There were a few boxes in the game I just played that didn't have enough information; e.g. only one number pointed to them and you couldn't reason it out. I think it's the kind of thing in regular minesweeper where it would've auto-cleared it when I opened a box next to it. I didn't take a screenshot but I hope that makes sense - I suppose maybe once you play the game more you'd learn that these are safe x's, but I found it to lack real information. I looked around for a tip or something on it but didn't quickly find anything
But yes there is always a logical next step to be made that can be fully reasoned out. The hint (lightbulb) icon will show you this step when you are stuck.
Disclaimer the hint system is definitely not perfect yet but should at least point you in the right direction.
Please do send a screenshot if you find yourself stuck again it would be useful for me to improve the deisng
it is possible in normal mine sweeper to have a postion where you cant determine 100% whether a square is a mine or not. In this cases you just have to guess. Try to identify them early as possible since they can ruin the game with an unlucky guess.
Yeah it's maybe not the best way to describe it, but my intention is all clues already visible at the start rather than exploration, and adding in flowers rather than avoiding mines.
The main difference is having all the clues visible at the start changes it to a search and deduction logic style rather than reveal and react
In that sense, this game is similar to Mosaic[1] where the clues are all initially visible, except in Mosaic the count includes all 9 cells since black squares can be placed on the numbers themselves.
You will in particular like this game if you are into conspiracy theories. If one switches the difficulty to the hardest one, HN readers might have some fun with this game. :-)
In minesweeper you start with nothing visible and explore while avoiding the bombs. In this you start with all of the hints visible and place the bombs.
However in practice it is very similar since identifying where the bombs are to not click them is exactly the same logic as identifying where the bombs need to go. The only functional difference ends up being that all of the hints are visible upfront rather than needing to discover them.
This is very similar concept to "0h h1" https://0hh1.com/ which I've been playing every day on Android for a couple of years now. I had never considered it to be a reverse minesweeper.
For everyone: Whenever you think you have to guess, use the hint feature.
In the more advanced levels you essentially have to "guess" then check whether the guess (e.g. using "pencil mode") leads to a valid solution or a conflict.
I used to play this with a friend. You would take turns, that is, the mines would reveal themselves in real time, and your turn ended if you missed a mine.
Then the game would call you a slut when it ended, because my friend's MSN was in Swedish and that is the word for "end"
For any game that is able to procedurally generate a "random" puzzle, you can simply seed a deterministic PRNG with a seed derived from the date. No AI or hand-generation required.
Jumped from medium to insane and didn't notice any difficulty bump. Were the puzzles designed by AI, eg arc agi puzzles are trivial for humans but very difficult for LLMs.
I guess I am mildly discomfited by the red flower. if the program is going to tell me every time I fail to think through things properly, then my role here is kinda limited to driving the mouse.
It's cute and friendly, how it explains the rules. Maybe instead of a red box for making a mistake, the sunflower could "shake its head" to mean "no". Anyway the game feels well-designed with a focused scope, nice work!
There were a few boxes in the game I just played that didn't have enough information; e.g. only one number pointed to them and you couldn't reason it out. I think it's the kind of thing in regular minesweeper where it would've auto-cleared it when I opened a box next to it. I didn't take a screenshot but I hope that makes sense - I suppose maybe once you play the game more you'd learn that these are safe x's, but I found it to lack real information. I looked around for a tip or something on it but didn't quickly find anything
Helpful feedback thanks.
But yes there is always a logical next step to be made that can be fully reasoned out. The hint (lightbulb) icon will show you this step when you are stuck.
Disclaimer the hint system is definitely not perfect yet but should at least point you in the right direction.
Please do send a screenshot if you find yourself stuck again it would be useful for me to improve the deisng
it is possible in normal mine sweeper to have a postion where you cant determine 100% whether a square is a mine or not. In this cases you just have to guess. Try to identify them early as possible since they can ruin the game with an unlucky guess.
It is also possible to implement minesweeper such that all positions are solvable unambiguously, see https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/mine...
Yes this was possible in minesweeper but something I tried to eliminate in sunflowers. You never have to guess even at the hardest difficulty levels
I don’t understand how this is reverse minesweeper when it’s just minesweeper with flowers instead of bombs.
Yeah it's maybe not the best way to describe it, but my intention is all clues already visible at the start rather than exploration, and adding in flowers rather than avoiding mines.
The main difference is having all the clues visible at the start changes it to a search and deduction logic style rather than reveal and react
It is the right way to describe it, that guy just doesn't remember how minesweeper worked.
In that sense, this game is similar to Mosaic[1] where the clues are all initially visible, except in Mosaic the count includes all 9 cells since black squares can be placed on the numbers themselves.
[1] https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/mosa...
Another example is this Steam game which I play occasionally: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3083300/Proverbs/
From the same developer
> https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/divide-the-plunder
I particularly like "Mosaic of the Strange"
> https://store.steampowered.com/app/3444650/Mosaic_of_the_Str...
You will in particular like this game if you are into conspiracy theories. If one switches the difficulty to the hardest one, HN readers might have some fun with this game. :-)
Great thanks for sending these
linking my favourite sweeper variant: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=mamonosweeper&ia=web ;
try this one in html5: https://hojamaka.com/game/mamono_sweeper_h2/html5/en.html
This reminds me a bit of one mode (squared) from Picture Enigmas (https://picture-enigmas.com/#features) which I like to play from time to time.
In minesweeper you start with nothing visible and explore while avoiding the bombs. In this you start with all of the hints visible and place the bombs.
However in practice it is very similar since identifying where the bombs are to not click them is exactly the same logic as identifying where the bombs need to go. The only functional difference ends up being that all of the hints are visible upfront rather than needing to discover them.
it reverses right and left click
This is very similar concept to "0h h1" https://0hh1.com/ which I've been playing every day on Android for a couple of years now. I had never considered it to be a reverse minesweeper.
Isn't that just like Binoxxo? I've solved Binoxxo's every time I came across a newspaper.
Online example for the curious: https://raetselwelt.online/en/puzzles/binoxxo/
That looks like an interesting game, I'll bookmark it. But no - it appears to be a different concept.
I did have to guess. If I'd have known how many mines there were, I wouldn't have though.
https://imgur.com/a/idfj1my
edit: I'm wrong. Thanks steve.
For everyone: Whenever you think you have to guess, use the hint feature.
In the more advanced levels you essentially have to "guess" then check whether the guess (e.g. using "pencil mode") leads to a valid solution or a conflict.
First column, there's a 2 in the second row from below that already has two sunflowers. So the 3rd adjacent field must be empty.
The "4" clue forces the solution imho.
MSN MESSENGER HAD THIS!
I used to play this with a friend. You would take turns, that is, the mines would reveal themselves in real time, and your turn ended if you missed a mine.
Then the game would call you a slut when it ended, because my friend's MSN was in Swedish and that is the word for "end"
Im curious how youve set up the multiple puzzle games you have to generate two daily puzzles each? It cant be entirely by hand or entirely AI driven?
For any game that is able to procedurally generate a "random" puzzle, you can simply seed a deterministic PRNG with a seed derived from the date. No AI or hand-generation required.
Jumped from medium to insane and didn't notice any difficulty bump. Were the puzzles designed by AI, eg arc agi puzzles are trivial for humans but very difficult for LLMs.
Actually really fun
I love it. Reverse minesweeper describes it perfectly.
Awesome idea
Thanks! Not perfect yet but I think it has potential. Would love any feedback
I jumped directly to insane and completed it on the first try. It's too easy.
And if you find a puzzle you like the difficulty of could you tell me the puzzle id at the top left please
I've just tried to bump insane up a bit if you could test it to let me know what you think?
I'm struggling to play test the higher difficulties because it above my own skill level haha
Insane is still far too easy. For the highest skill level it should be -really- hard. Was still able to solve one in under 3 minutes.
I -love- this idea though!!
I guess I am mildly discomfited by the red flower. if the program is going to tell me every time I fail to think through things properly, then my role here is kinda limited to driving the mouse.
Helpful feedback thanks. I am trying to make it a bit more forgiving for first time players to learn the logic.
Then in easy mode and above you are given max 3 mistakes similar to sudoku.com and other popular logic puzzles
It's cute and friendly, how it explains the rules. Maybe instead of a red box for making a mistake, the sunflower could "shake its head" to mean "no". Anyway the game feels well-designed with a focused scope, nice work!
Honestly looks far more obvious than the original to me.
I like how ai agents make it possible to experiment with different game concepts.
I merged Go with Tetris while brainstorming some ideas.
https://goban.molodtsov.me/