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Show HN: Compass and Ruler construction problems as puzzle game

by sdkgames on 9/11/22, 3:25 PM with 27 comments

• by jstrieb on 9/11/22, 3:30 PM

  This looks very fun! It reminds me of a game called Euclidea that I played and enjoyed a while back, though the interface for this looks pretty different.

  https://www.euclidea.xyz/

  Congrats on the release!

• by yayachiken on 9/11/22, 8:04 PM

  The detection of solutions seems a bit buggy.

  In the fourth task "Add the angles BAC and EDF on the given line GH", I drew the circles DF and EF in, then connected E and F with a line segment, and it told me that I solved the problem without touching the points GH at all...

  Edit: In fact, simply drawing the line from E to F is already enough.

  Edit 2: Similar when doing the "Perpendicular to line in a point not on a line": Drawing any perpendicular is enough, even if it is not going through that point.

• by mnorris on 9/11/22, 4:19 PM

  Thanks for sharing this!

  This is a cool game concept and I feel like it compressed a lot of geometry intuition into a short period of time. I have a math degree but managed to never take a geometry class in college or high school, so this was the first time I've had my (non-existent) knowledge of geometry "graded."

  I hope more games like this can be incorporated into the formal educational process in the future; I feel like my childhood video game addiction could have been exploited by the education system just as much as the gaming companies, but with a better outcome.

  Maybe the same type of game could be made for other subjects, too.

  I'd like to see the concept extended in 3d with augmented reality with a limited set of construction tools. Maybe I'll try to do that if I get the time.

  Also, I just realized that I only played the tutorial! There goes my morning.

• by blakesley on 9/11/22, 7:16 PM

  Nice! I was having fun with it, but then I got to "divide the segment in half". It's super easy, but it's too zoomed in for me to click on the snaps I want, and I can't find a way to zoom out. Clicking "full screen" gives the same level of zoom. What am I missing?

  Edit: I just now tried Euclidea for the 1st time, and even tho its UX is a lot more polished, it starts off with lots of lines & midpoints. I appreciate that Ecocoru starts off with more circle-oriented problems, so that we can get a taste of using a compass. The 1st hexagon problem, though easy, was a joy to discover!

• by kapildev on 9/12/22, 5:11 AM

  How does the game check whether the solution has been made? Genuinely curious.

  Also, I had found some bugs. Like when we are asked to create a perpendicular, any line that starts properly and is almost done but isn't done fully is treated as solution. Also, when it asks to create a triangle, but the solution is complete, it still passes. Although one could argue that the solution would be reached either way, in future cases where a person is nowhere near the full solution might be confused when the game marks the puzzle as solved.

• by vintermann on 9/12/22, 9:38 AM

  There was a nice educational game for mobile devices called Dragonbox Elements that also did this, in a very kid-friendly way. But I always thought Dragonbox's interfaces (they had an algebra game too) were almost too nice for kids' games, I wanted something more useful as a proof assistant. So very happy someone is exploring this space further!

  logitext.mit.edu/tutorial was also something similar, an interactive, puzzle-game like interface for proving statements in the sequent calculus. Maybe that can be an inspiration too?

• by gilleain on 9/11/22, 8:32 PM

  Very nice. A small suggestion would be to have a list of the steps shown on screen - like 1) draw circle centered on A, 2) extend line A-B (or whatever).

• by kentbrew on 9/12/22, 1:09 AM

  The thing where Escape is supposed to get you out of the arc tool but instead drops you out of full-screen mode is super annoying.

• by quyleanh on 9/11/22, 4:09 PM

  I can see the students could take the advantages of this game to geometry lecture. Not only fun but also educational. Thank you.

• by brianjacobs on 9/12/22, 1:03 AM

  On Firefox ESR 102 on Debian testing, I could not complete part 3 of the tutorial where I had to make arcs of a circle. I even eventually filled in the circle entirely, but it won't recognize it as completed.

• by FunnyBadger on 9/12/22, 11:56 AM

  Very cool.

  If you do machining, carpentry, construction, etc. you find this kind of stuff is surprisingly central to everyday work - you'll use either geometry constructions or the concepts behind them CONSTANTLY. Very useful to peak your skills at doing drills like this.

  Bravo!