Palette #1: Well, could I?
This is an idea showing how I think while working within constraints.
Back in June, I got a text from my mom. Paraphrasing, “Could you invent a game that is like Wordle but numbers or colors?” Well, could I? I rejected numbers outright. That left colors.
I tried to think of any and all color combinations that had a meaning to me if they were a code. I tried Googling. Every brand on the planet has its style guide and colors, but beyond brands like Google, were there any colors that would be commonly recognized by people? I think the closest I got was ‘the Green Owl’ from Duolingo. I needed some other way to anchor the puzzle. That is when I thought of Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! works because the viewer feels like they could have or should have known the answer to the clue. If the clues were too specific or unfair, no one would watch. Think of books you have heard of but not read. I decided that was my shape, but in 30 characters or less. Esoteric clues related to some bit of trivia. Then, when the puzzle is complete, you can read more about the trivia.
Okay, that is settled, game designed, but that is at most half the battle. I needed to be able to build it, implement it, and set puzzles for it.
At the time, those constraints were: I wanted things in a single code block. I had done research on options and did not want to use Cloudflare Workers or jsDelivr. Everything, including any JS, must go in the single block, and my deploy could be a simple copy + paste directly into a CMS.
I also needed a workflow to research and set the puzzles as quickly as possible. I always have too many things going on and easily over-commit. I eventually landed on making heavy use of the ‘On this Day’ pages from Wikipedia, and after setting puzzles for a few weeks I settled on the following framework for their difficulty:
- Monday: A question that would fit into Trivia Mafia.
- Tuesday: 1,000 Pop Culture Jeopardy!
- Wednesday: 2,000 Pop Culture Jeopardy!
- Thursday: 1,000 Jeopardy!
- Friday: 2,000 Jeopardy!
- Saturday: Some very esoteric historical fact.
- Sunday: 6-color 2,000 Pop Culture Jeopardy!
Game Designed. Process Designed. Architecture Designed.
All that was left was implementation. With a design in mind, spec created, and use of a coding harness, skills and Claude Design for mockups, you get Palette. From playing every day for a few months, I know the puzzles can be solved reliably in 4 guesses without engaging with the clue at all. The fun really comes from engaging with the game as a trivia game that can be brute-force cracked if needed.
If you look at the game in its current state, though, you will probably see right away that several of the technical constraints I named here no longer apply. That, however, is best left for a future write-up where I talk about how an idea becomes a thing, and how ideas and things can evolve with time.