puzzlelair.com
Games
logic puzzles
SHOW HN2026
251points
167comments
#194of 4,366 in 2026
Top 5%of 2026 by points
How HN took it
RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical
10 positive, 25 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 38 critical, out of 75 comments about the project. Thread score -0.34.
Design: 2 for, 16 againstExecution: 0 for, 13 againstIdea: 5 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 4 againstPricing: 0 for, 3 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Ad-free design and nice look
From 2 comments
Love the look of the site. I have also grown tired of ads showing up everywhere nowadays. I'd much rather spend a bit of money than be forced to watch through another ad.
juhnu85 on HNThis is nice! Readers may also enjoy Simon Tatham's puzzle collection, available for mobile as well: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ (My favorite currently…
pavel_lishin on HN
Objections
Sign-up wall and email collection
From 2 comments
> Create a free account to keep playing. After 3 attempts (all moves were mistakes! maybe I'm too stupid?) asked for my email. Is emails collection the end-goal of this…
zx8080 on HN> Create a free account to keep playing. Sign up or log in to create an account, save your progress, and continue this difficulty. And here we are again. A nice idea, ai…
lschueller on HN
Mistake counting and error flagging hurt solving
From 3 comments
Looks nice but feels severely underbaked. Did a medium soduku puzzle. Made a mistake, so I tried erasing it to get rid of the noise. 0? no. backspace? also no apparently. then I…
frisia on HNI hate that it immediately flags your errors. First, because it doesn't forgive the casual finger slipping or forgetting if you are in pen or pencil mode. And then because it…
teo_zero on HNthe star battle interface diverges from penpa, puzpre, and puzzleteam in a number of basic ways that actively make the solving experience worse imo: - having to switch between…
aji on HN
Some puzzles have bugs or non-unique solutions
From 2 comments
Nice puzzles, thanks letting me have a couple of fun minutes with those. In the star battle (at least the medium I played) the solutions are non-unique and there you sometimes…
Azrael3000 on HNI'm 99% sure this was an invalid Sudoku puzzle. Just before putting the 2 in here (above the pencil 6), I put in 6 and it said Mistake, so I erased it and put 2. But... why…
neogodless on HN
Newspaper design looks like generic AI output
From 1 comment
Looks great. FYI, Claude has idunno, maybe 20-30 different strongly themed websites it knows how to make, and this newspaper aesthetic is one of them, and all the sites it does…
furyofantares on HN
Requests
Add logic grid puzzles
From 1 comment
Based on the title, I was expecting the things I grew up calling logic puzzles, which some people call "logic grid" puzzles, e.g. https://www.allstarpuzzles.com/logic/00019.html…
rmunn on HN
Add word games
From 1 comment
Nice! A few word games would be cool: scrabble, boggle, etc.
insane_dreamer on HN
Daily single puzzle leaderboard
From 1 comment
You need to make the leaderboard be daily and for a single daily puzzle. Otherwise there's no reason to check it.
TurdF3rguson on HN
Share button and linkable puzzles
From 1 comment
Nice! I wanted to share a link to Ripple Effect Hard with my time (23:47), but it seems the URL only captures attempts, so there's no real way to link to the puzzle itself. Might…
yunruse on HN
Questions
How are puzzles sourced and generated
From 1 comment
Where are you sourcing all your puzzles? I remember the blocker to a Sudoku app I was making in secondary school was just getting good puzzles. They're hard to make, particularly…
danpalmer on HN
How will the site stay free from ads
From 1 comment
How do you plan to keep it free from ads? I see it has accounts, if it was completely client side, it could have been forever free.
abhashanand1501 on HN
Alternatives named
Simon Tatham's puzzle collection
From 1 comment
This is nice! Readers may also enjoy Simon Tatham's puzzle collection, available for mobile as well: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ (My favorite currently…
pavel_lishin on HN
nonograms.org
From 1 comment
By the way, if you are interested in nonograms specifically, there is a great website nonograms.org that has tens of thousands nonograms (both B&W and color) and no ads.
vova_hn2 on HN
penpa, puzpre, puzzleteam
From 1 comment
the star battle interface diverges from penpa, puzpre, and puzzleteam in a number of basic ways that actively make the solving experience worse imo: - having to switch between…
aji on HN