HN Explorer

28 comments

[ 614 ms ] story [ 1652 ms ] thread
prometheus76
This is a great puzzle and I am not smart enough to figure out the patterns.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
dayjaby
You can try to find combinations that only permutate parts of the whole thing, with the rest staying as before.

Let me give an example if the last row of a 3x3 is already correct.

MU - UL - MD

Middle Up: you break the correct row temporarily with this.

Up Left: you do something with the other tiles

Middle Down: re-correct last row

dmje
It’s really great but I think I’m too stupid
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
blakesley
This is great! It's definitely more Rubik's than crossword, though. Those Rubik's tricks are coming in handy.
mattmar96
Good point, thank you for playing!
1-more
I'm a lifetime intermediate NYT crossword solver and this is impossible. I love it. Got lucky where a few of them were all but done when I started. Haven't even tried anything bigger than 3x3
mattmar96
Thank you! I love your phrasing of “..this is impossible. I love it.” Exactly what I was going for
bgoated01
I've got rubiks skills, but once I moved up past 3x3 the crossword clues were super opaque to me. Very fun, though, and I'm not above googling the clue to find hints. Finished one 5x5 so far, but those 15x15s are super intimidating!
mattmar96
Good to know, thanks. I appreciate the kind words! I’ll work with Alex on those bigger puzzle clues.
hatthew
Agree, I clicked on a few 5x5s and too many of the clues required knowledge that I simply _don't have_. Very cool concept though, I have some experience with cubing but none of the theory behind it, and this is an easier space to derive commutators and the like.
dang
Looks like there's a bit more information (but no comments) in the previous post:

Show HN: SlideCross – a combination of a crossword and Rubik's Cube - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39112197

(A small number of reposts is fine - I'm just pointing to that one because it looks like there are more instructions there)

mattmar96
Thank you. I didn’t have the tutorial in the game before so I opted to put some tutorial text in the previous post.

Glad that you allow a couple reposts. This is a good example of that policy doing some good! My prior post didn’t get any traction so I’m glad to get some eyes on it this time around.

mattmar96
You can check out the source code here: https://github.com/matttt/slidecross
sea-gold
I don't see a license. Is this just source available?
mattmar96
I’m not familiar with licenses really. I should look into that. I guess what I want is for people to be able to use it but not republish it as their own without modification.
captn3m0 

    unsupported in this browser, use "pixi.js-legacy" for fallback canvas2d support.
Firefox / iOS
evanb
I do the NYT crossword every day (current streak = 1079), and I loved to solve a rubik's cube as a kid.

This game is absolutely incredible. In about 10 minutes I've done a bunch of 3x3s and a 4x4 to see how it works with black squares. I'd encourage you to tweet this at the Wordplay / NYTGames accounts and to make lots more of these!

Actually, a little feedback:

- on my iPad the bottom row of a 9x9 gets clipped in a way that makes it very difficult to play https://imgur.com/a/EpSPiz1

- Some clues reference 14-across or 16-down or whatever, but I don't see the numbers in the squares / a full list of clues to compare with.

- I wish tab took me to the next clue and space changed me from across to down.

mattmar96
Thank you very much! I appreciate the detailed feedback. I’ll be sure to address those.

I’ve just added some new 3x3s and a 9x9, all at the top of their respective sections. Thanks for playing!

quickthrower2
Really hard for me but great concept! Definitely one of the more decent wordle-likes I have seen recently.
aodonnell2536
Really fun, done mostly 3x3s (a couple 4x4s) but have yet to figure out how to swap two adjacent letters. Keep getting stuck right at the end on some!
mattmar96
Oh yes this is a tricky part.

What you want to do is find what I call a "donor letter".

Say you have:

BOAR UPTO MUTT PSSA

Where you want to swap the last SA to make PSAS.

What you'll want to do here is find a 'donor letter' of either S or A. In this case we have the A of BOAR. You'll put the BOAR's A in the place you want the A in PSAS, in this case the third slot. Then put the S that is now floating down into the last slot of PSAS.

I understand that this is probably a bit headache inducing to read, so I recorded a clip! https://youtube.com/shorts/SqGgcPXevE4

Thank you for playing by the way!

aodonnell2536
Thank you for the exhibit! Time to revisit the incomplete puzzles and put this to use!