| I built a web app that turns “lateral thinking puzzles” into a playable, always-on experience. The AI acts as the host and only replies with Yes / No / Unknown—no hints or spoilers—so players reconstruct the backstory by asking binary questions. What’s different
• Host is strictly constrained to Yes/No/Unknown to keep the reasoning with the player.
• 500+ curated puzzles across mystery/logic/psych/absurd categories; growing set.
• Multilingual (English/Chinese to start).
• Solo-friendly but also works for shared-screen or group play. How it works
• You read a short prompt (missing key info by design).
• You ask questions; the host answers Yes/No/Unknown only.
• You stop when you can state the full backstory.
• Example starter (no spoiler): “A man orders turtle soup. After one sip, he pays, goes home, and shoots himself. Why?” Tech notes
• Next.js 15 (App Router), TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn/ui.
• State via Zustand; data via Drizzle ORM.
• Prompting + guardrails to enforce the Yes/No/Unknown boundary and avoid accidental reveals.
• Hosted on Vercel; anonymous play works—optional sign-in only to save progress. What I’d love feedback on
• Cases where the host leaks too much or answers inconsistently.
• Puzzle quality: which ones feel fair vs. too obscure; which categories you want more of.
• Mobile UX/latency reports.
• Ideas for a “race mode” (fewest questions/least time) without making it feel grindy. Roadmap
• Race mode and public leaderboards.
• Creator submission/review pipeline for new puzzles.
• Better reasoning trace (question path visualization). Happy to answer questions and share details about the constraint setup and evaluation harness. |