Show HN: A simple image puzzle generator

(puzzlip.com)

53 points | by lnenad 1 day ago

13 comments

  • doodpants 1 day ago
    Neat, but the "Diffictulty" slider is a bit of a misnomer, IMHO. Puzzles with more pieces just take longer. I'm not sure what would be a better label, though. (If I were feeling uncharitable, I would propose "Tedium", or perhaps "Carpal Tunnel Risk" :-)

    I wonder if there might be a way of changing the difficulty without changing the number of pieces? Like maybe putting gridlines between the pieces, so that you can't actually see the seamless connection between two correctly-oriented pieces?

    • lnenad 1 day ago
      Hmm, I don't know to be honest, usually difficulty translates to spending more time and the pieces being smaller does it make it visually harder to discern right?
      • carltg_ 1 day ago
        Not really, time doesn't make something difficult, just tedious. For the cat puzzle, smaller pieces doesn't really make a difference. Once you get a corner it is easy to line up and knock them down. So, just tedious
  • tobr 1 day ago
    This could be a nice distraction, but unfortunately the interaction latency makes it feel so sluggish I can’t get into flow.
    • arcastroe 1 day ago
      I wouldn't call it sluggish. It's just that the tiles only update on mouseup events, rather than on mousedown events. Your own finger's turtle speed is the only source of latency ;)

      But I agree that applying different styling to tiles on both hover events and mousedown events would make it feel snappier.

      (I've only tried this on desktop. Haven't tried it on mobile)

      • tobr 1 day ago
        That’s not the problem, although it doesn’t make it better.
    • paulirish 1 day ago
      Yeah I get 100-250ms of latency between input and presentation. https://trace.cafe/t/UFXm7ASLQg
    • tartoran 1 day ago
      I get no interaction latency, perhaps because I made the tile size a little larger and there are fewer tiles. Give it a try. As someone suggested, the pieces only rotate which make it easier for finishing the puzzle.
    • lnenad 1 day ago
      What browser, OS?

      On windows both Firefox and Chrome have no discernible latency for me at least.

      • tobr 1 day ago
        Safari iOS.
  • manucardoen 1 day ago
    really nice. Unfortunately once I spotted the score tells you you've hit the correct rotation, I just looped over all the squares clicking each one until my points went up.
    • lnenad 1 day ago
      Ah, that is why I have added the number of moves and the ideal number of moves :)
  • yungtriggz 1 day ago
    Wild that you've posted this once a year for the last 3 years. Love it
    • lnenad 1 day ago
      Haha, I didn't get any response previously and will be getting laid off soon so extra free time...
  • dankwizard 1 day ago
    Have had this bookmarked for a very long time and go back to it semi regularly.

    Any chance you can load a bunch of stock photos into the various categories? I think there's only ~8 or so in each.

    • lnenad 21 hours ago
      Wait really?? Wow, that's awesome to hear. I'll increase the count.
      • dankwizard 5 hours ago
        Best news I've heard all day!
  • Jeremy1026 1 day ago
    I'd love to see a button added to show what pieces are wrong. There are a couple of images with heavy vignette so the edges are pretty indistinguishable. It'd be cool if I could get the incorrect pieces bordered or similar.
    • lnenad 1 day ago
      Good idea, thank you!
  • b450 1 day ago
    Seeing the image come into focus is pretty satisfying, and the half-solved puzzle looks pretty cool. Nice job
  • clutch89 1 day ago
    It's interesting that the pieces don't get moved, only rotated.
  • causeisunknown 1 day ago
    The easiest option is still too hard for my son.
    • dankwizard 5 hours ago
      I've got some bad news for you...
  • knowitnone 1 day ago
    this is nice. would also be fun to solve it with computer vision
  • horsellama 1 day ago
    nice app it could be fun to also animate the puzzle solution
    • lnenad 1 day ago
      Thanks for the suggestion :)
  • thomastjeffery 1 day ago
    Would be even more satisfying if 180 degree turns were less common.

    I also wonder how hard it would be to tile with different shapes. Hexagons or squares and octagons could be really neat.

    • lnenad 1 day ago
      That is my plan, to do a honeycomb structure. :)
  • throwaway313374 1 day ago
    [dead]