Samon: Designing a Zen Garden Raking Puzzle

(gwern.net)

28 points | by networked 4 hours ago

4 comments

  • Wowfunhappy 2 hours ago
    If you like this, I happen to think Cardinal Chains is a more interesting take on the same overall concept: https://danijmn.itch.io/cardinalchains
  • lubujackson 3 hours ago
    Surprisingly deep and seems quite in line with the underlying concept of Zen gardens.
    • ballmerpoint 28 minutes ago
      Not at all. Karesansui almost never exhibit Hamiltonian paths and rarely feature ninety-degree turns.

      The process is intended to be meditative, but this maximalist, AI-designed GUI and the “puzzle” framing both obstruct that.

  • mcphage 2 hours ago
    It’s not exactly the same, but Zen Puzzle Garden (https://www.lexaloffle.com/zen.php) has been around since the 90s.
  • duhhhhh1212 2 hours ago
    • verdverm 0 minutes ago
      your constant need to do this is more annoying than the original post

      if you don't like the content, flag it and move on please

    • gwern 2 hours ago
      I know we're all shocked that a 1-page web app with the author byline "Gwern, Claude-5.5-opus" (and matching HTML metadata) may have had LLMs involved; good work by Pangram there exposing the imposture.

      That aside, did you enjoy the game?

      • duhhhhh1212 2 hours ago
        Yeah that’s why I said no surprise there.