Hello 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
Show HN: Jointter – A daily word puzzle using dots and lines
Two 7-letter words are hidden in today's picture of dots and lines. Every letter costs dots, so the counts narrow it down. Can you find them?

Key takeaways
A mathematician created Jointter, a word puzzle game using dots and lines to represent letters, similar to Sudoku and Wordle.
- The game uses lines and dots to represent letters in the Latin alphabet.
- Players guess words based on visual clues from the game board.
- Correct guesses show green lines and dots, while incorrect ones show red.
Summarised automatically by AI from the original article by Hacker News. AI can make mistakes, so check the original for details.
Story details
- Published
- By
- proy87
- Format
- Article
- Original
- jointter.com ↗
Related reporting
2 stories on this topic from 2 sources, oldest first.
- Free Malaysia Today Jon Stewart signs on to continue as ‘Daily Show’ host through 2028
- Hacker News Show HN: Jointter – A daily word puzzle using dots and lines (this story)





