pressure and gets me really annoyed.
Yajirobe•12m ago
My guy that’s the whole point of the game. Otherwise it’s too easy
nwsm•26m ago
Fun! But disappointing if you lose early. Maybe let the player continue after failing and showing a final score out of 18.
gopalakrishnans•24m ago
Would be nice to have a ‘scramble!’ button so it makes it slightly easier when we get stuck
samiskin•23m ago
Fun game though I wish it left more time for the longer words, also wish we could have the letters in one line and shuffle them
gwbas1c•23m ago
Made it to 9 and then time ran out... I wish it showed me the word that I got stuck on! Argh!!!
pompomsheep•6m ago
It should have shown you!
keepamovin•22m ago
Damn got to 13.
orliesaurus•22m ago
Fun, that's it. New addiction after daily wordle unlocked
nathell•16m ago
Could I have the source code so I can plug in the Polish word list? It would make a great training app for Scrabble.
jdthedisciple•11m ago
You could also probably one-shot your own version of this using any SOTA LLM, it's not terribly complicated (but a nice game idea!).
pompomsheep•7m ago
Yeah its just the single index.html file feel free to download it and adapt
chadgpt3•14m ago
LAMER is a real word and COLOR is not.
gigatexal•13m ago
Fun game!

I got stuck on the word corner of all words. Ugh

aosmith•4m ago
Nice, this is pretty fun!
dirkc•4m ago
I like the idea, but I didn't like to feel like I lost when I didn't get a word and the game stopped. Now it might just be me not being good at losing, but who is?

Maybe the game can progress to the next word with your total score being reduced rather than the game being over? So if you get all within 30 seconds you score 18/18. That way everyone can play the whole game and share with their friends how far they got

•
7m ago
Haha yeah the 300k list contains so really obscure stuff
maxweylandt•17m ago
Going two days back in the archive, "egret" not allowed
elxr•7m ago
"braze" is a very common word, especially if you like bicycles.

Definitely not any less valid or unsatisfying than "zebra".

pompomsheep•2m ago
Ok yes all good examples. Have reverted back ot the large dictionary for now which accepts all these
svantana•6m ago
the obvious solution is to not use the words that have an obscure word as anagram. I failed on 'target' because I went for 'regatta'.
paulluuk•5m ago
Why not just only allow a single try, but accept any "real" word?
pompomsheep•2m ago
Interesting idea but too many people mistype / mispell on first attempt (mostly me)
hnfong•8m ago
You can still be competitive in "casual mode" using total time used to solve all the words.
latexr•6m ago
Not everyone plays games for purposeless dumb challenges and difficulty. Games are supposed to be fun. Sometimes you just want to chill and engage the brain at a leisurely pace.
Waterluvian•5m ago
Yeah. It's just a walk to the mailbox for my brain.
encomiast•11m ago
Same. Stopped after two words. Gave me the same feeling as taking a timed software developer screening.
latexr•3m ago
> it would be to give me infinite time even if that meant my score came with an asterisk.

Or maybe don’t even keep score. That’s one of the features which makes be abhor these daily games. Not every game needs to be a damn competition!

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