[HN Gopher] Show HN: Compass and Ruler construction problems as ...
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Show HN: Compass and Ruler construction problems as puzzle game
Ecocoru is a puzzle game where you have to solve compass and ruler
construction problems. The game mimics compass and ruler and let
you draw straight lines/segments and circles/arcs. You can also
view and explore a solution for each problem. A basic knowledge of
well-known results of Euclidean geometry is needed to play the
game. The game has over 70 problems.The game is designed for full-
screen mode and the use of the mouse.
Author : sdkgames
Score : 82 points
Date : 2022-09-11 15:25 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (sdkgames.itch.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (sdkgames.itch.io)
| quyleanh wrote:
| I can see the students could take the advantages of this game to
| geometry lecture. Not only fun but also educational. Thank you.
| blakesley wrote:
| Nice! I was having fun with it, but then I got to "divide the
| segment in half". It's super easy, but it's too zoomed in for me
| to click on the snaps I want, and I can't find a way to zoom out.
| Clicking "full screen" gives the same level of zoom. What am I
| missing?
|
| Edit: I just now tried Euclidea for the 1st time, and even tho
| its UX is a lot more polished, it starts off with lots of lines &
| midpoints. I appreciate that Ecocoru starts off with more circle-
| oriented problems, so that we can get a taste of using a compass.
| The 1st hexagon problem, though easy, was a joy to discover!
| matsemann wrote:
| I assume you're trying to find the half-point by making a
| circle with center in each end of the line, with radius
| spanning to the other end. Which is too big for the game area.
|
| However, what you need is to equal circles from each end point,
| no matter the size as long as they overlap. So the solution
| here is to make a smaller circle on one point, and using the
| compass make a "copy" of that circle with the same radius at
| the other point.
| mnorris wrote:
| Thanks for sharing this!
|
| This is a cool game concept and I feel like it compressed a lot
| of geometry intuition into a short period of time. I have a math
| degree but managed to never take a geometry class in college or
| high school, so this was the first time I've had my (non-
| existent) knowledge of geometry "graded."
|
| I hope more games like this can be incorporated into the formal
| educational process in the future; I feel like my childhood video
| game addiction could have been exploited by the education system
| just as much as the gaming companies, but with a better outcome.
|
| Maybe the same type of game could be made for other subjects,
| too.
|
| I'd like to see the concept extended in 3d with augmented reality
| with a limited set of construction tools. Maybe I'll try to do
| that if I get the time.
|
| Also, I just realized that I only played the tutorial! There goes
| my morning.
| gilleain wrote:
| Very nice. A small suggestion would be to have a list of the
| steps shown on screen - like 1) draw circle centered on A, 2)
| extend line A-B (or whatever).
| jstrieb wrote:
| This looks very fun! It reminds me of a game called Euclidea that
| I played and enjoyed a while back, though the interface for this
| looks pretty different.
|
| https://www.euclidea.xyz/
|
| Congrats on the release!
| siproprio wrote:
| euclidea is the best!
| kmill wrote:
| This is another fun geometry game:
| https://sciencevsmagic.net/geo/
|
| I liked how it incentivizes finding efficient constructions,
| which made it competitive with friends.
| jbaber wrote:
| Second Euclidea. It's a shockingly intuitive interface for
| geometric constructions on a phone.
| sdkgames wrote:
| Thank you! While Euclidea and my game explore the same theme,
| the approaches are different. It seems Euclidea uses some kind
| of automated theorem prover to verify a solution. I use
| numerical verifiers. There are pros and cons for both
| approaches. The tools are different. I think some choices in
| Euclidea are too restrictive (e.g. collapsible compass,
| inability to draw arcs). Their monetization model affects the
| gameplay (grinding, solution hiding).
| gilleain wrote:
| Interesting to me is how complex some of the 'traditional'
| or, perhaps, formal construction methods can be.
|
| I've been trying to draw Islamic designs, and the strict
| methods are very involved. For example this shows a very
| simple design, with construction lines then the final
| pattern:
|
| https://ibb.co/RN8vJKN
| JadeNB wrote:
| > I think some choices in Euclidea are too restrictive (e.g.
| collapsible compass, inability to draw arcs).
|
| Collapsible compass is not a choice of Euclidea, but a choice
| of Euclid. (Although, of course, one of the first things
| Euclid proves is that you can simulate a rigid compass with a
| collapsible compass:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass_equivalence_theorem.)
| amenghra wrote:
| Euclidea's solutions are a YouTube search away.
|
| I personally prefer the satisfaction of finding the solutions
| myself, even if it sometimes takes me months to solve a given
| puzzle (I usually end up putting it on hold for weeks and
| then revisiting with a fresh perspective).
|
| Over the years, I amassed 430/535 stars, not bad but still
| quite some stars to go.
|
| I always wondered how they came up with the minimal
| constructions and if they ever got them wrong?
| yayachiken wrote:
| The detection of solutions seems a bit buggy.
|
| In the fourth task "Add the angles BAC and EDF on the given line
| GH", I drew the circles DF and EF in, then connected E and F with
| a line segment, and it told me that I solved the problem without
| touching the points GH at all...
|
| Edit: In fact, simply drawing the line from E to F is already
| enough.
|
| Edit 2: Similar when doing the "Perpendicular to line in a point
| not on a line": Drawing _any_ perpendicular is enough, even if it
| is not going through that point.
| sdkgames wrote:
| Thanks for the feedback. I will check the win conditions.
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(page generated 2022-09-11 23:00 UTC)