Show HN: Jointter – A daily word puzzle using dots and lines
www.jointter.comHello everyone. I’m a mathematician by training, and I love mathematical and logical puzzles and brain-teasers. Inspired by popular games like Sudoku and Wordle, I decided to come up with an engaging game of my own.
As it turns out, that’s not so easy! I had a few ideas, but beyond the core mechanics, a game also needs to be interesting and easy to explain — after all, nobody (including me) wants to spend a long time reading through rules.
Let’s start with the concept, which came to me quite spontaneously: what if we represented letters like the digits on a digital clock — using lines, with dots at the points where those lines intersect? For instance, the letter "E" would consist of four lines and six dots — three at the intersections and three at the ends of the lines.
It turns out that every letter of the Latin alphabet can be represented this way (with a minor caveat) using three rows of dots connected by some lines. This immediately presented a challenge: how do you represent O-shaped parts, like those found in "B", "O", or "R"? I decided not to use O-shapes, an use onl rectangles/squares. This "alphabet" is always displayed below the game board, so the player can see the letters.
The goal of the game is simple: you are presented with three rows of dots and a set of lines, and you have to figure out the word. A great feature of the game is that it’s possible to deduce the word in a single turn — all the necessary information is right there on the board, allowing you to arrive at the answer with certainty. And what if you can’t figure it out on the first try? You can enter a guess, much like in Wordle: if the lines from the entered word are part of the target word, they turn green; if not, they turn red. The same applies to the dots. As you play, more and more lines gradually appear...
Why provide some lines at the start? To uniquely identify a specific word — or a small set of words — from the dictionary. For example, you could select a configuration of lines that corresponds to only one word, like "RADIO", or perhaps to just two possible words, such as "WEIGH" and "WRONG".
The rules seem clear, but the mechanics — not so much. There are dots on the board; when I enter a word, I realize there aren't enough dots. What should I do? Initially, if the target word had 5 letters, I allowed users to enter 4- or 5-letter guesses, but that just confused players. So, I came up with a different solution: adding red dots for dots that aren't part of the target word.
Another drawback is that the game is somewhat skewed. Since letters are processed from left to right, the first letters are revealed more frequently than the last ones.
Then there’s the game design itself: should the target words be 5 letters long, or 6? Should a single board allow for multiple possible answers (like "WEIGH" and "WRONG"), or should it be limited to one — or perhaps more than two? Should the difficulty increase from Monday to Sunday? Currently, it’s set up this way: Monday is the easiest (a few 3-letter words), while Sunday is the hardest (more than two 7-letter words).
The tech stack is simple: I use Flask for the backend and Python for the algorithms; I wrote the algorithms myself. While the JS, HTML, and CSS were created with the help of AI.
I’d love for you to test the game and share what you like, what you don’t, and what could be improved.
Specifically, I’d like to know:
1. Is the game and its goal clear?
2. Is it fun to play, and what could be improved?
3. Would you share it with your friends?
I welcome any constructive criticism.
You can find the game at https://www.jointter.com/
It’s free and requires no registration.
Thank you very much.
I found it really hard to understand how this worked at first. I feel that having a tutorial would be extremely useful, show a board, describe the problem, show picking a letter, undoing it, picking the right letter, etc.
+1 on this one, there should be a tutorial with maybe a shorter word to explain how it works, this said I don't think I am smart enough for this one :D if the dots were fixed and you just had to reason on the connections, maybe, but being able to move dots left/right makes it a bit too hard at least for me. This could also be a "expert mode" thing too, have the basic mode with the dots where they are supposed to be, then expert mode making them movable
Possibly, a video tutorial would be better? Check it out.
I think that if the dots are on their places, you can "read" the word immediately.
I've made a video tutorial. Check it out.
Top tip: make your instructions actually readable.
Your LLM has used text with too low contrast, the absolutely pointless and annoying webkit-smoothing: anti-aliased, with text that is too small, cramped and squeezed into place.
People with eyes that are getting over forty years old will start to find this difficult to read.
You might want to consider making important instructions stand out, left-align the text, etc.
And then consider writing them with clarity and simplicity yourself rather than letting the LLM write them. The instructions are crucial. You should own that.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate your feedback.
Updated. Waiting for feedback.
Echoing what was said here - it took a while to understand how to approach it. Maybe an animation of a simple problem being solved would be useful. BTW, are you making sure somehow there's only a single solution or do you accept any solution?
Hello. Is "Watch a tutorial" not helpful? Please tell how to improve it.
Regarding the second question. I've developed an algorithm, that traverses a dictionary of English words and makes sure that only certain set of words (2 or more) fits the given dots and lines. It is possible to find conditions under which only one word is possible, or words of different lengths.
Actually my eye just went to "How to play" so I missed the Tutorial button which already showed me some things I didn't understand initially. Maybe some tips would help beginners - like you can try to guess words not using all of the dots to see what matches (I didn't understand that initially), or that you can guess even if it doesn't match the line hints.
So there is more than one solution, got it. Either way is fine just wanted to know if everybody's searching for the same answer or any answer.
You can submit any guess you want. Unused green dots are just moved aside, and if there are not enough dots, red ones appear.
The most simple games are on Monday, for example, https://www.jointter.com/2026-10-26/
Tooltips keep spamming me covering up the actual game area. Spend more timing dismissing those than figuring it out
Thank you. They are removed.
I would love a reset button so as to return to the state I found the puzzle in when I just loaded the page.
Hello.
The button is added.
May I know why you need it?
The positions of dots tell nothing about the word.
Is there any reason?
While thinking of some solution I slid many of the dots around; afterwards I needed to redistribute them more evenly to try another solution; having a simple "reset" is useful.
Got it, thank you!
Fun game. The share link after winning shows the word in plain text
Hello.
There are several words hidden on the same board.
So you can find one and your friend another.
I want to filter by dots on the sides. My brain and I are struggling!
Sorry, I didn't understand.
Do you need another filter?
Yes. Left side of letters.
A=2 B=3 C=2 P=3
Right side too I guess.
I am finding it quite difficult and this might help.
Also a button that automatically gives the answer would make it easier.
The additional filter is added. But is really "show word" button needed? You can just use 5 tries and the word will be shown. I'm not sure everybody likes this idea.
I backed down to a three letter one and found some joy.
Do you find 4+ letter words hard to find?
I would need to spend some more time on this to get my mind around it.
My Wordle pimp hand is strong, but this seems an order of magnitude harder.
Ahhh. I see.
Congrats on the launch. It’s highly addictive.
Thank you very much for your feedback!