Hacker News: igpay

The Hive: Building a beehive simulation desk [video]

igpay — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:04:20 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZvzyCj3N_o

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45689110

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

EthnoGuessr

igpay — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 22:27:33 +0000

Article URL: https://hbd.gg/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44230237

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Solving Stumper

igpay — Sun, 18 May 2025 23:31:40 +0000

Article URL: https://www.csun.io/solving-stumper

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44025097

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Show HN: Stumper – A Word Editing Game

igpay — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 15:47:35 +0000

Article URL: https://www.csun.io/interactive/stumper

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43437062

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by igpay in "Solving Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 06:07:35 +0000

Hey there, I thought this was a good idea so I added it to the game as "Tutor" mode. Thanks!

New comment by igpay in "Solving Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 06:06:57 +0000

The D20 was the first die shape I tried and I ended up just sticking with it. My reasoning was basically the same as yours - 5% intervals look better.

Agreed that 6 sided dice would not detract from the amount of strategy in the game. I think it could be cool to try a physical version of the game where you shuffle premade tiles and place them in the grid - maybe a fun game to teach kids probability :)

New comment by igpay in "Solving Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 06:01:14 +0000

I can't edit my original comment but I have updated the game with "Impossible" difficulty mode as implemented by Louis.

Based on a suggestion from a sister comment, I have also added a "Tutor" mode. When hovering over a square in tutor mode, it shows the probability of winning the game given that you a) select that square and b) continue to play optimally for the rest of the game. Both of these options are in the settings menu in the top right of the game.

Finally, I've added a little writeup to the bottom comparing the strengths of the two AI implementations. Enjoy!

https://www.csun.io/2024/06/08/probabilistic-tic-tac-toe.htm...

New comment by igpay in "Solving Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 21:58:58 +0000

Hey all, I'm the author of Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe. I'm currently working with Louis to integrate this solver into the game itself so that people can play against it. I'm hoping to have it released by EOD and will update this comment when it's ready.

New comment by igpay in "Show HN: Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 04:17:35 +0000

The current code for board generation is as follows:

  var neutralChances = Random.Range(1, MaxNeutralChances + 1);
  square.GoodChances = Random.Range(MinGoodChances, 20 - neutralChances);
  square.BadChances = 20 - (square.GoodChances + neutralChances);

MaxNeutralChances and MinGoodChances are both set to 6 in the release build. Note that one chance is equal to one face of the die, so 5%. Also, this overload of Random.Range() has an inclusive min value but an exclusive max value.

I guess I didn't include ties in that little blurb I wrote up, but the real results of my 10k trials were around 5:1:11.5 (lose:tie:win) for the AI vs random actor.

Would love to see your AI when it's done! Please shoot me an email if you want. My email is in my profile / in the site footer.

New comment by igpay in "Show HN: Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:09:12 +0000

Yes, the AI mostly just looks for plays that have high certainty and are connected to other potential winning squares (for either team). Then it weights plays positively or negatively based on whether or not the "bad" chance outweighs "good"

New comment by igpay in "Show HN: Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:04:23 +0000

Yes, those should go straight to a "Tie" result.

New comment by igpay in "Show HN: Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:03:51 +0000

Thanks! I've added a fast forward button to the top left so that you can play faster.

New comment by igpay in "Show HN: Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 19:59:25 +0000

Agreed that 3D is overkill. I'm fastest at prototyping in Unity though and this was only a couple day project, so I'm unlikely to port it to anything else.

Probabilities are mostly randomized during board generation but skewed in a way to make gameplay feel a bit better. There's a cap on the likelihood of the neutral event, and a bias towards the good event rather than a bad one.

New comment by igpay in "Show HN: Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 19:56:36 +0000

That's good feedback, thanks. I've added a fast forward button to the top left.

New comment by igpay in "Show HN: Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe"

igpay — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:35:06 +0000

Thanks for that, I added a loading bar. It should be visible now if you refresh the page.

Show HN: Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe

igpay — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 16:40:05 +0000

Article URL: https://www.csun.io/2024/06/08/probabilistic-tic-tac-toe.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40635397

Points: 293

# Comments: 106

Expected Wins – Blaming Fantasy Sports Failure on Bad Luck

igpay — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 16:42:58 +0000

Article URL: https://www.csun.io/2024/02/09/expected-wins-fantasy.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39316789

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by igpay in "Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info"

igpay — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 07:32:54 +0000

I love this website - such a great repository of knowledge that presumably would've been lost to time otherwise. Although I don't remember there being so many ads last time I visited the site.

His wife, Harriet Fell, was one of my Computer Science professors at Northeastern. I really regret that I never took the time to talk to her about Sheldon. It always crossed my mind but never seemed like the right time.

New comment by igpay in "Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?"

igpay — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 20:16:28 +0000

https://www.csun.io/

pretty random assortment side projects

Literal Raytracing – Visualizing Light's Path Through Space

igpay — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 16:46:43 +0000

Article URL: https://www.csun.io/2022/11/28/literal-raytracer.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33789875

Points: 1

# Comments: 0