HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

Nfsaavedra

5 karma · joined March 8, 2025

submissionscomments
Nfsaavedra··on Mystery Function
That was the initial idea, actually! But after some thought, we realized that it probably wouldn't work well on mobile and would also be hard for people who just want to do a quick puzzle. So we came up with the idea that it's enough for the person to know the algorithm, and we can check it by asking them for the result of two inputs.

Initially, we also had three inputs, but realized it was too boring, while a single input allowed an incorrect algorithm to be right too often!

Would you be interested in having to write the Python function? It could be an optional feature in the game.

Nfsaavedra··on Mystery Function
Glad you asked, as the answer is, in my opinion, interesting. Developing a game like this seems pretty simple until you have to make a UI that fits on a phone. If you look at the default keyboard on your phone, you will see the suggestion bar or something similar. When space is limited, that space is crucial, and that extra height is enough for a row in the game.

Another benefit of having our own keyboard is that we can remove language-specific characters that may not be handled well by the game's daily functions.

Nfsaavedra··on Mystery Function
What is the resolution of your phone? It is supposed to adapt to any phone so that the keyboard and all the rows fit on the screen. You are the first person I’ve heard from with this issue since we fixed it for some weirder resolutions.