Coding with AI · a word game
Connections
A word game in the style of the New York Times' Connections: find four groups of four before you make four mistakes. Pick a theme. The first is puzzles an AI wrote about me after searching the web; the others I wrote by hand.
Under the hood
How the puzzles are made
- The About Ben puzzles were written by GPT-5. It searched the web for my name and Pittsburgh, then built four groups under rules that keep it a game and not a resume: at least two groups about fun things, at most one about work. Code checks every answer for sixteen different words and asks again when it fails. These are five it wrote, saved as they came.
- I wrote the other nine myself, three per theme, each with a red herring: a word that fits two groups, where only one grouping works. Writing them showed me how much of a good puzzle lives in the trap, which is the part the AI rarely builds on purpose.
- Each theme is drawn with CSS, SVG and canvas: a starfield that jumps to hyperspace, a map border that inks itself in, a tartan and a marching bagpipe. There are no logos or film art. With reduced motion on, nothing moves and the game plays the same.
- The Star Wars and Lord of the Rings packs are fan trivia, not affiliated with or endorsed by their owners, and the game is inspired by the Times' Connections without any tie to it.
How it works, in full Source on GitHub The standalone version