October 31, 2025
Puzzle up your feelings
Show HN: Build your own Bracket City puzzle
Fans go wild: Build-your-own Bracket City for love notes, breakups, and bragging rights
TLDR: A new Bracket City builder lets anyone craft shareable word puzzles that end in any message. The community is buzzing—daily devotees love personalized puzzles, while purists debate self‑referential clues—plus jokes about proposal games and breakup bombs make this a chaotic, must‑try word‑nerd playground.
Show HN: Build your own Bracket City puzzle dropped, and Hacker News did a spit‑take. This builder lets anyone whip up a shareable word game that solves to any phrase—birthday shoutouts, invites, proposals, even savage break‑ups. It’s desktop‑friendly, mobile‑okay, and the creator’s vibe is pure chaos: “Have fun bozos.” Unlike The Atlantic’s official version, customs unlock whatever ending you want. The community reaction? Loud, giddy, and slightly feral. Word‑nerds cheered the power to personalize, while others asked what fresh torment awaits when your boyfriend makes you solve a riddle to get dumped. And yes, readers joked about sending a birthday cake via clues this week.
Daily diehard fakedang confessed Bracket City is their morning ritual—“first thing after shower”—but they’re on a “shit streak,” spawning a pity‑party meets brag‑fest. jaspday turned family night into a custom puzzle and said building one felt like “rubbing catnip” on their word‑brain—cue cat GIFs. The hottest debate came from knuckleheads asking how “meta” clues can get: crossword‑style self‑references vs the game’s strict tree layout. Purists want cheeky cross‑clue winks; pragmatists say keep it clean and solvable. Meanwhile, jokers pitched proposal‑puzzles, breakup bombs, and non‑English challenges for grandma. Verdict: chaotic good with serious replay cult vibes.
Key Points
- •Bracket City Suburb Builder lets users create and share fully playable bracket-style puzzles.
- •The tool works on mobile but is optimized for desktop.
- •Custom puzzles can resolve to any word or phrase, unlike the official game on The Atlantic.
- •Suggested uses include messages, invitations, proposals, break-ups, and themed/non-English puzzles.
- •Users are guided by on-screen prompts and instructions to build and publish puzzles.