

Show HN: Zero – an HTML5 game about modular arithmetic and prime numbers - bryanbibat
http://zero.karaniwan.org/?ver=1.1

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imglorp
Summing up digits manually takes too long. A decent strategy seems to be:
start chaining a long path together. At some point it will pop by itself, or
you will notice what's needed to complete it.

Suggestions: There should be a button to clear the chain in progress because
you can box yourself into a dead end. A pause button would also be nice (maybe
blank the screen when paused).

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closetnerd
Randomly chaining numbers seems to be the most practical strategy up until you
start running into the empty blocks.

Game should probably be made a little easier so the intended strategy of
chaining primes becomes more viable.

~~~
bryanbibat
I found that the easiest consistent strategy is to play it like Minesweeper:
start with randomly clicking (to gain time) until you find it too risky, then
start with the easy portions (2-3 chains like 5-5 and 3-6-1 to clear out
blockers, also remove 1s and 2s to increase overall average value), then move
on to the difficult part when you're ready (chaining 40+ numbers when you have
a lot of time).

There are of course other strategies, but I'll leave that for others to
discover. :D

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lost_name
You should really be allowed to click on a completely separate circle to start
a new chain.

I was initially unsure about how the blockers worked, that should be made more
clear. For others, if you create a chain out of a prime count of numbers, you
may clear blockers. If you create a chain out of a composite count of numbers,
you may create blockers.

Interesting game, but it doesn't have that same "I know I can do better" feel
that 2048 grabbed everyone with :)

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bryanbibat
I don't think it's going to anywhere as popular as 2048. zero's "oh crap I
clicked the wrong number ruining my 30+ chain just because I wasn't paying
attention for a second" is much more frustrating and more common than 2048's
"I filled up 3 rows so I have to take a chance breaking my 1024-512-256-128
row" :P

The "click separate circle to start a new chain" seems a bit risky - when I
play the game on my phone, dragging/swiping tends to skip numbers. I'll try
implementing the "clear selection" button suggested by the other commenter
first.

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rogeryu
I don't get this game. The explanation is so short and I have no idea what
happens next when I click on another number.

~~~
bryanbibat
wbhart got the gist of it.

Here's an even longer version of the rules:

Click/tap numbers to connect them to a chain. You can only connect numbers
that are at the left, right, top, bottom of the last selected number. As a
faster alternative, you can also drag/swipe through the numbers.

When the sum of the chain ends in zero (ie. sum % 10 = 0) you get rewards and
side effects depending on whether the chain's length is composite or prime.

\- if it's composite (e.g. chain length is 4, 6, or 8 digits long), you gain 2
seconds on your time for each digit connected. However, each digit also gives
you a 1 in 4 chance of replacing a digit in the grid with a "blocker", a cell
that cannot be selected. \- if it's prime (e.g. 2, 3, 5), you only gain 0.5
seconds for each digit, but instead of spawning blockers, each digit now has a
1 in 5 chance of removing a blocker in the grid.

Either way, the point value of the chain is ((sum / 10) ^ 3) * 5.

So connecting 1-2-3-4 gives you 5 points and 8 extra seconds but has 4 chances
of spawning blockers. On the other hand, connecting 9-3-8 gives you 40 points,
1.5 extra seconds, and 3 chances to clear blockers.

Game ends when the time runs out. The goal is 1 million points, but the game
will not stop you from playing when you reach that point.

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gburt
In a few minutes of playing around, you realize you can just click long paths
and get a nearly infinitely high score.

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mkagenius
Did something change between this one and the one posted yesterday?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9894748](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9894748)

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bryanbibat
Daniel (HN staff) asked me to repost it. Said they were trying something out.

There were a couple of big changes in the game since I posted that, though.

~~~
mkagenius
I see, cool.

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okamiueru
Once you figure out some rules for avoiding chain completion, you can fairly
easily extend time. When/if it gets a bit blocked, just take extra care to end
the chain on prime number lengths. The top score is then just determined by
how long you want to keep at it... currently at 1.8 mill, with 500+ seconds to
spare.

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kelukelugames
I love games that teach math concepts. Dragon Box was mind blowing.

However, this seems less accessible.

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bhz
I'm pretty sure this is Numberwang.

