Same as my first version, you can earn sticks to unlock the next level and the challenges get harder as you progress. With the newly added Puzzled Maker, you can now create your own matchstick puzzles and generate a shareable link to stump your friends :)
For example, check out this custom challenge I just created: https://mathstick.github.io/play?q=ktoylsjcnmylbetuinmylielj...
Feel free to share your puzzles below and feedback is welcome.
Your game has a bug which is relatively common in drag-and-drop games. If the viewport is smaller and I drag a match off-screen by accident, it can get stuck to the edge. Then it can become detached in such a way that makes it impossible to recover the match.
I created this game because of an old news my wife shared with me, it was about The New York Times bought the Wordle game. I was then surprised that such a simple, old-style game caught the attention of a big company. I said "I'd rather play a matchstick puzzle", and it was that moment that inspired me to create a free online version with all the puzzles procedurally generated by my own hand-made solver (I like the sound of this :D). Personally, I like moving one and only one matchstick to solve a puzzle rather than 2 or 3 sticks, also I don't like those tricky solutions like negative number, rotation trick and etc. although they could be a very creative solution and let you think outside the box sometimes, IMO, it is just not elegant and sometime distracting to encourage people to think in a systematic way.
I remember one of my freshman computer science assignments was to make a Rubik’s Cube game. That was when a lot of undergrads were first introduced to the idea of using a stack and then "unwinding" it to simultaneously build the problem + solution.
Just like "hand-made" pizza used as a response to the rise of frozen, factory-produced pizza and to establish authenticity against fast-food chains. Maybe "hand-made" will be used to emphasize a app/software is made by human rather than being vibecoded or completely AI generated in the future. Also, if you use the Puzzle Maker to create your own puzzle, it becomes a "hand-made" puzzle :)
Edit: mostly directed at OP, the puzzle maker claimed something like 12 identical solutions for the same puzzle
Also, submit it to https://hnarcade.com :)
sure, will have a look. thanks!
I personally found this 'learn-by-doing' approach really helps me understand the patterns before I tackle the harder levels.
As for the css part, I would suggest you start by building the layout for the desktop first. Once the desktop version looks good, use media queries to adjust the design for mobile and tablet sizes.
As for js and html part, think in Components: Instead of one giant file, break your code into "modules" or "components". In my matchstick game, I built the "Puzzle Display" as a standalone component. This allowed me to reuse the exact same code for the main game, the puzzle creator, and the shareable play pages.
For specific effects or tricky logic, Google and LLMs (like ChatGPT) are great resources. Avoid "copy-pasting" code you don't understand. Always try to deconstruct how a solution works before adding it to your project. Use these tools as teachers, not just shortcuts.
Most importantly, enjoy what you are doing. Let me know if you need more info, I'm more than happy to help. Good luck to your coding journey.
You may need an unused service worker, or not, I don't remember.
This just means your site looks like an Android app (but still needs net, etc).
